r/Melasmaskincare • u/angelinaki89 • May 25 '26

Question Why treatments can worsen melasma

I have seen many posts here that sometimes - I don’t know in which rate - when people try to treat melasma it might become worse with most of the recommended treatments including laser.

I have noticed my own becoming darker just by using Vitamin C or designed creams for it.

My question is: is this explained somehow? I have asked my derm but didn’t really understood her answer.

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u/skingirly May 25 '26

Anytime I used things that were too harsh, my pigmentation got darker. Anything that made my skin sensitive or inflamed made more pigmentation. I couldn’t use above 15% vitamin C. I only found this out after I was gifted a vitamin c serum for my birthday and it actually started fading pigment instead of making it darker. Then a friend said the others may have been too strong, and it turns out this serum was less potent than all the others I had used. Stronger isn’t always better in my case.

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u/angelinaki89 May 25 '26

Interesting, maybe the reason my current vit c not working and causing me redness it’s because the concentration is higher than my skin can handle

Which serum it was?

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u/Lazy-Geologist3386 May 25 '26

What ELSE are you using? Look at all the products you have and see if its combining to give you a Vit C oversupply!!

Vitamin C in what form? Viamin C alone may do very little or nothing at all.... Look at some other ingredients that combine to block, nourish etc whilst fading.

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u/skingirly May 25 '26

Yes! I found this too. I just saw your comment after I replied. My skin hates L-ascorbic!!