Please tell me I'm not the only one that looks like I let a drunken Sebastian finger paint my face with bronzer the shade of a band-aid if I accidentally spend 39 seconds sans sombrero in the sun whilst pregnant? Please.
I don't think I realized just how bad it was with Julia's pregnancy until I looked back at photos and then ... holy Avatar. Don't believe me? Put on your best oggles and click to see for yourself.
I didn't get it tooooo bad with Sebastian but third time's a charmer has been ugly in the melasma (chloasma whatevsma) department so I've had to get serious about treatment and prevention. Instead of getting angry and desperate and taking Clorox and a cheese grater to my face (which was tempting at some points ... ) I've found this scientific process to work absolute wonders for my super stubborn skin.
1. I would imagine you have some of this somewhere in your domicile ...
2. I highly doubt you have any of this floating around ...
Hopefully this is helpful to no one because you've never suffered the wrath of the awful but if you've encountered a similar situation and found an even better solution ... I'm wide eyed and open eared and perched on your lap like an eager little pupil ready to learn. Teach me.
Oh I have this problem too. I don't know the answer. I'm scared to try new things though because my skin is already so sensitive to begin with. So basically this comment is useless except to express empathy.
ReplyDeleteCommit yourself to sunscreen on your face for the rest of your life. My melanoma-giving son is 13. If I ever win the lottery I'm getting the blotches blasted with a laser. Until then, I will try every potion that promises to fade spots at the drugstore.
ReplyDeleteNo, no, that was melasma, not melanoma.
ReplyDeleteMight I also recommend--pg or no--using baking soda with milk to make a lovely facial treatment? Seriously. Stupid good, soft face. El cheapo, too.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm not the only one whose skin didn't take on a lovely glow? I don't think I had the same thing, melasma, but baking soda seems to be the answer to an awful lot of problems.
ReplyDeleteCan you say baby GIRL!! They say you glow with boys, but girls suck the beautiful complexion out of you! There is a trend... Julia, baby #3... ;)
ReplyDeletePinned. Gracias. 4 months later I still have selftannerface going on. :P
ReplyDeleteSee Grace, I actually have the opposite problem. When I'm pregnant I get random light spots, especially on my upper left arm. It's so weird. It's like my pigment just dies. Maybe I should just put baking soda on it anyway.
ReplyDeleteK I've never had problems with melasma BUT I'm super impressed with your photog skills here. Nice use of depth of field.
ReplyDeleteWish I'd known about this- I just holed up in the house with take out for the duration of my pregnancy.
ReplyDeleteI just ordered the pigment gel for my spotty spotty face. My melasma never went away completely after Piper, three YEARS ago, even though I use spf bajillion. Now it is back, darker than ever, making me look like I have a mustache. Sigh. Thanks for the tip, Grace.
ReplyDeleteI proudly wear my mommy markings from Miss A, who is still nursing. I am hopeful they will disappear once she stops but I would like to thank you and your beautiful and dear readership for the hopelessness and spiral into dark spot oblivia I am currently enduring. There is but one thing to do...drown my woes in a second grande cup of french vanilla creamer and splash of coffee. On the brighter side...one more badge of honor to hold over my children's heads in my later years, along with stretch marks, saggy tatas, gray hair, and wrinkles, YAY for melasma!
ReplyDeleteOh, and btw...totally think you are having a girl, too!
DeleteI'm with Kayla here. Is it weird that the thing I was most impressed with was your ph0tog skills here? Tute Tute?
ReplyDeleteI add honey (and just enough water to make a paste) to the baking soda for a facial scrub. That feels much better, and is easier to spread around, than just water and baking soda. Also supposedly honey has natural antibacterial properties and you're only supposed to use raw, organic honey, blah blah blah but I use whatever is in the cupboard at the time and it works just fine.
ReplyDeleteNo pregnancy melasma here, never having been preggers, but apparently even girls from the frozen North who rarely venture outside because it's too freaking cold can get weird coloured patches on our faces, yay!
i thought melasma was indicative of a lack of something special in your diet? can't remember. plus i really hate when everything comes back to what food you eat. too stressful. aight so google is saying one needs to avoid copper (?). eat more zinc. and vitamin c. and vitamin e. have fun with that....see this is why food remedies can be crazy.
ReplyDeleteYour words have power. Just got a bottle in the mail yesterday after reading this post. Have been sporting my Charlie Chaplin since my now five year old's feet lived comfortably wedged in my ribs. Tried home-remedy-everything, the derm's voodoo magic that cost my insurance company (quite literally) thousands (with no results), and Cliniques's eighty dollar bottle of YouPayedForThisYourselfSoItHasAnObligationToServeYouDarkSpotRemover, only to have to once again make peace with my never budging mustachios, and an empty wallet. But hey, Grace says she "almost guarantees it," so what do I have to lose? Just any hope of mustache-free salvation is all!!! Praying I am thanking you in two weeks time!
ReplyDeletewhoa!! That is terrible.
DeleteWell ... no pressure or anything. Yikes. I'll really be praying .... the soda is key in my case so hopefully it works miracles.
Also someone recommended a B-Complex vitamin which I've been taking and noticing fewer "break outs"
Seriously, no pressure..I am happy to be in the mode of pretending to care about this again. I did try baking soda years ago, but in combo with lemon juice. No help, but I will try your potion. In all fairness, I live where the sun never ceases to shine and no amount of Nivea SPF 100 and J.R. Ewing-esque headgear could truly offer "protection." The dermo did have other goop (forgive the Paltrow reference) I could try, but I have been pregnant or nursing for the last couple years and he wasn't comfortable with that. So....if your wondercream doesn't do it, back I go to subject myself to his trauma-inducing fluorescent lights and his creepily lurid glance as he examines my philtrum with his Holmes' glass. To make a short story long, I will let you know if I no longer resemble Hitler with Hippie hair, and if I still do, I will leave you to your mask-free bliss!
DeleteHa! That was me. Just wanted to let you know it worked....kinda! For some reason my dermatologist told me not to use hydraquinine while pregnant or nursing, which barred any useful product ever made for this. But after your review I did my own research and there is no reason for this. Wish I had done my own research in the first place.
DeleteAnyway, it does work, although it doesn't erase it completely, and as soon as I stop using it, or have unprotected interaction with the sun, it comes back in full force. So, yes, thank you, although it looks as if I will be using this for the rest of my life, which is better than looking like a she-man.