Lushiousness for Leopards

I sufer from pregnancy mask or melasma - brown spots - and I’ve been on a quest to find the best treatment. 

I got quite a passionate response to my post Can a Leopard Change Her Spots? Many women get melasma from birth control, stress and sun damage or a combination of all of the above.

I recently tried two products from Lush, their Enzymion, a moisturizer touted for oily skin with a variety of citrus juices and papaya and the Ocean Salt, which is virtually a vodka margarita for your face.

Both products are delicious! They smell and feel awesome and they truly did lighten the dark melasma spots on my forehead and cheeks. Because they are fresh handmade and mostly organic they are not cheap. Though I recently heard one woman justify the expense of cosmetics and moisturizers with, You only get one face.

I also had dramatic success with Phyto + 30 ml by SkinCeuticals. My spots were greatly lightened after about two weeks of use.

It’s important to remember that melasma can and will return with sun exposure. Any time you are in the sun you must have adequate sun screen. Even 15 minutes of driving may redarken melasma spots.

Make sure you’re protected from UVA and UVB rays.

Also, wear a hat! Think back to women working in the fields or gardening - they wore hats and sun bonnets for the express purpose of keeping the sun off their face. Wear sun hats, cowboy hats, baseball caps, berets, train conductor hats, winter hats - anything with a brim.

A good foundation and concealer will cover melasma. I have found mineral foundations to be quite effective. I find the Revelon mineral foundation to be just as good as the expensive brands.  Prescriptives Camouflage and Dermablend will cover virtually anything.

(Hydroquinone or alpha hydroxy, a skin bleach, is said to cause cancer so you want to avoid prolonged use. Colloidal silver will turn your face blue as a smurf, so you want to avoid that home remedy altogether.)

To the women who stare at the mirror and see only spots I would like to point out - others are not obsessing on your flaws the way you are. You are not your skin, you are a whole and unique and lovely person. You are a culmination of brains and spirit and strength and vitality and personality and humor and love and emotion and experience. Look in the mirror and tell yourself that you are lovely and beautiful, even with your spots.

Be kind to you.