Self tanner and Melasma...
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free skin care · Mon Jul 10, 2006 1:49 am

Last night I finally tried St. Tropez self-tanner (which I think is awesome! the best I've used). I have hyperpigmentation spots; upper lip, a splotch on each cheek, and a little on the forehead. For whatever reason, this past week the spots have seemed darker. I had hoped that the self tanner would help to camouflage the melasma. I applied it all over, not doing anything differently for the darkened areas. This morning I have a beautiful self-tan, but my face looks kinda.... dirty. It's as though the spots are standing out even more.
I was wondering if anyone had any application tips so that the melasma spots will blend a bit better? In the past I tried taking the tanner off those areas after application, but that just makes them stand out more. So I was thinking to perhaps apply a bit of regular lotion to those areas so they don't grab as much of the tanner. And maybe to use a makeup sponge after application to also remove some of the excess.

Do any of you ladies with hyperpigmentation have any experience with self-tanners and how to make it all blend well? Any tips or personal experiences would be helpful! Very Happy

free skin care · Mon Jul 10, 2006 8:57 am

I haven't found anything that will stop the hyperpig. from being more pronounced. Although I don't have any on my face, I do have them on my lower arms and legs. Every fake tan product I've tried has made the spots darker, even with exfoliation and moistuizing body creams. I think since these products are designed to darken the skin, the parts that are already dark just get "darker". I don't think there's really anything we can do about it, unless someone out there has found a "trick" I haven't tried yet! Smile

free skin care · Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:27 pm

perhaps you could try moisturising the darker patches first to dampen down the effect.

free skin care · Tue Jul 11, 2006 4:21 am

I decided I'm just not going to use the self tanner on my face. In the end, I just didn't like the way it looked overall. Hopefully it will not look too incredibly strange if I have a tan body and a pale face! I figured I'll put some moisturizer on my neck, so it will be a little lighter than the rest of my body, and hopefully it will blend in with my pale face a bit better! Laughing

free skin care · Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:25 am

Nymue - if your going to do it that way, you could maybe try a bronzing powder on your face and neck to even it all out. Smile

free skin care · Tue Jul 11, 2006 10:35 am

Anytime, generally speaking, you use self tanner, it stands to reason, it will darken the dark spots as well as the lighter places, so you end up darker everywhere. The tanner does not know where you're darker! Smile

free skin care · Tue Jul 11, 2006 11:17 am

I have dermal melasma and since it is too much melanin, the self tanner will just exacerbate it. I've gotten rid of my upper lip melasma by mega-dosing on MSM, but still use lots of sunblock.

free skin care · Wed Jul 12, 2006 3:39 am

Gayle wrote:

Anytime, generally speaking, you use self tanner, it stands to reason, it will darken the dark spots as well as the lighter places, so you end up darker everywhere. The tanner does not know where you're darker! Smile

Right. And I did figure that of course I would be darker everywhere, but as my spots were not standing out very much, I didn't imagine that uniform darkening (for lack of a better word) would make them stand out anymore than they already were. Yet, even though I was darker all over, it seemed that the hyperpigmented areas stood out more than they had before. Odd, right?

Sportygirl, that is a good tip about the bronzer, I was actually thinking about that. Any suggestions for good ones? I was thinking maybe Benefit's Hoola. I have one by Physician's Formula currently. I like it alright, but it's a bit shimmery which makes it stand out a little more than I would like.

free skin care · Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:21 am

I am currently using the Dr. H bronzing powder and loving it!

It is very subtle and looks really natural on, I put it on and kind of "polish" it in for a few minutes, and then add a bit more for extra color. It stays Matte throughout the day and does not make my skin oily like a lot of other bronzers do. (I'm prone to oily skin in summer) It feels really "clean" on the skin (almost healthy?), and I will definitely purchase it again! Great product! Very Happy

free skin care · Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:43 am

I use the L'Oreal facial tanning cloths on my face and neck, and I feel like it actually helps camouflage my hyperpigmentation. Maybe it just depends on a person's natural skin color and the severity of the hyperpigmentation/melasma. (?)

Tue Mar 24, 2015 6:46 am

Nymue wrote:

Last night I finally tried St. Tropez self-tanner (which I think is awesome! the best I've used). I have hyperpigmentation spots; upper lip, a splotch on each cheek, and a little on the forehead. For whatever reason, this past week the spots have seemed darker. I had hoped that the self tanner would help to camouflage the melasma. I applied it all over, not doing anything differently for the darkened areas. This morning I have a beautiful self-tan, but my face looks kinda.... dirty. It's as though the spots are standing out even more.
I was wondering if anyone had any application tips so that the melasma spots will blend a bit better? In the past I tried taking the tanner off those areas after application, but that just makes them stand out more. So I was thinking to perhaps apply a bit of regular lotion to those areas so they don't grab as much of the tanner. And maybe to use a makeup sponge after application to also remove some of the excess.

Do any of you ladies with hyperpigmentation have any experience with self-tanners and how to make it all blend well? Any tips or personal experiences would be helpful! Very Happy

You got the best of the best for a selftanner. I've been using selftanner lately to hide my melasma. Its been working amazingly well. This is the first time my face has looked even and not had very noticeable brown blotches all over it in years. I'm trying the supplements to try to get rid of it, but until that works, if it does, this has been great. I did it the way you did by applying it all over my face, but had the same outcome as you did. It just was a darker brown splotchy situation and looked even worse. I then decided since im not having any luck lightening the spots or covering them to make them the color of my unaffected skin. Why not try to darken the surrounding skin to match with the self tanner. I use the fake and bake spray bottle. I open the bottle and use a qtip to apply the tanner only to the skin that isnt brown very carefully. This has been the only method that has really worked at making me look normal. I have melasma on every part of my face its about 75% percent covered. I have been doin this for about 2 months now and have been so happy with it. My husband is amazed with how its worked and was the one who told me I should share what I've been doin bc he knows I spend endless amounts of time on forums like this tryin to find anything to help. The only negative is bc with how often you wash your face and exfoliate you have to reapply it every few days to maintain an even color. Honestly tho its super worth it to me to not have to worry about tryin to unsuccessfully cover it with makeup all the time. I hope this is helpful for someone else as well.

free skin care · Wed Mar 25, 2015 10:01 pm

skin adict2 wrote:

I have dermal melasma and since it is too much melanin, the self tanner will just exacerbate it. I've gotten rid of my upper lip melasma by mega-dosing on MSM, but still use lots of sunblock.

Hi skin adict2 - may I ask what dose MSM and how long you took it?

Do you now take a lower dose?

Tue Jun 20, 2017 7:33 am

jen1211 wrote:

Nymue wrote:

Last night I finally tried St. Tropez self-tanner (which I think is awesome! the best I've used). I have hyperpigmentation spots; upper lip, a splotch on each cheek, and a little on the forehead. For whatever reason, this past week the spots have seemed darker. I had hoped that the self tanner would help to camouflage the melasma. I applied it all over, not doing anything differently for the darkened areas. This morning I have a beautiful self-tan, but my face looks kinda.... dirty. It's as though the spots are standing out even more.
I was wondering if anyone had any application tips so that the melasma spots will blend a bit better? In the past I tried taking the tanner off those areas after application, but that just makes them stand out more. So I was thinking to perhaps apply a bit of regular lotion to those areas so they don't grab as much of the tanner. And maybe to use a makeup sponge after application to also remove some of the excess.

Do any of you ladies with hyperpigmentation have any experience with self-tanners and how to make it all blend well? Any tips or personal experiences would be helpful! Very Happy

You got the best of the best for a selftanner. I've been using selftanner lately to hide my melasma. Its been working amazingly well. This is the first time my face has looked even and not had very noticeable brown blotches all over it in years. I'm trying the supplements to try to get rid of it, but until that works, if it does, this has been great. I did it the way you did by applying it all over my face, but had the same outcome as you did. It just was a darker brown splotchy situation and looked even worse. I then decided since im not having any luck lightening the spots or covering them to make them the color of my unaffected skin. Why not try to darken the surrounding skin to match with the self tanner. I use the fake and bake spray bottle. I open the bottle and use a qtip to apply the tanner only to the skin that isnt brown very carefully. This has been the only method that has really worked at making me look normal. I have melasma on every part of my face its about 75% percent covered. I have been doin this for about 2 months now and have been so happy with it. My husband is amazed with how its worked and was the one who told me I should share what I've been doin bc he knows I spend endless amounts of time on forums like this tryin to find anything to help. The only negative is bc with how often you wash your face and exfoliate you have to reapply it every few days to maintain an even color. Honestly tho its super worth it to me to not have to worry about tryin to unsuccessfully cover it with makeup all the time. I hope this is helpful for someone else as well.

Hi jen1211, would like to try your technique you recommend. I too have hyperpigmentation on my forehead the worst. What "fake and bake" tanner do you use with the dipping a Q-tip and applying only on lighter areas technique? Nervous to try just any as results I'm sure vary with product.

Thanks!
kpearce13

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