Happy July Everyone!
I had been so uncertain about sharing my journey. You’d understand why, as you read on 🙂
So I’ve been battling with melasma for over 6 years, yes, OVER. I can’t point exactly, when I first noticed it. I just knew, over the years, my face grew into it. My sister used to tease me “you got punched in your dream” 😂
Every skin condition has a way of messing with your confidence, even in the slightest way. For someone who doesn’t like makeup, I had that phase of wearing it, every time, to cover up my melasma.
What is Melasma?
It’s a condition where brown patches appear in certain areas of the face like under or around the eyes. It’s mostly common in women and is triggered by hormonal changes, pregnancy, birth control, sun exposure or cosmetics, even. This is one of those harmless conditions so people who really don’t mind it, or have just little patches of it, could carry it all through their lives.
I only got to find out about these informations this year. I had always thought it was sunburn and it’s very easy to mix it up, since sun exposure triggers melasma. This means I’d been treating “my sun burn” since 2018.
Every time it cleared up, it came back in a more severe way. So I was always skeptical about sharing my journey. I visited this aesthetician in November, 2019. After consultation, she assured me her night and day sun burn cream would do the magic in a weeks time. I was desperate, so at the time, it sounded like the voice of God. Lol.
I think the problem was how people, at first glance, assumed it was sun burn. So the wrong medication prolongs your process.
I consulted with a dermatologist in Lagos, late March, this year. The first thing she said was ”this is not one of those overnight treatments. It needs your patience to work effectively” She recommended Retin A, after teaching me everything about my melasmic eyes.
Retin A (Tretnoin) is a form of vitamin A that promotes skin renewal.
The next product she gave me was a depigmenting cream, customized by herself. The uses are written on it;
My dermatologist also recommended Eucerin face cream because my skin became extra sensitive and this brand claims to be sensitive skin experts. Also, the particular cream I got has a rich spf of 30 and when using Tretnoin, you don’t wanna mess with the sun.
For my face wash, I use CeraVe hydrating face cleanser because it contains ceramides which helps in protecting and rebuilding skin barrier. It also contains hyaluronic acid so your skin remains moisturizerd.
PS; I occasionally use fresh Aloe Vera gel as an overnight mask.
These are pretty much everything that cured my melasma and greatly improved my overall skin health and appearance. It took approximately 3 weeks for my skin to adjust to the topical treatments.
I hope someone found this helpful 😇
Let me know in the comment section.
Warm Regards, Cheesom 😘
