Hey All

Nice to see a community with similar worries so active in a blog.

I have been on this quest for a long time now - all my family members being light wheatish and now my husband's too, it is very depressing when everyone keeps saying 'girl you get darker each time we see you, whatever it is that you are doing to yourself! Maybe you are stressed?!" is all I hear. My fault - my skin just changes color everytime. After 2 kids its just so worse now. I have no acne or marks but I get very dark and tired looking when oily or dry.

I went to many dermatologists and they say nothing is wrong that I should get treated its just that Im a bit darker than the others. Salons just gave me a bunch of regimes like pearl facial, fruit peel etc... which I wasnt satisfied with. Finally some months back a skin specialist precribed me AMELAN and gave me a whopping 1000$ bill for 2 weeks. I could not afford to keep up with such a regime so I just researched the site and many others to find alternatives for this Amelan thing. Finally I got hold of a gel called Kogel from the pharmacy - it had glycolic, kojic, arbutin, MAP etc... perfect! I tried and it did lighten me 2 shades within a month - unfortunately the minute I go out, it goes back 5 shades darker sunblock or not! I think even sunblock darkens my skin. Has anyone experienced this?

With all the reading, Ive made a list of active ingredients which claim to have no side effects and lightens, some of which are -

Glycolic acid, Kojic acid , 4-hydroxyanisole (4HA), Retinoic acid, Arbutin, Paper Mulberry,
Glabridin (licorice extract), Melatonin, Magnesium-L-ascorbyl-2-phosphate (MAP), Alchemilla vulgaris, caviar extract etc...

I found many sellers having these ingredients induvidually listed claiming you can mix the miracle cream yourself - is it so? I was skeptical so never tried it, Ive always thought creams are made and packaged in some vacuum environment professionally so its ingredients are potent. Im inclined to formulate one to put an end to all our color worries. I think for an initial 2 - 3 month treatment glycolic/retinoic is fine after that we shud find something with just the lighteners arbutin/kojic else I see many are experiencing breakouts, skin thinning out etc... maybe the skin has maxed out with the peeling and shud be treated without it for a while.

Ah! I also got to know taking gluta+C did show results in many - havent tried that...

express your views and add more to the list if you know of any others.