Up your game for clearer, more even-toned skin with the latest advances in brightening skincare.
Up your game for clearer, more even-toned skin with the latest advances in brightening skincare.
Improve energy levels in your skin
Apart from keeping skin moisturised so it is smoother and more supple, these products also increase the energy levels in the cells to give a boost to regular skin functions like eliminating toxins and clearing out dark pigments. This leaves you with a clearer, more radiant complexion.
Use the Albion Excia AL Whitening Extreme Charge Serum Mask ($167) after your toner. It purportedly enhances the ability of skin cells to absorb nutrients while saturating the cells with moisturising and brightening ingredients. It is also said to prevent the cells from turning stiff and sallow. Leave the mask on for 5 to 10 minutes for a supple and radiant complexion.
Chanel’s Le Blanc Serum Healthy Light Creator ($186) is a clear serum that uses ume flower extract to help repair damaged skin cells and promote the development of new ones. This ingredient also reduces the appearance of dark spots by making skin more resistant to internal and external stressors that trigger the production of dark pigments.
Vichy Idealia Lumiere Illuminating Moisture Essence ($75) is a brightening and hydrating serum that aims to improve overall skin functions in order to give you a healthy glow by stimulating and enhancing the process that converts food to energy in the skin cells.
Kose Sekkisei White UV Emulsion ($42) aims to boost cellular energy and aid the proper formation of the outermost skin layer so that your skin retains moisture efficiently, and can better reflect light. It also inhibits the formation of dark pigments, and triples as a sunscreen with a high SPF50+/PA++++, and as a sebum-absorbing makeup base.
Cle de Peau Beaute Concentrated Brightening Serum ($260) powers up skin cells with an artemisia princeps leaf extract that is thought to expel dark pigments from the cells to reduce the look of dark spots. Citrus unshiu peel and mangosteen extracts improve the skin renewal rate so your complexion looks clearer.
Keep skin calm to reduce triggers for dark spot formation
When skin is exposed to internal and external stressors like free radicals, air pollutants and UV rays, dark-pigment factories go into overdrive and create even more pigment. To counteract that, these soothing skincare products are made to brighten your complexion without irritating it.
Dior’s Diorsnow Essence of Light ($93) leaves a soft-focus glow and a smooth finish. It has encapsulated vitamin E to soothe skin, and edelweiss extract for a more even-toned complexion. It works by regulating blood circulation to reduce skin redness, boosting collagen production to boost blue tones in skin, and limiting the distribution of dark spots to decrease yellow tones.
Cosme Decorte’s Whitelogist Bright Express ($220) calms skin to prevent excess pigment production, inhibits dark spot formation, and breaks down clusters of existing dark pigments so skin becomes bright and clear.
Rev up cell turnover for a brighter complexion
When cellular turnover in skin slows down, dead cells filled with dark pigments are not as readily removed. This can make your skin appear dull and cause existing spots to look more pronounced. To rectify this, use brightening skincare that can loosen the bonds which hold dead cells to the skin surface, and slough them off to enhance luminosity.
Gentle on sensitive skin, Kiehl’s Clearly Corrective Brightening and Smoothing Moisture Treatment ($78) contains low levels of glycolic acid to remove dead skin cells and debris, thus speeding up cell turnover.
L’Occitane Reine Blanche Whitening Rich Cream ($98) uses a natural salicylic acid from reine des pres flower extract to loosen and remove dark skin cells. It also has botanical derivatives to hydrate skin and vitamin C to reduce the appearance of dark spots.
Fend off pollutants that set off hyperpigmentation
Air pollutants such as toxins and heavy metals can weaken the skin barrier and cause dehydration, inflammation, accelerated ageing and hyperpigmentation. Protect your skin with brightening skincare that has ingredients which are thought to help fend off the effects of air pollutants.
La Prairie White Caviar Illuminating Pearl Infusion ($850) moisturises skin and makes it look more radiant. It contains vitamin C and extracts of gold caviar to limit the spread of newly created dark pigments, and reduce the colour intensity of dark spots that are already there. The ingredients are encapsulated in iridescent pearls that burst as you pump out the serum. Even the membrane of these pearls reportedly protects skin against air pollutants.
Lancome UV Expert Youth-Shield Aqua Gel SPF50/ PA++++ ($75) is a sunscreen that is said to work like an air filter by preventing toxic particles from penetrating your skin. Moringa extract is the ingredient that allows it to do so. It also has vitamin E to clear up free radicals and reduce inflammation to prevent skin irritation.
Brightening care with anti-ageing benefits
Youthful-looking skin is smooth, dense, firm, and reflects and diffuses light optimally. Try these dual-action brightening and anti-ageing skincare products for that prime-of-youth glow.
The deeper layers of a young person’s skin tend to be more translucent, allowing light to be reflected smoothly. As we age, dead cells and dark pigments accumulate in our skin, trapping light and making the complexion look dull. To boost radiance, Dior’s Prestige White Light-in-Nectar ($570) is enriched with the brand’s Light-in-Rose Pearls to reduce the transfer of dark pigments into new skin cells, and decrease the production of such pigments. It is also said to slow down a skin-ageing process known as glycation, which makes collagen fibres yellow and stiff.
Aveda Tulasara Wedding Masque Eye Overnight ($99) is formulated with an Ayurvedic blend of plant stem cells and organic apricot seed oil to support natural skin regeneration for a firmer and brighter complexion.
With a cocktail of vitamin C, niacinamide, and algae and daisy extracts, Philosophy Brighten My Day All-over Skin-perfecting Brightening Essence ($90) aims to firm and brighten skin, making your wrinkles look less obvious and your complexion more radiant.
Estee Lauder’s Crescent White Full Cycle Brightening Cooling Sorbet Pack ($136 for a pack of eight) helps to soothe, repair and renew damaged and dehydrated skin with Swiss glacial water, antioxidants and a brightening complex. As heat can trigger dark spot production, this lightweight night-time gel mask also cools the skin by 3 deg C, for a brighter complexion the morning after.
La Mer’s Blanc de la Mer The Brilliance White Mask ($440) is a two-step luxe daily ritual. It comprises a Soothing Primer and a Mask Gel Cream. Apply the Soothing Primer to calm and moisturise skin with vitamins and nutrients, then layer on the Mask Gel whose blend of marine-derived ingredients helps reduce the appearance of dullness, spots and wrinkles.
PHOTOGRAPHY ZAPHS ZHANG STYLING SHERLI CHONG
