My apologies to those of you who were looking for the wrong serum after my milk and spots post yesterday; it’s actually called the La Roche-Posay Biomedic Pigment Control serum. You can find it at Escentual and at Boots.com, so pretty easy to get hold of, and I have found it to be really very effective at brightening my skin up and helping to fade the marks left by last year’s spots. After I’ve done another week or so with my current regime, I’ll show some before and after pictures – I got a bit obsessed with documenting my skin changes and it’s quite interesting to see the difference.

La Roche-Posay’s Pigment Control Serum is for helping to treat skin that’s uneven in tone or has dark spots and areas of brown pigmentation. Now I’d say that the first thing to do, if you suffer from any discolouration like this, is to ensure you’re protecting your skin adequately from the sun. SPF during the day (one with niacinamide in it would be good – off the top of my head (one that’s on my desk!) is Olay’s Regenerist Lotion SPF15, see here) and if you’re on hols, a wide-brimmed hat to protect your face. Boring, I know, to have to lug a great big hat everywhere, but worth it. There are many ways to bronze up a face with beauty products, but not so many to get rid of deep-seated discolouration, especially if you keep on blasting it in the hot sun.

I have to admit that I don’t have any dark spots as a result of sun damage or hormonal changes, but the marks left by my spot problem in the last half of 2012 were fairly prominent. I say were because they are getting fainter by the week, which is marvellous. Though the serum hasn’t eradicated the marks completely (and I’m using a few other things in the routine, too, which I’ll go into in more detail when I’ve finished the products up) my skin is clearer and brighter. It is similar in effect to Liquid Gold, I think, though people who like to use a serum and cream at night might prefer this. You can follow it with any moisturising cream, really – I’ve been using the one pictured, from Institut Esthederm, because I felt as though my skin was a little dehydrated from the central heating – but you could use your normal night cream.

The Pigment Control Serum uses glycolic acid (yes, it would be wouldn’t it? You’re talking to a BIG glycolic fan here) as well as kojic acid and LHA to help cell turnover and limit melanin transfer in the skin. It’s an effective little cocktail and, as I said, I have seen a definite change in clarity and some fading of my little marks. However (here’s the big BUT) I do think that if you have very severe discolouration or “masking” due to hormonal changes, it’s worth seeing a specialist and determining whether you need to take a specific course of action. There’s only so much that beauty products can do and whilst the formulas are getting ever more advanced…they can’t do everything. When it comes to dark spots, acne, eczema and rosacea, if you feel it’s affecting your confidence or it’s physically uncomfortable, then better to spend your money on a consultation first before caning hundreds and hundreds of pounds on products that will have some effect, but perhaps not the full effect.

Does that make sense? I hope so! Back on topic: I think that this is a great offering from La Roche-Posay. I harped on about the Effaclar Duo for getting rid of those pesky surface spots and it works a treat, but if you’re looking for a first hit on those little dark marks, this is well worth a go. As I said, pictures soon, but not until I’ve finished the bottle. Which seems to be taking ages, by the way! 30ml goes far…

The serum is actually on offer at Escentual at the moment, it’s £24.65 instead of £29 and you can find the page here