How to Lighten Black Skin

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Kelli. I'm an aesthetician and make up artist at Ulta Salon and Cosmetics. And I'm going to talk to you a little bit about how you can lighten black skin, or an African-American skin tone. You want to be really careful when you're trying to lighten a African-American skin tone, because, what can actually happen if you use products that are too aggressive, or too abrasive, you can actually cause the skin to hypo-pigment, which basically means the skin's going to stop producing melanin in that area, and it's actually going to leave a white spot. So, whereas lighter skinned individuals have a tendency to hyper-pigment, and have the melanocytes within the cells overproduce melanin and lead to discolorations and freckling, African-Americans actually can have their melanocytes hypo-pigment, and stop producing melanin. So, basically, I wouldn't recommend anything like microdermabrasion, or anything like that for lightening African-American skin. But using, like, a really great brightening gel, this is hydroquinone free. It just has, basically, a licorice extract in it. Azalea, azaleic acid, cogic acid. These are all botanical brighteners that are going to help to lighten any discolorations and make the skin look lighter and more even, 'cause what happens with African-Americans a lot of times is they get a lot of discoloration along the jaw lines. They might be lighter in the middle and darker on the outside. And also using an SPF can really help to prevent that from happening as well. So those are some tips that you can use to lighten black skin.,"