Ask a Beauty Blogger: Fighting Hyperpigmentation and Self-Tanning?

While I'm well acquainted with fighting areas of hyperpigmentation (remember that whole series I did on my melasma with weekly photo updates on how Kiehl's Clearly Corrective was working?), I'm not so good with the self-tanning. I embraced the pale long ago, and I fully admit that I'm not speedy enough at application to regularly self-tan.

So, as soon as I got Amy's question, I ran to my friend Sinead Norenius! Sinead is a total sweetheart, and she's probably the biggest expert on self tanning in the US. I kid you not. She started as a beauty blogger with Self-Tanning Queen, but soon formulated her own self-tanner line with Beautisol. More recently, she's a co-founder of iFabbo, an amazing organization pulling together beauty and fashion bloggers around the world.

She's definitely best known for Beautisol. I snagged the pic above from her Facebook page (I know, I totally stole it!), and it probably looks a little familiar to you. Beautisol is the self-tanner that is frequently on HSN, and when on air they'll tan half of their bodies so you can see the difference. It is amazing how natural this self tanner looks! Beautisol has been reviewed twice on 15 Minute Beauty (the first Beautisol review was by me, the second Beautisol review was by my cousin, Ellery). While I don't usually self-tan, I fully admit that I'm currently thinking that I'll do it in preparation for a vacation to Florida next month!

Anyways, now that you know why I immediately ran to Sinead with this question, here's what she had to say.

Yes, keeping a "faux glow" while using lightening ingredients / products can be a bit tricky for sure as they tend to exfoliate the skin and tan off a lot faster than usual!

I usually advise my readers to self-tan their face more often than they would their body. I also recommend that they use a self-tanner that is specifically design for the skin on their face vs. their body especially if they are going to be reapplying it more often. (Beautisol offers two formulas - one for Normal-Dry-Sensitive Skin and one for Normal-Oily-Acne prone skin) It is just the nature of the beast but I do it all the time. I self-tan my body every 4 / 5 days but tan my face every other night and put it on last so I still have color a day or two later!

I hope that helps!

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Kiehl's Clearly Corrective Review Series: Final Results

Finally, it is coming to an end. The Kiehl's Clearly Corrective review series in which I continually place unaltered, closeup pics of my skin, sans makeup, on the internet. My husband keeps saying "how long are you going to do that? I can't believe you are posting those pictures!" Truthfully, I'm a bit shocked that I started to do it as well (I won't leave the house without my makeup on usually, and I'm sure there are a lot more people reading these posts than in my local tiny town coffee shop!)

Anyways, I've decided to end the series because I'm basically out of product. It has been just 4 days shy of 2 months, which is a pretty good length of time to see results. Read on to see how it has worked for me.

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Kiehl's Clearly Corrective Update

So, I took a week off from my Kiehl's Clearly Corrective review series because I was on vacation last week. I really just didn't want to bring the correct camera lens to take pics all the way across country...

Read on to see what my skin looks like this week.

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Kiehl's Weekly Update: How is my Hyperpigmentation after 4 Weeks?

Kiehl's Clearly Corrective Review Series
So, I spent all day yesterday thinking that it was Monday. Hence, my Tuesday Kiehl's update is coming on a Wednesday... oops!

I took these pics at the end of last week, which was the end of 4 weeks of using Clearly Corrective. You can see that on the right side of my face that my main area of hyperpigmentation is really lightened quite a bit, and the left side is improved, though not as much of an over achiever as my right side.

I'm finding that my skin overall has improved tone, meaning I have to use less foundation to even things out. I don't think that this comes across in the pics, but I've definitely been finding it in person.


Check out my Kiehl's Clearly Corrective Review Series
Kiehl's Clearly Corrective

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Kiehl's Clearly Corrective Update #3

Kiehl's Clearly Corrective Review Series

I think that this week is the first one where you can really tell in the pics that things are improving. Really, just look at the darker area of hyperpigmentation on my upper cheek! I swear these pics look better, and in person there is a difference. I'm no longer specifically targeting it with concealer each morning.

Check out my Kiehl's Clearly Corrective Review Series
Kiehl's Clearly Corrective

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Kiehl's Clearly Corrective Experiment: Weekly Update #2

Here it is, my third post in my Kiehl's Clearly Corrective review series, in which an incredibly stupid beauty blogger posts very, very up close pics of her face, sans makeup, so you at home can see how Kiehl's Clearly Corrective is working for her.

I still can't believe I decided to do this series. I was feeling it this week as I edited my pics in photoshop (aka- put them in a blog sized format). The hyperpigmentation is getting better slowly but surely, though obviously some of my freckles on my cheeks might be skewing my results a bit. I don't think that this product will get rid of those. So, just be aware that those freckles? I have had them for well over 30 years. Don't expect them to go away in this series.

Read on to see my skin, scary up close.

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Kiehl's Clearly Corrective Experiment: Weekly Update #1

Last week I started a new series of Kiehl's Clearly Corrective reviews, and I promised to post weekly update pics.

I clearly should have thought this out a little bit more, as this means weekly pics of my skin, super close up, without any makeup! Well, too late now.

In this week's pic you'll see that I do still have hyperpigmentation, though it's only been a week and I was initially using Clearly Corrective only at night. Oops! I do admit that I was surprised that things are so apparent in the pics this week, because I do feel as though my problem areas are less obvious and require a little less makeup this week.

I've found that using the product twice a day is not an issue. I was worried that it would interfere with makeup application but I've found that to not be the case. Instead, I simply apply right after washing my face and let it sink in for a minute or two before applying lotion. (I'm in the middle of using BeautyMint for a review, so each morning I'm currently using their light moisturizer with SPF, just as an FYI.) I can't tell that I've applied the Clearly Corrective under my moisturizer, there's no residue or alteration in my skin texture. It is a little bit hydrating, though not quite enough for me mid-winter.

Hopefully next week the pics will show a real change, but I do feel that the hyperpigmentation near my eyes is less noticeable.

Check out my Kiehl's Clearly Corrective Review Series
Kiehl's Clearly Corrective

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Kiehl's Clearly Corrective: A New Hyperpigmentation Fighter

So, remember back when I posted about my Melasma issues (complete with embarrassing pics), and showed how everything went away in my Kiehl's Photo Age review? I may have been a bad girl.

My hormones are still out of whack due to breast feeding. So, I should have stayed on top of things with my Photo Age, but I didn't. With a baby, full time job, blogging, other products to test... the extra 30 second step each night was just a bit much. Plus, I did figure I'd have other things to test. So I stopped using it.

And look what happened.

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