Skin Lightening with Plants and Vitamins - Update

It's been a while since I started this case study on skin lightening with vitamins and plants. We are following 2 ladies: 'B' is in her 30's and looking to fade some miscolorations on her face around the eye and cheek area, and 'C': a lady in her 50's, is looking to fade age spots on her hands. The intention was to photograph both ladies each week and post the results and feedback from both. As luck would have it, life (and incredibly demanding ingredients) decided to get in the way of these plans. We've run into a couple of snags, and several batches.

Batch 1, 2, 3 - Go!

The first batch was a basic cream formula. It presented me with a pH that needed adjusting which, in turn, created texture issues that didn't show up until after a couple of days.

After tweaking the formula and trying again, the second batch was an improvement, but the texture of the cream still needed work. After being too runny, it was now too tacky-feeling. Perplexing, seeing as I started with a cream base formula that I have done many times without problem.

I'll only behave if you treat me
like royalty!

Prima Donna Ingredients

The problems are all due to the cocktail of active ingredients in this product – from C-vitamin to a mix of 7 herbal extracts. Some of the ingredients are brand new versions of previously tried ingredients (the C-vitamin), and others (the herb extracts) are being combined in a way I haven't tried before. All in all, this particular combination has decided to throw up roadblocks right and left.

Back To The Drawing Board

To peel everything back even barer basics, I decided to start from scratch and switch to a gel base, but even this presented fresh challenges – the texture was (again) too runny. To add to the fun, these active ingredients require bottling in airless containers immediately after being incorporated into the base product. All in all, it's been a bucket of worms so far, but it looks like we may finally be on track with a product that has a pleasant texture and (almost) behaves as it should.

Now We Start (we hope)

With all of the re-dos, my ladies haven't really had the opportunity to properly use and test Lighten Up for a continuous period of time – until the latest gel version which was delivered to both of them this past week.

We should – hopefully – be able to continue this case study in the coming weeks. If not with pictures, then with more 'exciting' descriptions about what else went wrong with the formula.