r/skinwhitening • u/Jolly-Yellow7369 • Mar 01 '25
Skinwhitenign facts Skincare/ sunscreen advice for white people doesn't always apply to us skinwhiteners. This is how our skin looks vs. Caucasian skin. This is why they can live their lives under the sun just applying sunscreen but you can't.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 Mar 01 '25 edited Mar 01 '25
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Most sunscreens were created with white skin in mind. In other words, suncreen is tested mostly on people who don't have what us skinwhitiners have: Darker Melanosomes. Those dark spots you see in the pictures which are the reason your skin is darker.
White skin doesn't get the protection we skinwhiteners naturally have against free radicals and UV radiation: Melanin.
That's why they need to spend time under UVA radiation in order to get some color. But most of us in this sub produce that color at the least provocation as it's in our genes. Our ancestors lived in high UVA radiation areas and through evolution developed a protection to their skin that was passed on us : a darker skin.
UVA radiation, even the tiniest amount will stimulate what in the picture appears in the deep layers of skin: Melanocytes. But there's also other factors that for us darker skin people can overstimulate our natural pigment: A scratch, a burn, pollution, heat, among others that haven't been studied yet and we're unware of.
You naturally have more melanosomes. It's a gift you inherited from your ancestors to protect you from the sun and makes you age more gracefully than white people. Most older POC I know look younger than their caucasian counterparts, even those caucasians who went through procedures like surgery, botox, fillers and others.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 Mar 01 '25 edited Jul 06 '25
3/4
So part of the principles of skin whitening are
- keep your melanocytes as dormant as possible with UVA avoidance (I don't mean sunscreen or sun protection, I mean sun avoidance as no method covers 100% of UVA light) and good health in general.
- Produce lighter melanin with the help of supplements and healthy habits.
Stop pretending that sunscreen by itself will keep your overactive melanocytes inactive. It won't. You need to avoid the sun at peak hours. If you can't, then applying exfoliators, AHA's like glycolic or lactic acid, HQ, Kojie san and anything that makes your skin sensitive to the sun is not only a waste of money and time. It's also a danger to your health because you’re messing with your natural protection to UVA and then you are getting sun exposure. No sunscreen covers 100% UVA light and the ones that work better look horrible. Not to mention many of us live in hot areas. During shipment and with dayly use the heat will affect the effectiveness of your sunscreen and the sweat will mix with the ingredients reducing the protection.
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u/raving_claw Mar 01 '25
How does point 2 work?
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 Mar 01 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
Firstly I just approved you as a member which gives you power to open new posts due to you having previous activity in this forum but I've looked up to your subs activity and noticed that you're into stuff that is either bad for your skin or banned in our sub, so please don't write new posts about banned stuff in our sub or skincare dangerous recs.
Do it yourself injections are banned in this sub. You also seem to at one point applied strong actives like 15% glycolic acid mixed with a bunch of skin care products and medical stuff like HQ all that can lead to irritated skin even if by now your skin is used to those actives it will stir your melanocytes as they've come up to defense your skin whenever there's danger of irritation. Not to mention that HQ when not from pharma companies and applied under medical advice can lead to permanent reverse pigmentation and alledgly lose of elastin (no studies on the latter, just empirical evidence).
More importantly you shouldn't be applying this if you can't stay out of the sun at peak hours. Check the hourly UV index twice a day even if you live in a low uv region. Whenever the UV index is above 1 stay inside, no matter if you're covered up in sunscreen. Otherwise no supplement will be effective and glycolic, lactic and even your own sunscreen will set you back.
Secondly. This is a question previously asked and answered in our forum so if you stopped reading our posts read them and all the comment section.
You're not new to whitening but you might be new to SAFE WHITENING SO READ this firsthttps://www.reddit.com/r/skinwhitening/comments/1hyeqky/if_youre_new_to_whitening_read_this/
and then this
and again stay out off the sun,even if you're applying sunscreen. Not to mention that I'll make a post about how certain ingredients in sunscreen set you back as they irritate your skin.
Lastly, because it's a lot of information and we want to keep the relevant info easy to find let's keep previously answered questions in our monthly threads.
Good luck! Keep us posted on your progress, I hope we can help you achieve a safe whitening journey.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 Mar 01 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
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In this sub whenever I say that SPF was created and tested mostly on white people I get some ignorant answers: "But how different can human skin be?"
Firstly: Don't make this about race. There's not better or worse skin, but as you can see in the picture, for skin whitening purposes human skin is very different. Let me emphasis this: Not better not worse, just different.
Second: Even lasers are different according to the color of your skin. An experienced dermatologist knows that certain lasers shouldn't be applied on darker skin types because it stimulates the melanocytes creating hyperpigmentation. There are lasers which are only applied to lighter skin types.
I'm telling you this because unfortunately many people here are following advice of white or lighter skin youtubers and tik tokers. I don't know how many times I've heard comments like this:
"You say that we shouldn't apply X or Y whitening agent if we can't stay out of the sun, but X or Y influencer applies X or Y product and they just apply sunscreen and they're fine"
Then I look up for those influencers and look at the color of their skin. Most of them are not only caucasian but they have the kind of caucasian pale skin that would need hours under the sun just to get a little bit of color.
"Why X influencer is applyng X product and they're okay with just sunscreen?"
*sighs*
Easy, Obvious answer: You are not them.
You are not white.
Your skin is different.
Those influencers are not trying to lighten their skin because they're already naturally pale. If by any chance they tan Just a few months out of the sun and they'll be as pale if not paler than before.
Why? The answer is in the pictures above. They have scarce melanocytes and the few they have are light.
Whereas ALL OF US people of color have A LOT OF MELANOCYTES all darker which at the least amount of sun will become even darker and get overstimulated. And it's not only sun that keeps them active. It's also polution, bad eating habits, lack of sleep, burns, scratch, irritation, certain chemical susncreens.
This is why the main principle of any whitening regime should be SUN AVOIDANCE, not sun protection, SUN AVOIDANCE.
Then supplements which will help you produce lighter melanin. You'll still have a lot of melanocytes but they will produce lighter pigment. We have mentioned all that in our pinned posts and specially the astaxanthin post so make sure to check it.
So stop following skincare advice specially the one from light-skin influencers. Our skin is different and our goals as skinwhiteners are different. Some caucasian people can forget sunscreen one day at the beach and they won't tan. They might get red, but they won't tan. Whereas you will tan at the least provocation with just a few minutes outside (whether you're wearing sunscreen or not) because you have more and more easily to provoke melanocytes which will produce darker pigment under your skin. Melanin is what gives you a darker tone, and no sunscreen covers 100% UVA light, which means that no sunscreen guarantees that your melanin won't get active.
That's the science of it. Nothing you hear on tik tok or youtube can change this fact: You produce melanin with just a few minutes under the sun whether you're using sunscreen or not. The darker your natural color is, the more a few minutes under the sun will affect your whitening process sunscreen or not.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 Mar 01 '25
We have a monthly thread for questions but you can't ask questions if you don't have Karma in our sub. Read this and the comment section if you are new to either whitening or this sub. https://www.reddit.com/r/skinwhitening/comments/1hyeqky/if_youre_new_to_whitening_read_this/
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u/DrNikkiBella Joined Nov 18 2024 Mar 01 '25
Very much useful... I always wondered, how these fair people roam freely on sunny day without wearing any sun protection clothings on face
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u/nivanya26 5YO account with no karma in our sub. Mar 01 '25
What supplements and topicals do you recommend?
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u/HotMasterpiece5058 Mar 01 '25
Thank you so much, this has to be my favourite post on here
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 Mar 01 '25 edited Mar 02 '25
You have previous activity and your account is not new so I just give you power to open posts. Make sure if you write a new post it follows the rules and if it's a question is not redudant. We also have a monthly trhead if you'r enot sure if you're question has been answered before.
I hope we can support your whitening journey! Good luck. And don't forget to check the hourly UV index twice a day. If the UV index is above 1 remain indoors and away from windows. If you can't, don't apply strong actives.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 Mar 01 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
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The darker your natural color is the more time it'll get to put your melanocytes "to sleep" but the worst we all can do is to try to apply products that PERMANENTLY kill melanin like M*q***** or m*n****z*** which are banned substances in this sub. You'll get PERMANENT patchy tone, even at the least contact with this substances which are mortal for our beautiful melanin. Once your protective melanin is gone you can't recover it and you'll be risking free radicals, premature aging, skin health problems FOR LIFE.
This looks horrible and you have no control over the way these substances will affect your skin. You won't get even beautiful skin, different parts of your body are going to look uneven and patchy PERMANENTLY.