Lightening skin tone by means of topical treatments in the comfort of your home is no longer a fantasy. Very effective skin whitening creams exist that can give great results if you use them properly and exhibit the necessary patience.

Here are some skin whitening tips that will help you get the most out of these products. We will also point you in the right direction with regards to finding effective products.

Get results: Tips for using natural skin whitening creams and remedies

Home remedies can be time wasters

While there are many home remedies that can lighten your skin, the simple truth is that these are very hit and miss. If you’re interested in fast results, this may only lead to disappointment. That’s why we don’t dabble in home remedies ourselves and only recommend them for the seriously budget challenged.

Use proven creams, not the latest one hit wonders

While new products are being released all the time, new doesn’t necessarily mean better. We know that through hard experience. Stick to a product with a proven track record rather than acting on sales hype.

Don’t quit too soon

The weakness of many a skin lightening cream is not the fact that they may take several months to provide real results, but the fact that the manuifacturers seldom tell you this. In order to sell more, they need to promote the idea of near instant results. This can lead to many people discontinuing use of the product when their success is just around the corner.

You need to have patience to see results. In rare cases results manifest themselves within a week or two, but these are rare.

Protect yourself from the sun

Most natural skin whitening products work by supressing production of melanin, the skin pigment. Melanin, however, not only gives your skin its color, it also protects it against the sun. In other words, using a cream that inhibits the production of melanin also makes your skin more susceptible to sun damage. Therefore you need to take special care against the sun when you’re using these products.

Use proven products

We recommend two products with proven track records, each for a different type of result.

If you need to gently and gradually lighten your overall skin tone, the Xtend-Life Whitening Day Cream is a fantastic moisturizing day cream with whitening properties.

If you need to spot treat age spots, blemishes and discolorations, the Meladerm cream is perfect can provide startlingly fast results as evidenced by our review of it. These should not be considered typical though, but this cream does push all the right buttons.

Before we proceed, a word of caution. The skin lightening industry can be somewhat cutthroat. Read this article carefully to make sure you use the correct products to achieve the results you want without any risk to your health.

How is it possible to whiten skin with a cream?

Your skin contains something called melanin. This is the pigment that gives it its color. The darker your skin, the more melanin you can be assumed to have. A whitening face cream will lighten your skin tone by inhibiting melanin production. As less melanin is produced, your skin will whiten.

Time for a small caution. One of the main benefits of melanin is that it provides protection from the sun. This is why fair skinned people burn more easily in the sun than people with darker skin tones. Can you guess what is coming next? That’s right: take proper care to protect your skin from the sun when you’re using a whitening face cream. It will be more prone to sun damage due to the decrease in melanin production.

What to avoid

Apart from the sun, there are specific skin whitening ingredients you should take care to avoid. One of these is hydroquinone (HQ). This chemical is extremely popular in both over the counter and prescription skin whitening creams.

It does come with a long list of side effects though, including severe skin irritation, redness and peeling. It has actually been banned in the UK due to suspected links to cancer.

Natural ingredients that work

A whitening face cream with safe natural ingredients that can still produce results is the way to go. Some of the best ingredients we’ve come to trust include kojic acid, arbutin and Extrapone Nutgrass Root.

The gentle, non-irritating nature of the latter makes it perfect for general skin tone lightening, while the others are more suited for the treatment of specific hyperpigmentations like age spots or melasma.

Recommended Products:

For a gentle whitening day cream, the Xtend-Life Natural Whitening Day Cream works very well.

For specialized treatment of specific hyperpigmentation, like age spots or melasma, Meladerm impressed us.

After reading this page you will know how to go about the process of obtaining a fair skin complexion without risk. Let’s take a deeper look at safe skin whitening.

Should you whiten your skin?

In the superficial world we live in there seems to be a conception that lighter skin is somehow more desirable, or makes the individual look better. Sad times indeed.

My job is not to judge though, we all have our reasons for doing things. While the safest thing to do is to learn to accept yourself the way you are, we all know that’s not always possible.

So, whether you just want a fair skin complexion, or maybe lighten age spots or other blemishes, let’s see how you can find a skin bleaching cream that will get the job done safely.

Dangerous bleaching chemicals in skin lightening creams

Have you heard of Hydroquinone? Skin bleaching creams containing this substance are freely sold. However, it has been linked to cancer, and in rare and extreme cases also to damage of connective skin tissue as well as permanent skin discoloration.

The FDA proposed a ban on Hydroquinone in 2006, and while the substance is now tightly regulated in the USA, it has been banned in the UK.

Even worse ingredients include steroids and the toxic heavy metal mercury. Yes, people actually willingly put this kind of stuff on their skins in pursuit of a fair skin complexion.

Safe skin whitening

So, if you really need to work on your skin, whether it is to bleach age spots or just obtain a more fair skincomplexion, what do you do?

Here are some the two best and most effective natural substances we’ve tested for safe skin whitening:

Extrapone Nutgrass Root

Made from a herb that’s been used in ayurvedic medicine for thousands of year, this gentle anti-irritant has amazing skin whitening properties. If features as the main active ingredient in the excellent skin lightening creams made by Xtend-Life.

Arbutin Skin Whitening

Arbutin is an extract of the bearberry plant. It is another effective natural compound for safe skin whitening and is one of the active ingredients in the great skin bleaching cream called Meladerm.

Using either of these two creams will give you great results both in fading existing blemishes and in obtaining a fair skin complexion. You can access full reviews of both these products to help you make a right decision by clicking here.