25/08/2026
If you have this pigmentation on your face, you need to read this.
You see that dark line around the side of the eyes, extending towards the upper cheek?
A lot of people call it sunburn.
But the particular one Iâm talking about today is a pigmentary demarcation line, and if you have been using whitening or bleaching products, especially for a long period of time, I want you to pay attention to what Iâm about to say.
Because the interesting thing about this pigmentation is that, most times, it didnât just appear one morning.
There was a story before the darkness.
Let me explain.
When you buy all these products that are usually recommended to you as whitening face creams, and even most of the âorganicâ products we have out there that are marketed as safe and natural and good for your skin, you start using them.
And sometimes, initially, everything looks fantastic.
Your skin looks brighter.
Your complexion looks lighter.
You are happy.
Then you stop using the cream.
And suddenly, your skin gets into trouble.
You start developing rashes.
You start itching.
Your skin may become very sensitive.
Some people develop fungal problems such as tinea versicolor, which we commonly call eczema.
You start seeing all sorts of things.
And then you say:
âAh! Maybe my skin doesnât like other products.â
In fact, I saw a particular post where a woman was giving her vendor, her âorganicâ cream vendor, thumbs up for the cream she sold to her.
She was basically saying that anytime she stopped using her cream and tried another one, her skin would develop rashes.
So she concluded:
You are the one that understands my skin. It is only your cream that doesnât give me rashes.
Do you see the problem?
The absence of an obvious reaction while youâre using the product becomes the proof that the product is good for you.
Meanwhile, the reaction you get when you stop should actually make you pause and ask questions.
Because a product causing your skin to become dependent on continuous use to remain ânormalâ is not something I want you to automatically interpret as the product understanding your skin.
Now, letâs come back to this pigmentary demarcation line.
You continue using the product.
And sometimes, before that dark line becomes obvious, there has already been irritation happening in that area.
Redness.
Sensitivity.
Sometimes dryness.
Sometimes you may not even pay attention to it because you are more interested in the fact that your face is getting lighter.
But the skin is responding to the irritation.
And when that irritation keeps happening over and over again, you can eventually end up with post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.
That is one of the reasons these areas can become so dark and so stubborn.
Now look at where it happens.
Around the eye.
Along the side of the face.
Towards the upper cheek.
So you now have this very obvious line where the skin looks darker in one area and different from the surrounding skin.
And what do we do?
We call it sunburn.
Then somebody recommends another whitening cream.
Then another one.
Then somebody says, âUse this one at night.â
Another person says, âMix it with this.â
And before you know it, you are putting five different things on the same area because you are trying to remove the pigmentation as quickly as possible.
Please donât do that.
Because if the original problem involved irritation, continuing to irritate the skin while trying to correct the pigmentation can keep you going around in circles.
This is why, when Iâm looking at something like this, I donât just look at the dark colour and say, âOkay, letâs remove the pigment.â
I want to know what happened to the skin first.
So the first thing is to remove the product that is contributing to the problem.
Then we work on barrier support.
And please donât underestimate this part.
Everybody wants the cream that will make the dark mark disappear.
Nobody wants to hear about repairing the skin barrier because it doesnât sound as exciting.
But if your skin is irritated, sensitive and compromised, I donât want to be throwing aggressive pigment correcting ingredients at it simply because you are impatient to get rid of the darkness.
We calm the situation down.
We support the barrier.
Then we can become more intentional about correcting the pigmentation.
And this is where a properly selected depigmenting treatment comes in.
Not every depigmenting product is suitable for everybody.
And strong does not automatically mean âbetter.â
The formulation matters.
The ingredients matter.
The concentration matters.
How often you use it matters.
And most importantly, the condition of your skin before you introduce it matters.
Then we have sunscreen.
And this one, I really want people to understand.
If you are trying to correct hyperpigmentation and you are not taking sun protection seriously, you are making the job harder.
You cannot be intentional about treating pigmentation at night and then spend your day exposing your skin without proper protection and expect the process to be straightforward.
So the way I approach this is not:
Your face is dark. Letâs find the strongest bleaching cream.
No.
It is:
Stop the irritation.
Support the skin barrier.
Correct the pigmentation appropriately.
Protect the skin consistently.
That is a completely different approach.
And if you are interested, I can do another post where I will show you some properly formulated depigmenting products that can be used when managing this type of pigmentation, and I will explain what I like about them and how I would think about using them.
Because I donât want to just throw a list of creams at you.
I want you to understand why you are using them.
And one more thing before you go.
Please donât expect a pigmentary demarcation line that developed after months or years of repeated irritation to disappear because you used one new product for five days.
Pigmentation can be stubborn.
Sometimes the skin needs time to recover from the inflammation before you even start seeing significant improvement in the colour.
So if you have this line on your face and youâve been calling it sunburn, look at the history of your skin.
What were you using before it appeared?
Was there irritation before the pigmentation?
Have you been using a whitening or bleaching cream for a long time?
Have you been changing products because you thought your skin was âreactingâ to everything else?
Because sometimes, the answer to why your skin looks the way it does is sitting right there in the products youâve been using.
Your skin didnât just wake up one morning and decide to give you that line.
There is usually a story behind it.
Debbie Ibiyemi
