How the Environment You Live In Affects Skin Pigmentation

They might just look like dark patches or spots, but the uneven, dark pigmentation on your skin is something that happens when your body produces melanin in excess. They might have different names and forms – freckles, melasma, solar lentigines (age spots), post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH) – but they are all manifestations of hyperpigmentation. The common causes include excessive unprotected sun exposure, and in some cases, certain vitamin deficiencies and systemic disorders too.

Certain environmental elements and irritants have also been found to stimulate melasma and other dyschromia (changes in skin colour). Let’s delve into two primary environmental triggers

Sun exposure: Although sun exposure benefits overall health, UV radiation in sunlight harms the skin. Melanin usually protects the tissues from UV damage. However, overexposure to UV rays can induce melanin overproduction and photo-oxidation, damaging skin and causing hyperpigmentation. Thus, UV rays may cause short- and long-term adverse effects on the skin, including pigmentary disorders like melasma, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH), and age spots.   
Pollution: Your skin is exposed to air pollutants every day, regardless of where you live. They increase oxidative stress, inhibiting your skin’s antioxidant defence mechanism. This causes genetic damage and affects the skin’s nuclear factors and signalling pathways, which are responsible for cell growth and differentiation. Prolonged, repetitive exposure to pollutants like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, and oxides alters the skin’s lipids, DNA, and proteins via oxidative damage, causing inflammatory and allergic conditions. By interfering with the natural skin protection system, pollutants dry the skin and cause pigmentation or dark spots.  

A combination to counter the environmental triggers of hyperpigmentation

People usually turn to sunscreen as the first option to protect their skin from UV radiation damage. Apart from this, the currently available skincare options such as vitamin C, alpha arbutin, and niacinamide are individual ingredients that people seek out. However, these ingredients, by themselves, are not sufficient to resolve hyperpigmentation. Hence, it is all the more important to understand your skincare products and their formulation. Clinically proven formulations are known to treat the skin without leaving any harmful effects in the long run.

The skincare combination of niacinamide + hexylresorcinol + retinyl propionate with a retinol booster is an advanced treatment that visibly reduces stubborn dark spots and discolouration caused by UV exposure and skin conditions. It delivers an even skin tone in 8 weeks and reduces hyperpigmentation in 4 weeks. It is clinically proven to be more effective than other commonly found single ingredient-based solutions.

While there are multiple skincare options available, most are incomplete, and the remaining are only one piece of the puzzle for tackling the environmental triggers for hyperpigmentation. Countering them is more complex and requires a wholesome combination that can address the root causes of hyperpigmentation. Besides applying sunscreen to avoid further damage, it is essential to adopt scientifically advanced, technologically driven solutions for remedying hyperpigmentation already caused by UV ray damage and pollutants.