EPARA INSTITUTE — 003 | Pigmentation on deeper skin: what actually helps

Why a spot can leave a mark that outlasts it by a year, what the evidence supports, and where a daily botanical routine fits.

One question comes up again and again wherever people talk seriously about skincare: which luxury brands actually work for deeper skin? Behind it is a familiar frustration. A spot clears in a week. The mark it leaves can stay for months.

That mark has a name, and on melanin-rich skin it behaves differently. Here is what's known about it, what isn't, and what to do.

What a dark mark actually is

Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, or PIH, is the mark skin leaves after it has been inflamed or injured: a spot, a patch of eczema, a burn, a scratch, a peel that was too strong. Inflammation tells the skin's pigment cells to make more melanin, and some of it stays behind once the inflammation has gone.

Deeper skin does this more readily. Melanin-rich skin carries larger, more heavily pigmented melanosomes, the tiny parcels melanin is stored in, and they break down more slowly. The same spot leaves a darker mark, and the mark stays longer. In one study of American dermatology patients, pigment disorders were the third most common complaint among Black patients and the seventh among white patients.

How long a mark lasts depends on how deep the pigment sits. Marks in the top layer of skin tend to fade over six to twelve months. When pigment settles deeper, it can take years, and creams reach it far less well.

If the patches sit symmetrically across the cheeks, forehead or upper lip and weren't left by a spot, it may be melasma instead. Melasma behaves differently and is worth showing to a dermatologist.

Why the advice so often misses

Much of what's written about pigmentation was researched on lighter skin, and photographed on it. A 2018 study of medical textbook images found that only 4.5% showed dark skin. In 2020, Malone Mukwende, a medical student at St George's in South London, co-created Mind the Gap, a handbook of how clinical signs look on Black and brown skin, because the books he was learning from didn't show them.

Closing that gap, one question at a time, is what this series is for.

What the evidence supports

Calm the cause first. Every mark begins as inflammation. Getting spots, eczema or irritation under control does more than anything applied to the mark afterwards. For active acne, start with a doctor or dermatologist.

Wear sunscreen every day, including in winter. Daylight darkens existing marks. On deeper skin, visible light, not only UV, has been shown to cause darker and longer-lasting pigmentation than on lighter skin. Tinted mineral sunscreens with iron oxides protect against more of it. Deep shades are still harder to find than they should be, but they're worth looking for.

Be gentle. Picking, gritty scrubs and stacking several strong actives all inflame skin. On deeper skin, gentler usually wins.

Choose your practitioner more carefully than your treatment. Peels and lasers can help with marks, and they can cause them. Before booking, ask how many clients with your skin tone they've treated, which device and settings they'll use, and whether they'll patch test first. Low energy over several sessions is the usual approach for deeper skin.

Evening out is not lightening

A word on something many of us grew up around. Treating a mark means returning skin to its own colour, not changing that colour. Creams sold online and on market stalls to make skin lighter regularly turn out to contain hydroquinone, mercury or steroids. All three are illegal in UK cosmetics and can do lasting harm. If a product promises lighter skin, leave it on the shelf.

What's in our formulas

Epara is formulated in England. Each product pairs African botanicals with ingredients researched specifically for pigmentation.

For pigmentation

• Niacinamide (vitamin B3) is in our Eye Serum.
• Liquorice root extract (Glycyrrhiza glabra) is in several of our products. In laboratory studies, its best-known compound, glabridin, slows the enzyme that makes melanin; human trials are fewer and smaller.
• Plankton extract is also in several of our products.

For the daily layer

• Marula (Sclerocarya birrea) is native to southern Africa. Women in rural Namibia have pressed it for generations to moisturise their families' skin. It's rich in oleic acid and antioxidants, and unusually stable. It's in our Balancing Face Oil and Intense Hydrating Mask.
• Moringa (Moringa oleifera), grown widely across West Africa, softens and moisturises.
• Frankincense (Boswellia carterii) is native to the Horn of Africa, and its scent is the first thing you'll notice.

A simple routine for deeper skin with marks

• Morning: a gentle cleanse, then Eye Serum (one drop dabbed across lids and contour), a few drops of Balancing Face Oil, then a tinted mineral sunscreen.
• Evening: cleanse, your one treatment, then Eye Serum and a few drops of oil.
• Once or twice a week: Intense Hydrating Mask. A generous layer, ten minutes, then rinse.

Fewer marks start with less inflammation. That's the whole idea.

References

• Davis EC, Callender VD. Postinflammatory hyperpigmentation: a review of the epidemiology, clinical features, and treatment options in skin of color. J Clin Aesthet Dermatol, 2010.
• Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation in skin of color: an updated review. Practical Dermatology.
• Mahmoud BH et al. Impact of long-wavelength UVA and visible light on melanocompetent skin. J Invest Dermatol, 2010 (summarised in The Dermatologist).
• Louie P, Wilkes R. Representations of race and skin tone in medical textbook imagery. Social Science & Medicine, 2018 (summary).
• Mind the Gap: a handbook of clinical signs in Black and brown skin, St George's, University of London, 2020.
• Toxic skin creams still rife in cosmetics market, Local Government Association, 2018.
• FDA works to protect consumers from potentially harmful OTC skin lightening products, US FDA.
• A tree and traditional knowledge: a recipe for development, WIPO.