A natural alternative to the now illegal Hydroquinone..

Cellulite treatments

Want to reduce wrinkles but don’t want to use hydroquinone to do it?  Well, there are some natural solutions to removing wrinkles, making those age spots disappear and making your skin even. All this said, your best results will still come from beauty products containing hydroquinone.   But the problem with finding these products if you live outside the U.S has been they are illegal and therefore only available on the black market .  And even if you can get hydroquinone, there are studies that suggest that it could cause cancer. .  Do you have any other choices available? Fortunately, you do.  Alpha Arbutin.

Alpha Arbutin is a natural derivative of hydroquinone.  In other words, it does the same thing as prescription strength hydroquinone and should there be used with the same care.  A-Arbutin and Hydroquinone work to reduce wrinkles and lighten the skin because they inhibit tyrosinase from catalyzing melanin, the chemical in our body responsible for the creation of pigment.  And it isn’t just AA that can naturally do this.  You can find other natural ingredients that can whiten your skin and in effect, do the same exact thing, such as bearberry extract and blueberry extract.  Both are natural alternatives to hydroquinone because they essentially are watered down versions of the chemical.

A-Arbutin is probably not as well received as beta arbutin because it was just recently discover.   But clinical tests have shown that this chemical derived from a common weed found in Canada is more effective for skin whitening and treating age spots than any of the other skin lightening ingredients such as glycolic acid, kojic acid and salicylic acid. And as far as other natural skin whitening herbal ingredients, A-A out performed them all.    In study after study, Alpha arbutin was found to be over 20x more effective than any other bleaching ingredient other than hydroquinone.

What does this mean to you, the consumer? 

Alpha arbutin may not be as effective as hydroquinone, it is less dangerous and may not pose as much of a risk for various cancers.  From an all-natural perspective, it outperforms all other bleaching agents found organically including bearberry extract, licorice extract and even beta arbutin and benzoyl arbutin.  The downside is that clinical research has not determined whether it can cause cancer like Hydroquinone.

The downside to alpha arbutin is that it is very expensive to manufacture and therefore the expense is transferred to you, the consumer .  The cost of alpha arbutin can be as low as $15 an ounce to as high as $100 but this largely depends on who is manufacturing it and what other ingredients are in the beauty product as well.