Jun 24

Jun 24 PRODUCT REVIEW: PAULA'S CHOICE CLINICAL DISCOLORATION REPAIR SERUM - BEST BRIGHTENING SERUM, BEST DARK SPOT TREATMENT

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PAULA'S CHOICE | CLINICAL DISCOLORATION REPAIR SERUM

Like a lot of skincare fanatics, I’m excited about all the new brightening and dark spot innovations that have been introduced over the last few months.

Sexy, intriguing brightening actives like Tranexamic Acid and Azelaic Acid seem to be driving the newness.

A few weeks ago, I featured the breakthrough Faded Serum for Dark Spots & Discoloration from indie brand Topicals.

With six power brighteners, Faded is honestly the best dark spot serum I’ve tested. No joke, it’s powered by Niacinamide, Tranexamic Acid, Azelaic Acid, Alpha-Arbutin, Glutathione, Kojic Acid, Licorice Root Extract, Melatonin and Turmeric Root Extract. Faded leaves my complexion lit whenever I use it a few days in a row.

PRODUCT REVIEW: TOPICALS FADED SERUM FOR DARK SPOTS & DISCOLORATION - BEST BRIGHTENING SERUM

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So I’ve been eager to try out the new Paula's Choice CLINICAL Discoloration Repair Serum. With 3% Tranexamic Acid, 5% Niacinamide and 0.5% Bakuchiol, it’s a legit anti-aging and brightening treatment.

But it’s so much more than that — as crazy as it sounds.

Like the Faded Serum for Dark Spots & Discoloration, both Niacinamide and Tranexamic Acid are prominently featured in the formula at 5% and 3% concentrations respectively. While Niacinamide has been quite popular as one of the best brightening actives in skincare, Tranexamic Acid is only just now having its moment in the sun.

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What Is Tranexamic Acid and Is Tranexamic Acid Good for Skin?

Tranexamic Acid is a synthetic amino acid with legitimate brightening benefits when applied topically to the skin. Tranexamic Acid is so hot now, online beauty site Byrdie recently featured what they consider the best Tranexamic Acid serums for brightening the skin in a piece titled, Tranexamic Acid Is the Newest "It" Acid — Here's What You Should Know, available to read here.

But as I so often do, I turned to the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team for their insights on the brightening benefits of Tranexamic Acid in skin care. There’s a terrific (and lengthy!) piece on the site simply titled, Tranexamic Acid For Skin. Here’s what I found most intriguing:

Tranexamic acid is an exciting topical ingredient to fade the look of several types of skin discolorations. Research has shown the effectiveness of this ingredient rivals that of gold standard hydroquinone and is even suitable for stubborn issues like melasma. In fact, nearly 96% of study participants who used tranexamic acid saw noticeable improvement after 12 weeks of daily use when coupled with a broad-spectrum sunscreen, which is essential to prevent discoloration.
Tranexamic acid helps to visibly fade discolorations from sun exposure and it can also:

Fade the look of post-breakout marks of any color, and seems to be particularly effective for dark skin tones
Visibly reduce redness
Fade discolorations that can occur during pregnancy
Target several pathways in skin that trigger discolorations
Be used with any other brightening ingredient

What is Tranexamic Acid in Skin Care?
Tranexamic acid is a water-soluble synthetic ingredient derived from the amino acid lysine. It must be used with oil-soluble ingredients to have it be most bioavailable to skin. Its primary benefit for skin is improving surface discolorations that show up due to sun damage, but it can also help other types and causes of discolorations.
In order to be effective for visibly reducing skin discolorations, tranexamic acid skin care products should contain between 2-5% of this ingredient.. Because topical products targeting discoloration tend to do better with supporting ingredients, it’s best to look for tranexamic acid in skin care paired with other discoloration-improving ingredients, like niacinamide, various forms of vitamin C, and brightening plant extracts such as licorice root. Combining ingredients also ensures better results because each has unique ways of targeting discolorations.

There are soothing actives in the Discoloration Repair Serum too, including Allantoin and Lactobacillus ferment — a probiotic strain that helps to nourish the “good bacteria” in the skin’s surface microbiome to promote skin health.

If you missed my deep dive into microbiome skincare brand Layers this week, be sure to catch it here.

In the article titled, Brands I Love: Layers Probiotic Skincare, I explore the emerging science of the microbiome and new skincare formulated to target microbiome health and, as a consequence, overall skin health.

A scan of the Discoloration Repair Serum INCI and I find numerous antioxidant extracts and plant oils to moisturize the skin and help shield it from environmental damage to preserve skin health.

And that’s really what this formula is all about: skin health.

The Paula's Choice CLINICAL Discoloration Repair Serum is a brightening, anti-wrinkle, pro-skin health treatment that kinda works wonders for the skin. It’s super lightweight and silky, making it easy to layer. But you know what? I’ve found myself not layering it with anything at all. It’s the perfect, quick summer all-in-one-treatment that moisturizes, nourishes, protects and brightens the skin. What else could you need?

Use it on its own twice a day (under sunscreen in the AM!) and you’re good to go…

SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the Paula's Choice CLINICAL Discoloration Repair Serum for $46 here.

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