So my 13 year old cousin was prescribed RA for her acne, and her medical insurance paid for it. She has about 3 tubes and she gave them to me for my lightening regime. But....after a week of mixing it with my bleaching gel, MY SKIN HAS DARKENED!!

Can anybody tell me why???

How are you mixing it? Are you doing it beforehand or just before you apply? It is preferable to do it just prior to aplication. Also you only need a pea sized amount for the face and neck. Any more and you risk over exfoliating or irritating the skin which can cause darkening. It may also be that you are going through a period of where you skin is just about to exfoliate and looks darker before the skin looks lighter once the skin has shed. I personally would slow down and reduce the usage until your skin gets used to the retin a. It sounds like you may be going a bit too quick.

I forgot to ask what you are mixing it with. It could be that you are putting on too many acidic products and this may be why your skin is darkening

I am mixing the Neprosone steroid gel. I was using Neprosone steroid with the HQ version and didn't have this problem at all. That regime actually lightened me very quickly.

And yes I mix it immediately before I apply it.

it is really difficult to say why as there could be a number of reasons. Like yogi mentioned it could be that you are going to fast and you need to reduce the frequency of usage and slowly build up. Sometimes when something is a bit strong for us, the skin fights back and darkens as a form of protection. You did not say what percentage Retin A you are using. Most can only start off at 0.025 or 0.05% without causing irritation. Also only a small amount is needed.


You must also make sure that you are using the very best sunblock. retin A makes you ultra sensitive to the sun and not avoiding the sun and not using a good sunblock can cause darkening as well. Look for a sunblock with zinc in it like devita, soleo, pratima and burnout

OK thanks GothQueen and I use RA 0.1 (the strongest).

Also--have you seen GoldenGirl or Maharani around here lately??

I am not sure what happened to them but they have not been here for a while I think. Not a lot of people can tolerate 0.1% straight off and that is probably why your skin has reacted ike that along with the steroids you are using. I would definitely not use that every day and if needs be you can add a litttle bland cream to it to stop it from being so strong when you use it next time round. I think enticing mentioned the problems he had with his skin using neoprosone so maybe you could check out some of his posts.

So I can mix RA and bleaching creams with regular lotion?? That wouldn't make the lightening less effective??

What you could do is apply a moisturiser maybe an hour after you have used your lightener and ra. I still think you should steer clear of neoprosone and look for something else. Steroids can be too unpredictable