Discoloration Defense
Even out dark spots, brown patches and the marks breakouts leave.
You have dark spots that stay put, patches that deepen every summer, or marks from old breakouts that take months to fade. Makeup covers them, but you want skin that looks even on its own.
Discoloration Defense visibly fades discoloration and evens your tone, and it layers easily into your routine. Four actives each work on a different part of how pigment shows up: 3% tranexamic acid, 1% kojic acid, 5% niacinamide and 5% HEPES. That is why it reaches stubborn patches and marks left by breakouts, not just surface spots.
Who It Is For
Dark spots from years of sun and the marks breakouts leave behind, across all skin tones.
Not Acne Safe
What You Will See, and When
In SkinCeuticals' twelve week study, the look of stubborn brown patches improved 60% on average and marks left by breakouts 81%. Give it the full twelve weeks, with sunscreen every morning, before you judge the result.
How to Use
Use it every night. Once your first serum has absorbed, press three to five drops into the areas you want to even out, then follow with moisturizer. Wear sunscreen every morning while you use it so your results can hold.
The Science
Visible discoloration is the end of a chain. Signals from sun, heat and inflammation tell pigment cells to make melanin, an enzyme called tyrosinase builds it, and the finished pigment is handed to the skin cells above. Each active in this serum works on a different link.
Tranexamic acid works on the signalling step and is one of the most studied topical options for stubborn patches. Kojic acid slows tyrosinase. Niacinamide has been shown to reduce the transfer of pigment to surface skin cells by 35 to 68% in lab models, and to significantly lighten dark patches on the face in four weeks in a controlled clinical trial. HEPES gently loosens surface cells that already carry pigment.
In SkinCeuticals' twelve week study of 50 people with Fitzpatrick skin types I to IV, the serum improved the look of stubborn brown patches by 60%, overall discoloration by 59% and marks left by breakouts by 81% on average. A second twelve week study of 51 people with skin types V and VI found a 34% average reduction in post blemish marks.
Questions
Why a Routine Made for You Works Better
General advice is written for everyone, so it has to assume nothing about you. It can tell you what is safe. It cannot tell you what will work for your skin.
Skin changes when it is challenged just enough, then given time to recover and adapt. That amount is different for every person, and it moves as your skin gets stronger. Ask too much and your skin spends its energy recovering instead of improving. Ask too little and nothing changes. Finding that point for you, and moving it at the right time, is where results come from.
Where that point sits depends on:
- Your skin: its history, how it reacts, and what it is doing today
- Your health: hormones, medications, pregnancy and any condition that changes how skin behaves
- Your lifestyle: sleep, stress, diet, sun, exercise and climate
- Your routine: what you use now, and what has and has not worked before
- Your goals: what you most want to change
- Your expectations and timeline: how soon you want to see change, and what is realistic for your skin
- Your consistency: how much time and how many steps you will keep up with, because the best routine is the one you actually do
- Your treatments: what you have had and what you have planned
A skin therapist weighs all of this, builds a routine you can keep, and adjusts it as your skin responds. That is why we guarantee our products when they are part of a routine designed by one of our skin therapists. If you have been reading general advice, bring your questions. We will help you sort out what applies to you and what does not.
Key Ingredients
Full Ingredient List
Aqua / Water, Butylene Glycol, Niacinamide, Hydroxyethylpiperazine Ethane Sulfonic Acid, Glycerin, Tranexamic Acid, Propylene Glycol, Hydroxyethyl Urea, Kojic Acid, Caprylyl Glycol, Allantoin, Chlorphenesin, Xanthan Gum, Disodium Edta
References
1. Hakozaki T, Minwalla L, Zhuang J, Chhoa M, Matsubara A, Miyamoto K, Greatens A, Hillebrand GG, Bissett DL, Boissy RE. The effect of niacinamide on reducing cutaneous pigmentation and suppression of melanosome transfer. Br J Dermatol. 2002;147(1):20-31. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2133.2002.04834.x
2. González-Molina V, Martí-Pineda A, González N. Topical treatments for melasma and their mechanism of action. J Clin Aesthet Dermatol. 2022;15(5):19-28. PMCID: PMC9122278
3. Desai S, Chan L, Handog E, et al. Optimizing melasma management with topical tranexamic acid: an expert consensus. J Drugs Dermatol. 2023;22(4):386-392. doi:10.36849/JDD.7104
4. SkinCeuticals brand clinical data (skinceuticals.com): 12 week study, 50 subjects, Fitzpatrick I to IV; 12 week study, 51 subjects, Fitzpatrick V to VI.
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