Is Meladerm Safe For Long Term Use?
Cat’s question: She wants to know if alpha arbutin, one of the ingredients in Meladerm skin lightener, is related to hydroquinone a skin lightening chemical that has safety concerns. She also wanted to know if Meladerm is safe to use for 2 or 3 months or longer.
The Left Brain Replies:
On Cat’s behalf, we contacted Civant and asked them to help answer her questions. Here is the response from John Connelly of Civant’s R&D department.
Answers about Arbutin
1) Arbutin is extracted from Bearberry (Uva Ursi) and is natural occurring substance, unlike synthetic hydroquinone. Arbutin is present not only in the Bearberry plant, but also found in many plant-derived foods. Arbutin can be converted into hydroquinone when introduced to very alkaline conditions. These conditions however are uncommon and most definitely do not occur on the skin. Gastric fluids are known to be alkaline, but the Arbutin would have to be taken orally for it to enter the gastrointestinal tract. Our product, Meladerm, uses Alpha-Arbutin as opposed to regular (beta) Arbutin. Alpha-Arbutin is considered the most stable and effective form of Arbutin and does not readily hydrolyze into hydroquinone.
Arbutin and hydroquinone each have a different chemical composition and differ greatly in their skin lightening properties. Arbutin inhibits melanin synthesis where as hydroquinone can actually be cytotoxic to melanocytes. Furthermore, Arbutin does not have the associated side effects of hydroquinone. Due to the safety concerns presented by the FDA, we do not use hydroquinone in our products.
2) We suggest discontinuing daily use after 3-4 months. This is generally advisable for all skin lighteners, and not just Meladerm. After a few months of use, you will find that the results will begin to plateau and regular applications will no longer be necessary.
If there are any further questions, please have your readers contact our customer service. For specific product questions, I would advise them to send an email through our website’s contact page. Emailing enables us to direct inquires to our R&D dept and allows the staff some time to fully investigate the questions and provide a thorough and knowledgeable response. Readers should ensure that their contact information is entered correctly so we do not encounter any issues when responding. It’s also a good idea for them to double-check their spam email filtering options as sometimes important emails can be unintentionally deleted by the filters.”
Thanks to Civant for promptly responding to Cat’s concerns. The Beauty Brains are glad we could be of help!
Want lighter skin in as fast as 2 weeks? Click here to try Meladerm skin lightener today!
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Alana Says:
Okay, maybe it’s just me and I’m being a little too picky but I clicked on the Meladerm site and the first thing I read was:
“When I was in high school and college I tanned my skin 4-5 times a week. Now that I am older I realize the horrible damages that sun does to a person’s skin and I have completely stopped tanning. Unfortunately, because I had tanned so long my skin was a lot darker than I wanted it to be. I began using the Meladerm lotion, and the stubborn dark pigment of my skin has drastically become whiter over the past months! I will continue to use Meladerm until the damage of the sun is gone! Thank you. ”
So am I to assume that Meladerm will reverse the damage of tanning? (no silly) It just threw me off and I was wondering if anyone else caught that…
Nisha Says:
just wanted to say thanks for posting about this product. I had never heard of Meladerm before and I tried it after reading about it on your site. It has helped me so much in improving my complexion. My face and body color match now and are a nice glowing tone. Everything about my skin is looking perfect. Really I can’t tell you how much it has helped me.
Jasmina Says:
Just wanted to add that I have been using Meladerm for about 3 months on some dark facial patches and have found it to have minimal effect. I saw about a 15% improvement after about 6 weeks, but then nothing more. I’ll keep it up for another month just to give it a fair shake, but I think there’s more hype than reality in this product. I am suspicious of the wildly enthusiastic reviews like the one above, and think they are either from company shills or people who had very minor problems to deal with in the first place. Would be interested in hearing others’ experiences.
JJ Says:
HI JASMINA. I DONT KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT MELADERM HAS WORKED GREAT FOR ME AND I HAD SOME SERIOUS SKIN PROBLEMS. JUST BECUASE YOU DIDNT HAVE GREAT RESULTS DOESNT MEAN ANYTHING. LOTS OF THINGS WORK DIFFERENTLY FOR DIFFERENT PEOPLE…WE ALL HAVE UNIQUE SKIN TYPES AND SOME INGREDINETS JUST WORK BETTER ON SOME TYPES OF SKIN. THERES NO MEDICINE THAT WORKS 100% FOR EVERYONE. BOTH MY AUNT AND SIS USE MELADERM AND LOVE IT TOO.
Chris Says:
I have used many skin lightening facial products due to severe sun damage I got as a result of over-tanning when young. I think the products work differently for different problems. Someone who is merely trying to lighten previously “tanned” skin may not have as severe a problem as someone like myself who is experiencing hyper-pigmentation in the form of brown “age” spots. I have found only a combination of prescribed products in combination with Retin-A have produced complete removal of the spots.
Sid Says:
I’ve been using meladerm for just over 4 weeks, seems to be lightening dark spots left from acne very very slowly, cant say i noticed results in first 2 weeks, i think its peoples imaginations and expectations more than anything. The thing is I dont know if its the meladerm or my skins natural repair thats causing the gradual and slow lightning (after all hyperpigmentation normally fades unassisted anyway). The biggest problem is when you get a pimple on the hyperpigmentated area which redarkens it. Anyway going to use it another month and post back. Anyone else have any experience??
Janice Says:
I’ve tried to contact Civant Skincare, but it’s impossible to get through to anyone in the sales department (phone orders). Rather than allowing callers to wait for the next available agent, you are asked to call back. Also, I tried 411 info to obtain a non toll free number, but there’s no such listing for Civant Skincare in Auroa, Illinois. I’m really concerned about sending payment to a company that has no business listing. I’m interested in ordering Meladerm, but is this company reliable?