Lactic Acid, A Gentle Acid For Your Skin

The Egyptian princess Cleopatra bathed in milk to maintain the smooth and silky beauty of her dark skin. Milk, Cleopatra discovered, is a wonderful agent for exfoliating and rejuvenating skin.

Even in the first century BCE, Cleopatra regularly bathed in pools of milk to maintain her legendary beauty. Milk, as scientists would learn nearly 1800 years later, is a rich source of lactic acid, which is one of the alpha-hydroxy acids.

This natural skin lightener used to even out your skin tone, is also taken from buttermilk, yogurt, and sour cream.

Lactic acid is also useful in lightening and helping to even out the skin tone of African-American skin. Unlike many other skin lighteners, it does this by “loosening up” the dead cells that cover the top of the skin and allowing the healthier, younger, less pigmented skin cells to emerge from below.

Because lactic acid is very slow to penetrate the skin, it is much less likely to cause inflammation or irritation that other skin lighteners.

Lactic acid does more than just exfoliate dead skin. It stimulates elastic fibers in the dermis of the skin. This gives the skin more flexibility, and it relieves wrinkles and scars. Lactic acid also stimulates the growth of collagen, making the skin resistant to cuts, scratches, and scrapes and giving it smooth texture.

Like all skin lighteners used to even out the skin tone for African-American skin, if there’s pain, you do not gain. Never attempt to “peel” your skin to lighten it.

Always use lactic acid formulas that leave your skin feeling maybe a little tingly for a few minutes, but never cause your skin to be irritated or inflamed.

If you experience irritation or inflammation, try a different product.

Dedicated To Your Beauty,

Juliette Samuel

Esthetician/Author/Publisher

Nyraju Skin Care