Cream for dark spots: five things to check before you buy

SKIN CONDITION

Check 1: Which active ingredients for dark spots are backed by evidence?

Two active ingredients in particular are backed by evidence: niacinamide and vitamin C. Niacinamide does not interfere with melanin production itself; instead, it slows the transfer of finished pigment packages from the pigment cells to the upper skin cells. According to a study in the British Journal of Dermatology, niacinamide inhibited this transfer by 35 to 68 per cent in a cell model, and skincare with 5% niacinamide measurably reduced hyperpigmentation after four weeks. What else niacinamide does in the skin goes well beyond the subject of pigment. Vitamin C works at a different point, influencing the enzymes that produce melanin in the first place. Our main article explains in detail how dark spots on the face develop. When it comes to buying, only one thing counts in the end: if one of these active ingredients is clearly declared on the pack, you have a basis you can check. If all it says is a flowery-sounding plant complex with no specific ingredient named, you have nothing to base a comparison on.

Check 2: Why the concentration needs to be on the pack

Without a percentage, two creams cannot be compared. A product can feature niacinamide prominently on the front and still contain so little of it that the mention is pure decoration. The ingredient list only helps to a limited extent. The list is sorted by weight, but under Article 19 of the EU Cosmetics Regulation, which most products sold here follow for their labelling, ingredients below one per cent may be listed in any order. Many active ingredients fall into exactly this range, which is why their position on the list says little. A voluntary percentage is therefore the more honest signal. In the Duo of serum and cream, it is 5% niacinamide and 2% vitamin C as 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid, each relative to the Duo as a whole, and the figures are openly listed in the overview of all ingredients. Whether a brand states the figure tells you more about its attitude to transparency than any promise on the front of the pack.

One customer once wrote to me that over the years she had bought several creams for dark spots, each with a slightly different promise on the front, and that not one of them made it clear how much of the named active ingredient it actually contained. The question behind this was simply why hardly any brand writes it down. There is no good answer to that.

Check 3: Without daily sun protection, any cream is working against itself

UV radiation is the strongest driver of dark spots, which is why sun protection belongs in any skincare routine meant to even out your complexion. If you buy the active ingredient but leave out UV protection, you are evening out in the morning what forms again in the afternoon. A study in the journal Dermatologic Surgery shows how strong the effect is: with daily use of a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 over 52 weeks, mottled and discrete pigmentation showed the greatest improvement of all the features assessed by dermatologists. A cream on its own cannot replace this, and no concentration of active ingredient in the world makes up for missing protection. So check whether a brand mentions this point at all or conveniently skips over it. A brand that only sells you the active ingredient and says nothing about the rest is selling you half a solution. Which sun protection for your face suits your routine depends on whether your skincare itself includes an SPF.

Check 4: How to spot empty promises and test-winner labels

You can spot an empty promise by its time frame and its wording. Pigment sits in the stratum corneum and is shed through natural cell renewal, which takes weeks to months, not seven days. Words such as removes, erases or disappears have no place in skincare, because they describe an effect that a skincare product cannot deliver. Be equally wary of before-and-after pictures that give no details of lighting, time period or number of people, because a different camera angle changes more than any active ingredient. A test-winner label also says less than it seems: a test always covers a particular selection according to particular criteria, and a result cannot be transferred to other products or to your skin. And a brand that only shows a seal without saying who tested what and when is giving you a graphic, not information. That is why it is more helpful to understand how test winners among face creams come about than to look at the ranking itself.

Check 5: What the cream costs per month, not per jar

The price per jar tells you nothing as long as you do not know how long it lasts. Two creams at CHF 40 can differ by a factor of three if one lasts six weeks and the other four months. So always work out the price per month of use – based on the amount you actually need, not the amount described as economical on the pack. With the Duo for CHF 109.90, that is 3 to 6 drops of serum and 3 to 6 pumps of cream morning and evening, which means a bottle lasts 2 to 4 months depending on how often you use it. This calculation is also the more honest comparison with cheaper products, because it shows whether a low entry price really is one in the end. How you dose and apply both products correctly has more influence on how long they last than the fill size.

When a cream is no longer the right answer

A cream is the wrong answer as soon as a spot changes. If a dark spot grows, changes in colour or at the edges, bleeds or itches persistently, it should be looked at by a dermatologist, not treated with skincare. The same applies to spots that appear on their own and are clearly darker than the rest, and to anything that worries you. Skincare works on the appearance of the uppermost layers of the skin; it does not make a diagnosis and is no substitute for an assessment. Large areas of hormonally triggered discolouration are also a matter for a dermatologist, not for a cream off the shelf. The honest way to put it is this: if you are unsure whether it is a harmless age spot, skincare is not the first question you should be answering. An appointment costs you an hour once; a wrong self-assessment could cost you considerably more.

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