Skin Guidance Report
- Client
- Sana
- Age
- 26
- Concern
- Pigmentation
- Location
- Lahore
What we noticed
Sana, the patches across your cheekbones are symmetrical, and they sit in the same pattern on both sides. That symmetry matters, because it separates melasma from the post-acne marks you mentioned worrying about. The two respond to very different things.
Your barrier also looks stressed. You described stinging with vitamin C, and there is visible redness around the nose in your second photograph. That tells me we start gently, not aggressively.
You mentioned four hours a day commuting. Combined with a car window on your right side, that is almost certainly why the right cheek is a shade darker.
Start here
If you do only one thing for the next two weeks: sunscreen, every morning, including indoors and in the car. Everything else on this page depends on it.
Morning
- Gentle non-foaming cleanser. Yours is stripping, which is feeding the redness.
- Niacinamide serum. Not vitamin C for now. It irritated you, and niacinamide works on pigment without the sting.
- Light moisturiser — gel or fluid.
- SPF 50, reapplied on commute days. A tinted one helps, because visible light drives melasma too.
Evening
- Same cleanser, used properly. Thirty seconds, not five.
- Azelaic acid, three nights a week to begin.
- Moisturiser with ceramides.
Avoid for now
- Vitamin C serums
- Scrubs
- Brightening creams
- Hot water
- Adding anything new
What to expect
- Weeks 1 to 2. Redness settles. Pigment unchanged, and that is normal.
- Weeks 3 to 6. Skin tolerates azelaic acid better. Edges of patches soften.
- Weeks 8 to 12. Visible lightening, if sunscreen has been daily.
- No change by week 12? Message me. That is information, not failure.
When to see a doctor
If any patch changes shape, develops an irregular border or bleeds, see a doctor rather than waiting. Nothing in your photographs suggests that, but it is worth knowing what to watch for.