What to Do When You Have Both Hyperpigmentation *And* Oily Skin
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Jordan Samuel Pacitti is an aesthetician, skincare founder and regular Live That Glow columnist. He is a go-to source of beauty advice for skincare fans across the world. Here, he advises a reader on the best ingredients for tackling hyperpigmentation.
What skincare ingredients do you recommend? I’m a black woman with hyperpigmentation on my forehead and oily skin.
Jordan says:
Dealing with hyper pigmentation can be tricky. You don’t want to blast the skin with actives right out of the gate, as this can inflame the skin and make hyperpigmentation even worse. So, the first thing you are going to want to do is make sure you have a sunscreen that works for your skin type and skin condition.
Protecting your skin from the damaging rays of the sun will ensure you keep your existing pigmentation at bay while minimising the potential for additional future pigmentation.
Wearing your SPF 365 days a year, rain or shine, will pay off tremendously. Once you have your sunscreen dialled in, I would look to ingredients such as a retinol, kojic acid, or alpha arbutin (to name a few), remembering you don’t need a plethora of single ingredient products. Rather, incorporating one well formulated product containing some combination of these ingredients to target your concerns will be more effective and help to keep your routine streamlined and manageable.
For what you’re looking for—treating hyperpigmentation and having oily skin—I would suggest a lightweight pigmentation serum to help drive the desired results. So, a full routine might consist of a gentle cleanser, a pigmentation serum, a lightweight SPF in the morning, and then replacing the SPF with a lightweight moisturiser at night.
As hyperpigmentation serums could potentially have ingredients that make the skin sensitive, make sure you are following the usage instructions. Always start slower and build up—in terms of frequency of use and intensity of the active ingredient(s)—as your skin tolerates.
Fading pigmentation will take time, so being consistent and giving your products time to work will be important. If you are not seeing the desired improvement after six months to a year of usage, I would recommend working with an aesthetician or dermatologist that can help pair treatments with topical product application.
Jordan Samuel Pacitti
Founder & CEO, Jordan Samuel Skin
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