There are three different things people call dark spots, and they do not respond to the same treatment.

Sun damage. Flat brown spots, usually on the cheekbones, forehead, nose, and the backs of the hands. Accumulated over decades and often visible only from your forties, though the damage was done much earlier. These respond well and relatively quickly.

Melasma. Larger, symmetrical patches across the cheeks, upper lip, and forehead. Hormonally driven, triggered by pregnancy, birth control, or perimenopause, and made worse by heat as well as light. This is the difficult one, and anyone promising to clear it permanently is overpromising.

Post-inflammatory pigment. The marks left after a breakout heals, ranging from pink to brown to grey depending on your skin tone. Not scarring, and it does fade, though it takes months without help.

Getting this wrong is expensive. Aggressive resurfacing on melasma can darken it, and the wrong approach on post-breakout marks means treating pigment while new breakouts keep making more. Which is why I want to look before recommending anything.

What is actually happening

Melanocytes sit at the base of your epidermis and produce pigment to protect the cells above them. When they are triggered, by UV, by heat, by inflammation, or by hormones, they overproduce and deposit pigment unevenly.

The depth decides the difficulty. Pigment near the surface lifts relatively easily with resurfacing. Pigment sitting deeper in the dermis, which is common in melasma, is far more stubborn and does not respond to surface work alone.

Southern California makes it worse. Year-round UV, plenty of it incidental. Driving, walking to the car, sitting near a window. Most of the sun damage I see was not acquired at the beach.

Heat is a trigger too, not just light. This surprises people with melasma. Hot yoga, saunas, and standing over a stove can all darken it, which is why SPF alone sometimes is not enough.

At home, where this is won or lost

I will say it plainly because it is the single most important thing on this page. If you are not wearing SPF every single day, including in the car and in winter, no treatment here will hold. Pigment returns faster than it lifts.

Beyond that, brightening works by consistency rather than strength. Something used every day for four months outperforms something stronger used sporadically. Browse the brightening collection, though I would rather tell you which one before you buy it.

The Rituals bundle the routine in order, and The Protocols are the medical-grade version once your skin can take it. If you want thirty days of structure with daily guidance from me, that is The Boutique Glow Method.