Actually as some of you know.. I finally decided to order the hydroquinone 4 from ADC and I took it and immediately mixed it with equal volumes of my favorite lotion, (12oz lotion and about 7, 30g tubes of the Hydroquinone) and three 20g tubes of the retin A... I mixed this all well with an immersion blender... (just the cooking kind or a hand mixer will work too) and I put this lotion on twice a day after a shower.. where I exfoliate with exfoliating mitts, and kojic acid papaya soap... In ten days I have noticed a good amount of lightening..

And I can't say shades persay.. but what I can say is that it is most noticeable in photographs!! OMG... I looked at some photos of me recently and I am soooooo light that some family memebrs have doubted that my Facebook pics were really me... and In different light it is very noticeable... it's like the pink undertones that a depiged person would have that kind of "shine through" but it is not noticeable in normal light.. only in pics.. with flash and in stark light like in my bath room OK so here are comparison pics, I'm sorry I have to black everything out.. but yes these are me.. both are in the same light in my bathroom No flash on my cell phone camera.. I'm not wearing makeup.. one from last month.. one from yesterday... I now cell phone cams make color dull but this is the same in most all of my fotos even done with a regular hi def camera since I started the HQ 4...

NOTE for some reason I only come up like this in fotos.. other than that it's hard to tell I have lightened at all in person... I don't know why only fotos and I can tell it's the lightening.. because I can see my hairline and scalp are actually darker than my face is... anybody have any idea why??

I mean I want to lighten but I don't want to look crazy or unlike myself and very drastically cause I don't want people to know or notice really...

AGAIN I promise these are my actual pics.. but I have to alter and crop them and even reshape my jaw line so no one will by chance recognize me...

Or at least compared to before about two years ago when I joined the forum... after lightening a farmers tan with kojic acid soaps and lotions and arbutin.. this is what I believe to be my natural complexion give or take a shade.. now of course it is not the same lighting as my bathroom pics..

But I usually photographed consistently according to my color... and it was some variation of this shade.. nothing like the above.. bear in mund I lightened about a shade or two anyway from just my kojic, and arbutin routine.. I am wearing some translucent powder thus the kind of dullness but you all get the picture

or at least compared to before about two years ago when i joined the forum... after lightening a farmers tan with kojic acid soaps and lotions and arbutin.. this is what i believe to be my natural complexion give or take a shade.. now of course it is not the same lighting as my bathroom pics..

but I ususally photographed consistently according to my color... and it was some variation of this shade.. nothing like the above.. bear in mund I lightened about a shade or two anyways from just my kojic, and arbutin routine.. I am wearing some translucent powder thus the kind of dullness but you all get the picture

Wow those are some nice improvements

Boricua you really have made significant progress! Congratulations!

Yeah but like I said it's only in pics.. so I wonder is this like a preview.. or is it like when you get one of those photos for screening sun damage where you can only see it under certain lights.. because face to face no one ever notices.. and although I want some change I don't want sooooo much that I look totally different in a couple of weeks LOL

Boricua congrats on your regimen! Very nice indeed. What was your favorite lotion that you use? So that's

So, let me get this right:
12oz lotion
7 tubes of hydroquinone (30g)
3 tubes of tubes of the retin A (20g)
exfoliating mitts
kojic acid papaya soap
2x day applied lotion


I may try this to help lighten my body, are you using the Diana Stalder papaya kojic soap?

I don't know why about the hairline, are you also applying it to your hairline and how much darker is your scalp? I would think the scalp would be naturally lighter?

You may have mentioned already, but what % alpha arbutin do you use?

Yep that's right GG,
I like to use the Eucerin fast absorbing lotion but also the avon extra dry skin therapy lotion works too..

The arbutin I was using was varying but the most I used was somewhere betwee 15%-17... roughly... but I will use that to maintain once the HQ lightens me to where I want... but still bear in mind only photos come out light for me.. I don't know why in person I'm not much lighter...

Well we'll see.. I'll keep you posted...
PS.. the HQ actually makes my skin on my face and neck a bit tender and irritated maybe it's the retin A.. But I
M not peeling a lot on my body.. a bit on my arms sometimes like a light sunburn but nothing major..

yep that's right GG,
I like to use the Eucerin fast absorbing lotion but also the avon extra dry skin therapy lotion works too..

The arbutin I was using was varying but the most I used was somwhere betwee 15%-17... roughly... but i will use that to maintain once the HQ lightens me to where I want... but still bear in mind only photos come out light for me.. I don't know why in person I'm not much lighter...

Well we'll see.. I'll keep you posted...
PS.. the HQ actually makes my skin on my face and neck a bit tender and irritated maybe it's the retin A.. but I
m not peeling alot on my body .. a bit on my arms sometimes like a light sunburn but nothin major..


Ok, thanks. I'll have to give this a try as well after a series of lactic acid peels. Yes, the hq and ra makes my face tender and sometimes pinkesh. Not so much on the arms though I believesince the skin is thicker there I didn't get any results by the 3rd week, so I'm hoping when the lactic arrives the lightening on my arms will be easier to achieve.

Yeah I'm having a prob with my arms too... but I am irritated because I think I am scrubbing a bit too hard on my arms... I think that HQ does make the skin more tender even if we don't notice becuae I've exfolitated like this before without much problems but now it seems to irritate easily.. who knows.. LOL.. maybe it'll get better as my skin gets used to the HQ.. Because Lord knows that the retin A had me in some awful hurting for a while but now, nothing except a little mild peeling...

For me I still get peeling, but it is less now. But when I compare my face to my hand, my face still is sometimes pink-light brown. I am wondering if the pinkness and tenderness will ever go away, I know I have yellow undertones and my skin hasn't became this pink from lighteners. Last night I looked at my facial cheeks and it looked like I was blushing, as my cheeks were glowing red like Little Bo Peep.

LOL.. yeah as you can see a bit in the pics.. I got some pinkness going on... but the peeling is just a little.. it's more like flakiness mostly in the morning when I wake up... my mom jokes me and calls it face dandruff.. gross right (She hasn't noticed me lightening up) so that's how I also gauge that it's not a drastic change... LOL but a little facial moisterizer takes the flake away immediately...

That's what I thought of it too, the face dandruff. Don't want to flake in front of anyone, yes moisture goes along way to hide the flakes.