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Why This Treatment?
I am literally inundated with questions about hyperpigmentation. It is one of those perennial skin concerns that affects so many people, shows up in so many ways, and develops for so many different reasons, that it will always be a major skincare topic: concerns with hyperpigmentation and dark marks are incredibly common. It took four years to get this serum right, and it’s a privilege to create something that will help so many people.
Category Confusion
I’ll start by saying that hyperpigmentation covers multiple marks, but not all marks are hyperpigmentation. So many people have marks of some kind on their skin but don't know what they are, or how to best treat them. I wanted to make the umbrella term of hyperpigmentation more understandable, and at the same time create a formula that would be incredibly broad in its efficacy.
People ask me all the time if their marks are melasma, sun spots, liver spots, or something else. The truth is that many people (including some industry insiders) often confuse pigmentation with hyperpigmentation, and they are not the same thing. Pigmentation refers to the natural colour of your skin, hyperpigmentation is when you have excess visible pigment produced as a response to things such as skin trauma, post-breakout damage, hormone fluctuations, inflammation, UV exposure or sun damage. Whatever the reason your hyperpigmentation has developed, I wanted a formula that tackled them all.
Multiple Marks. One Serum.
Hyperpigmentation happens when the skin makes extra melanin following any of the various triggers above. The trigger sends signals that activate melanocytes (melanin-producing cells) which respond by depositing extra pigment where the skin was injured: leading to brown, tan, or even greyish spots that linger after the wound has healed. This process is mainly triggered by the skin’s natural response to protect itself, but it can become stubborn, especially in deeper skin tones. This serum is clinically proven to reduce dark marks by up to 24% after 8 weeks *.
There are two key groups of hyperpigmentation that this serum targets, but it also tackles red marks. If you have any of these, you need this serum in your routine:
1. Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation (PIH):
Dark spots left after skin trauma or inflammation like acne, eczema, cuts, or insect bites. It’s caused by excess melanin production in response to injury and is more common in medium to darker skin tones (as they naturally have more active melanocytes and higher baseline melanin levels).
2. Lentigines / Age Spots / Sun Spots:
These are flat, brown sun-induced spots that appear over time from extended UV exposure. That’s why you often see older people with lots of sun spots - they have built up over a lifetime of exposure.
Red Marks (Post-Inflammatory Erythema or PIE)
PIE refers to persistent red or pink marks left on the skin after skin trauma, breakouts or inflammation—usually on fairer skin types. When the skin becomes inflamed, the tiny blood vessels (capillaries) near the surface can dilate or get damaged. Even after the inflammation clears, these dilated vessels don’t return to their normal size and can stay visible as red or pink spots Although PIE does not fall under the hyperpigmentation umbrella, this serum works on those too and is clinically proven to reduce red marks*.
*Based on an independent clinical study of 50 participants with visible hyperpigmentation using the product daily over 12 weeks.
Brightening as a Baseline
There are so many regular vitamin C/brightening products out there, and good as they may be, I needed something far more than that. Brightening was the baseline, a bonus, but certainly not the main event. Vitamin C hits one part of the melanin production pathway (tyrosinase inhibition), but I wanted to look at the concern of hyperpigmentation first, then the ingredients/best way to tackle it after.
With this serum we have tackled not one but eight different parts of the melanin production pathway. Although vitamin C is included (3-O-ethyl ascorbic acid is a stabilised form of vitamin C that helps to both reduce hyperpigmentation and prevent it from worsening) - it was critical for me that this wasn’t just a brightening product, but a multihyphenate for ALL marks.
Clever Combinations
It wasn’t just about creating a fantastic singular product either, it was about how this serum could pair with other Skin Rocks products to offer a complete approach— not just to treating hyperpigmentation, but to protect it from happening in the first place and layering it with products that would maximise overall outcomes.
I always wanted an environmental protection product and a specific hyperpigmentation product in the Skin Rocks range, so that multiple formulations could work together in a routine to complement and enhance each other. Having The Antioxidant to protect, plus The Hyperpigmentation Serum and Retinoids to treat - is the ultimate trifecta.
Four Years
This product was one of the longest Skin Rocks developments to date. Stabilising the actives and scaling up the batches were a rollercoaster of tweaks, ingredient balancing and manufacturer adjustments. It’s one thing formulating ‘at the bench’ and having a brilliant lab sample, it’s quite another scaling this up with the manufacturer by matching the exact formula at production volumes. We underwent multiple testing rounds—including one where an ingredient sedimented out of the formula—all part of the behind-the-scenes, unpredictable ‘fun’!
Transformative Results
I definitely asked for more than my usual number of samples from the NPD team. Tackling my stubborn marks was a test in itself, and I knew as they subsided, we had a spectacular formulation.
Seeing our before and after shots were also such a high point for me in terms of backing up our clinicals. The changes are incredible, and the degree of visual improvement was a huge achievement. We even had one of our community testing panel in tears as her confidence had such a boost; a great reminder of why I love this industry so much.
As we usher in the warmer, sunnier months, this is the serum to have in your routine.
Words by Caroline Hirons, Skin Rocks Founder and Skincare Expert
