What is Melanin?
Melanin is what gives your skin its colour.
It varies from the lightest brown to deep dark complexions. It's a naturally produced pigment by your body. The more you have it, the darker your skin appears.
Melanin is quite frankly amazing. It strengthens the skin, prevents ageing & protects your skin.
Melanin Skin Challenges
Too much melanin production causes dark spots & hyperpigmentation
Melanin rich skin experiences more water loss from skin, probably because of the weather with ample sunlight and so is prone to dryness
Uneven melanin production in your skin leads to uneven skin tone with dark & light patches that affects you
Another common skin concern for melanated complexions is Keratosis Pilaris (Strawberry skin)
Key Differences Between
Melananted skin tone
Non-Melanated skin tone
| Properties | Melanated Skin | Non Melanated Skin |
|---|---|---|
| Skin Pigment | Eumelanin - brown to black color | Pheomelanin - red to yellow color |
| Melanocyte Count | High | Low |
| Amount of melanin produced | High | Low |
| Oil content in Skin | High | Low |
| Skin Thickness | Higher | Lower |
| Reaction to Sun Exposure | Tan. More Effective in combating UV rays | Burn. Not capable of combating UV rays. |
| Key Skin Concerns | Hyperpigmentation, Scarring, Dullness | Ageing, Skin Cancer, Dryness, Inflammation |
As seen by the differences, key needs of this skin type to solve include :
Pigmentation
Uneven Skintone
Oil Control
Dry & Uneven Texture
Pore Control
Melanin Skin Concerns
We have thicker skin
This means, for effective hydration, you need skincare formulations that can penetrate deeper into your skin.
We need 6 times the Sunlight
as compared to White Skin to make Vitamin D
That slows down cell renewal. This means, we need to
religiously exfoliate our skin to boost cell renewal.
Our struggle with acne is harder with larger oil glands
Therefore make sure that your skincare ingredients work to normalize your skin’s microbiome and regulate its sebum production.
Threats of Hyperpigmentation
When the skin is traumatized, it responds by producing
more sebum & melanin to protect that area of the skin, resulting in hyperpigmentation. Therefore using gentle cleansers and ingredients
to reduce inflammation is key. To lessen the visual effects of pigmentation,
one needs to use brightening ingredients like vitamin C, arbutin,
azelaic acid, mulberry, kojic acid, and licorice root, which all
aid in evening out skin tone.
Ingrown Hair
More common in people with curly hair & deeper skin tones, to prevent this, there has to be focus on exfoliation and skin calming ingredients, especially post shaving & waxing.
