How to Get Rid of Dark Spots on Your Face

Whether you’ve got acne or sun damage, some skin concerns don’t go away quietly—many leave dark spots behind. But figuring out how to get rid of dark spots can be just as challenging as solving what caused them in the first place. They’re hard to hide and slow to fade. And some, like in the case of melasma, can be a long-term issue.

But there’s good news: A little treatment can go a long way, especially if you know what led to your hyperpigmentation. Here’s everything you need to know about how to get rid of dark spots for all skin types.

What are dark spots?

A dark spot is an area of extra pigment in the skin, Carmen Castilla, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in NYC, tells Glamour. They can come in a variety of forms, including age spots, sun spots, and melasma.

Though they often fade in time, skin-care products like dark spot correctors can speed up the process of evening out your skin tone. Ingredients like hydroquinone, turmeric, and other proven brighteners in particular accelerate skin resurfacing and minimize pigment, says Rachel Nazarian, MD, a board-certified dermatologist at Schweiger Dermatology Group in New York City.

What causes dark spots on your face?

Not all dark spots are created equal. The answer depends on the type of dark spot, of which there are three main causes, says Ted Lain, M.D., a dermatologist at Sanova Medical in Austin.

Small freckles or slightly larger spots are the result of sun exposure. If you have acne-prone skin, you may already be familiar with post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation a.k.a acne scars, which is a dark spot that occurs when your pigment production goes on the fritz after any sort of inflammation in the area, be it breakouts or some other skin injury (like pimple picking). Lastly, there’s melasma, which presents most often as dark discoloration on your cheeks, forehead, nose, and chin; it can be triggered by sun exposure or hormonal changes, which is why many women develop it during pregnancy, says Miami dermatologist Alicia Barba, M.D.

While their originating sources may differ, these dark spots all have one major thing in common: inflammation, which “can trigger your skin to produce pigment,” says Lain.

At-home treatments for dark spots.

Good news: You’ve got a lot of treatment options, including home remedies, skin care tools, and over-the-counter products.

Ingredients for dark spots

There are three classes of ingredients that help fade dark spots. First up: tranexamic acid, which targets that inflammation. Second is another class of ingredients that blocks the cell’s engine that produces pigment, according to Lain: “These include hydroquinone, kojic acid, licorice extract, and arbutin.” Vitamin C is also in this category. And last, there are the exfoliators to remove the pigment that’s already on your skin, such as glycolic, lactic, and salicylic acids.

It’s not enough to pick just one from that list. “Focusing on one of the classes of ingredients mentioned above is the most common mistake,” says Lain. You need to have an all-encompassing approach to take down dark spots quickly. And by quickly, we’re talking a few weeks—though there’s no set amount of time. “Improvement speed depends on the cause of pigmentation,” says Barba. “Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation from acne, for example, takes about four to six weeks to fade after acne is controlled.”

The exception here is melasma. “Melasma pigmentation is chronic, and this is the hardest point to drive home in my patients when they suffer from melasma,” Barba says. ”It’s a constant tug of war.”