I am struggling with both a bit of cystic acne during my monthly cycle, as well as a lot of melesma/brown spots/hyperpigmentation (whatever you wanna call it). I am sure it is all due to hormone imbalance since going through two pregnancies. ANYWAY, I have heard and read good things/reviews about SkinCeuticals lines..and I see that they have a kit that can help correct all the brown spots I have that really damage my self esteem...and the ingredients seem to be pretty good..but I am no expert. I don't wanna fork out a lot of $$ for something that is going to create more problems than I already deal with such as MORE acne..when ALL I am aiming for is to clear the brown spots and at least not make my acne worse. Please, if anyone can advise me on this line, it would be much appreciated! OR if not, let me know of something that can fix my brown spots that is safe on acneic skin. Thanks =)
What you could try to do before buying the full kit is to request samples from one of their in-store locations. You can find their retailers online. Blue Mercury is one of them if you have that around you. Just beware, however, that if you do buy the full product from them, blue mercury's return policy sucks (as in it's as bad as forever21's). It's a no-refund, only store credit policy.
Other products you could try are NIA24 (has really good reviews online, but I have not tried it myself). Something called the "wonderbar" (there are about 50 pages about this on essentialdayspa and skincarx forums). I personally have been using wonderbar for a week, and I think it is helping to fade these acne marks that are there for about 5 months. But this could just be a placebo effect. The downside to this bar is that it's really expensive (though if you're looking at skinceuticals, I'm assuming this is in your price range), and that after one week's use, the bar looks like it's half way done already!
Anyways, the bottom line is, there are a lot of products out there that claims to remove dark spots, etc. but you need to look into how strong these things are, and whether there is anything backing up those claims.
@prettybow - If you are looking for a company with similar products that will treat hyperpigmentation, erthyma, brown spots, melasma, then you can view Cosmetic Skin Solutions list of products. They have comparable vitamin C treatments to that of skinceuticals. I heard they only manufacture fresh vitamin c serums. The greatest about it is the products are potent, highly concentrated, very effective for use, and the prices are a fraction of the very expensive $$$$$ skinceuticals.