Cause Having smooth and clear skin is the most important skin care goal for oriental women, however, melasma starts to creep onto the face after middle age. In Asia, 40% of women have melasma. There are many causes of melasma, including sun exposure, pregnancy, endocrine disorders, photosensitive drugs, cosmetics, emotional anxiety and depression, etc. Excessive sun exposure Decreased skin resistance A survey conducted in Harbin, Shenyang, Beijing, Chengdu, Suzhou and Guangzhou shows that the amount of sun exposure received as a child is closely related to the onset of melasma in the future. In layman’s terms, the body’s ability to resist ultraviolet rays is limited. If you over-expose yourself to sunlight as a child, your ability to resist sunlight will be weakened day by day and will be depleted at the age of 30 or so, resulting in the appearance of melasma, freckles, solar freckle-like nevus and other kinds of photoaging pigmentation. In addition, many women neglect sun protection, or even never use sunscreen. Our famous medical aesthetic expert Prof. Yuanhong Li points out that, in fact, if you don’t pay attention to sun protection when you are young, then your skin will gradually be damaged by ultraviolet light and eventually form pigmentation. Some women go out to travel and get exposed to the sun several times in a row, and spots will surface all over their faces. Improper use of cosmetics Skin sensitive pigmentation If hormones and other ingredients are illegally added in cosmetics, once you stop using them, they will form a rebound, leading to the aggravation of pigmentation that is difficult to control. We often see such patients who undergo spot removal treatment in beauty salons, and the effect is very obvious at first, but after a few months, the skin becomes thin and sensitive. Once the spot treatment is stopped or cosmetics are changed, red spots, papules, even edema and exudation will appear, which is typical of hormone dependent dermatitis. There are also some young girls who use functional cosmetics prematurely, which will also cause skin thinning and sensitivity, and form pigmentation. For example, the redness of the skin of a 20-year-old woman after using a strong anti-wrinkle cream (containing a high concentration of retinoic acid) belongs to this category. If the cosmetics used cause skin allergy or intolerance, the skin is always red, which can also form inflammation and hyperpigmentation. Hormonal changes in the body Special sensitivity to light Women are especially prone to melasma after pregnancy, and about 70% of pregnant women develop melasma. This is associated with elevated levels of estrogen (photosensitivity), and melasma can disappear after delivery. However, those women who do not take any sun protection measures during pregnancy will not be able to get rid of melasma after delivery. Emotional anxiety and tension can aggravate melasma if women are nervous and irritable for a long time. Like postpartum and menopause, chloasma is also likely to grow during this period.