Achieving and maintaining an even skin tone may seem like a pretty trivial thing as opposed to having – say – blemish or wrinkle free skin. However when it comes to looking younger it’s one of the most effective things you can do for your skin!

This post goes into a lot of depth, I highly recommend reading Even Skintone – A Beginner’s Guide if you’re new to this. Then you can come back here to look for more information if you’re interested as well as more product recommendations. So click here and then come back afterwards!

Dermatologists agree that having an even skintone – free from acne scars, hyperpigmentation, melasma etc – can make somebody look as much as 10 years younger. Younger skin tends to have a smooth and uniform colour, it’s only until we age that accumulated skin damage begins to appear on the surface on the skin – making us look worn and a bit… well, old!

Products aimed and brightening and evening out skin tone have exploded on to the skincare market recently with every line offering at least one product that promises results. The problem is that firstly, a lot of these products don’t do much and secondly you need to fit these products into a specific routine in order to garner decent results.

So, being the kind soul that I am, i’m going to walk you through the steps you can take to achieve a brighter, more even skintone with the least amount of guesswork!

It makes sense that if your goal is to brighten up and even out uneven skin colour, you’re going to need to prevent it from getting darker again. This is why you need sunscreen. Not only do you need sunscreen but you need a sunscreen with a high level of protection.

By protection I don’t mean SPF (although that’s important to avoid burning), I’m referring to UVA protection that is measured by PPD (persistent pigmentation darkening, read my sunscreen post here). A good PPD for everyday wear that’ll protect you from sun damage is anything above an 8, a fantastic PPD is anything above 15 which will protect you even if you work outdoors, are prone to melasma or live in tropical climes.

As a rule, most Asian sunscreens (and increasingly American ones) list the PA+++ symbol to indicate a PPD greater than 8. With European sunscreens, a specific PPD number is usually listed on the tube or indicated by a 5* rating (which means a PPD over 15).

There are a few sunscreens available in the US with a good level PPD (which i’ll list) but you’re going to find the best ones in Asian and European brands. It’s easy to buy any of them online. The reason why you can’t get many sunscreens with amazing PPDs in the US is because the FDA is slightly behind on allowing certain chemical filters to be used in sunscreen. So, a few things to bear in mind with sunscreen:

Simply exfoliating and using a decent sunscreen will go a long way in evening out your skintone but using an anti-pigmentation treatment will give your results a massive boost so it’s a good idea to include one (or two) in your routine!

There are many different ingredients and concentrations to bear in mind when choosing the best anti-pigmentation product so i’m going to focus on the best ones and give you a few good recommendations. You can use pigmentation faders underneath your eyes too for dark circles so long as the product doesn’t contain any acids or retinol.

1. Nia 24 Skin Strengthening Complex – A very advanced product and my new favourite thing. It contains a concentrated form of Niacinamide in a 5% concentration, this is excellent stuff that will even out skin tone as well as calm down irritated skin, reduce wrinkles and breakouts.
2. Dermaquest Skin Lightening Serum – This serum is fantastic and contains a great blend of potent botanical pigmentation faders as well as glycolic acid. Highly recommended, i’ve repurchased this a few times over for friends and family.
3. Skinceuticals Phyto+ – Pricey but worth it. This contains a cocktal of concentrated pigmentation faders in a liquidy serum. This stuff works very very well, the gold standard when it comes to evening out skin tone.
4. Vichy Bi-white Serum -  This is a moisturising serum that contains Vitamin C, Liquorice Extract and a few other botanical lighteners in order to even out skin tone. Works well and is great for drier skin.
5. Kiehl’s Powerful-Strength Line Reducing Concentrate – This contains a 10.5% concentration of Vitamin C in a stable formula and container. This is an amazing Vitamin C serum and in my opinion well worth your cash, you can expect an evening of skin tone and reduction of fine lines at this concentration.
6. Skinbiology Super GHK Serum – My favourite copper serum at a good enough concentration to help even out skin tone. Read my review here.

Apologies if that was a bit much to take in all at once but it’s a complex subject and hopefully you have enough information to get started!  Again, here’s what the perfect routine geared towards evening out your skin tone would look like, feel free to add your own elements like moisturisers or BHA products or take bits away based on your own preference! Don’t forget, if you have any other skin issues or have a routine you already like, you can just take one or two things from this article and put them into your exisiting routine.