If you keep seeing dark spots on your skin it can be a sign that your skin is experiencing stress. To get your body to stop making extra pigment in those spots you'll need to figure out what's going on to cause them.
Why do I have hyperpigmentation? Discover 9 reasons for dark spots and what you can do.
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Your skin might be really good at making melanin
Deeper colors of skin with more melanin are more prone to hyperpigmentation because of how efficiently the skin creates the pigment. That doesn’t mean that more melanated skin types are the only ones that have to deal with hyperpigmentation though!
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Your body might not naturally have enough glutathione to stop dark spots
Glutathione is a master antioxidant in your body. It is present in your skin and involved with melanocytes and pigment production. The presence of free radicals can stimulate melanocytes to make more pigment. It’s been found that neutralizing those free radicals can help calm the pigment production process.
People with the deepest skin colors have naturally lower glutathione levels, which helps keep pigment creation high since glutathione can help interfere with tyrosinase and its activity in generating pigment. This is both an advantage when it comes to protecting skin from the sun, and a disadvantage when it comes to post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.
The inflammatory process your body uses to heal skin injuries naturally creates free radicals. The presence of free radicals is one factor that can stimulate melanin production. Glutathione helps by neutralizing these free radicals, but if your overall levels of this important compound are low there will be nothing in the way of producing a lot of pigment in the injured skin area.
It’s been found that taking glutathione orally and topically can help with this!
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Long term sun damage can create dark spots
Spending a lot of time in the sun can stress your melanocytes out since they go to work when they sense UV exposure. The production of melanin is a very intensive process. It requires a lot of energy within the melanocyte cell and produces a lot of additional free radicals for your body to deal with. Over time this can wear the melanocytes out, or there might just be too much UV exposure for them to completely compensate for.
Melanin has natural sun defense capabilities, so the melanocytes want to help defend your skin against further damage. They might overwork to protect a specific area of skin, creating the dark spots you see on skin.
When people with very fair skin move to very sunny places their melanocytes may also try to compensate by trying to reach their “arms” (dendrites) higher into the layers of skin. This can result in poorly formed dendrites that don’t disperse pigment evenly.
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Your melanocytes might be damaged
No new melanocytes are made in your body as you age, so when they become damaged it’s a big problem. The process of making melanin granules is actually very strenuous for them, and melanocytes are more prone to oxidative damage than other skin cells as a result.
If the dendrites become damaged and the melanocyte can no longer reach the right number of cells you may see a dark spot in your skin because too much pigment is building up in one spot.
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Essential fatty acid deficiency can contribute to hyperpigmentation
Essential fatty acids that are naturally present in skin have been recently found to help prevent excessive pigmentation. For example, linoleic fatty acid has been found to accelerate the spontaneous breakdown of tyrosinase. Tyrosinase is necessary to make tyrosine into L-DOPA, so if you eliminate tyrosinase you stop melanogenesis.
Conversely if you have low levels of essential fatty acids in your skin then the melanogenesis process may continue uninterrupted.
Communication between your melanocytes and your keratinocytes could be bad because of poorly formed cell membranes. Our cell membranes are made up of phospholipids and the quality of essential fatty acids that we consume in our diet determines the quality of our cell membranes. If your keratinocyte cell membranes are not working well they may not pick up and ingest pigment properly. This could result in a buildup of pigment granules in specific spots of the skin.
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Hormone balance can affect hyperpigmentation
If your hormones are triggering melasma then you’ll need to figure out what is going on with that first before you’ll have any chance of solving hyperpigmentation. The hormones that are signaling the excess pigment production need to be reduced before other topical treatments will work.
High levels of estrogen in oral contraceptives, from genetic conditions, or pregnancy can induce melasma.
It has also been found that melanocytes have receptors for androgens, which is the class of hormone that testosterone belongs to. During perimenopause and menopause when estrogen levels drop the corresponding level of testosterone gets higher, which could influence pigmentation for women reaching menopausal age.
Hormones can also influence acne breakouts, which can lead to post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation especially in deeper skin colors.
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Older skin is more prone to developing dark spots
Unfortunately hyperpigmentation does tend to increase with age. After age 35 you start losing some melanocytes, and the loss of melanocytes accelerates after age 50. The melanocytes that are left may also lose some function due to age and stress, and may feel like they need to overcompensate for their missing friends. This can result in uneven pigment distribution.
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Skin irritation can create post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation
Deep peels, laser treatments, plasma pens, harsh skincare, and allergic reactions that happen to the skin can cause post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.
This effect will be enhanced for people with deeper skin colors, so care should be taken to treat the skin gently.
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You might have a few of these reasons for hyperpigmentation happening!
Frequently people have several factors that combine to increase pigment production. Look for how these reasons may intersect. This can be a great time to consider your overall health, diet, sun practices, and skincare and find ways you can improve.
Now that we understand what hyperpigmentation is let’s explore some natural ways to support skin, correct the discoloration, and get to a place of healthy, happy, naturally even toned skin.
How to reduce hyperpigmentation dark spots naturally
Your skin supports you every day, and supporting it back is the best thing you can do to prevent the stressful events that cause hyperpigmentation. Here are some ways you can help naturally limit hyperpigmentation in your skin.
- Avoid sun exposure during peak sun hours between 10 AM and 2 PM
- Use mineral sunscreens because they protect the skin the most against UVA damage!
- Wear UV filtering sunglasses
- Wear long sleeves and hats if you are outdoors for prolonged periods of time
- Supply your skin with antioxidants through quality food and skincare
- Avoid physical trauma to the skin and skin irritation
- Avoid the use of abrasive exfoliants on the skin
- Make sure your skin barrier is functioning properly (this helps prevent irritation!)
- Keeping hormones balanced through diet and lifestyle choices like getting quality sleep
- Avoid the use of combined oral hormonal contraceptives, which can cause melasma in 11%- 46% of women
- Keep lymph flowing smoothly through facial rollers, face yoga, deep breathing, physical exercise, and massage to prevent lymphedema and remove inflammatory cellular waste.
- Do not use aggressive techniques like laser resurfacing of the skin. Laser resurfacing can worsen hyperpigmentation particularly in people with medium to deep skin colors.
- Maintain use of key skincare ingredients like niacinamide to help prevent acne breakouts and resolve post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation
- Look for key natural skincare ingredients like Licorice Root, Vitamin C, Aloe Vera, Green Tea, Gotu Kola, Marine Algae, and Mulberry to keep skin pigment naturally even.
Remember the more protected, healthy, and maintained your cells are, the more even the skin tone will be.
Since we know how important sun protection is to keeping hyperpigmentation at bay we've designed a gorgeous mineral sunscreen that combines UVA/UVB protection with Gotu Kola, Niacinamide, and Blackberry seed oil that is high in linoleic fatty acid. It's called Photonic™ SPF 30 Light Shifting Solution Broad Spectrum Facial Sunscreen and Moisturizer and it offers elegant, easy-to-wear, sensitive skin friendly protection with 80 minutes water resistance.
It's transparent on pale to medium-dark skin colors and leaves skin feeling smooth and healthy. In a 2025 consumer study 96% of people agreed that it did not irritate their skin.
Wear sunscreen routinely to help brighten existing dark spots and keep new ones from forming.
Want to understand the hyperpigmentation process better? Read our article "Darn dark spots! What causes hyperpigmentation on your face and body".
Disclaimer: The information contained on this site is general in nature and for informational purposes. It is not meant to substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professional. None of the statements on this site are a recommendation as to how to treat any particular disease or health-related condition. If you suspect you have a disease or health-related condition of any kind, you should contact your health care professional immediately. Please read all product packaging carefully and consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise, supplementation or medication program. Cosmetic products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.