Hey everyone!

I have a client who called me this morning because she noticed a spot of pigment showed up above her upper lip.

She came in for a tx two weeks ago (light glycolic facial,  nothing different than what we usually do).  She then tried out a serum and SPF (Lightening Serum and Matte SPF from Image), liked them and purchased a few days ago.

She called to ask if the lightening serum could have caused the hyperpigmentation above her lip.  She said that many, many years ago, she had melasma/pigment issues from BC pills, but that she hadn't seen the spots in a long time, and the one above her lip she just noticed.

I had her come in so I could see the spot, and confirmed that I didn't see that spot during her facial 2 weeks ago, so now I'm puzzled.  Its light, very light, brown, uneven borders, about dime-sized.  I could barely see it in normal light.

The Image Lightening Serum uses kojic acid and a lot of natural lighteners and brighteners.  Its one of my most popular items, and I've never seen anything like this before.  It goes against what the purpose of the serum is, and frankly, there's nothing in it that could cause pigmentation.

I have had one melasma client say that immediately upon putting the serum on, her pigment seemed darker at first, then began to look better and better...

This client that called today does not wax her lip, she uses sunscreen (we've been testing 2 different ones, in fact, over the last 2 weeks to see which she likes better).  She's not in BC pills, not pregnant AFAIK.  I even looked at her chart to see if I had done extractions in that area and possibly caused PIH, but, no, she didn't have clogging there.  And then, after seeing the spot this morning, it definitely doesn't look like PIH from extractions. It looks like a sun spot (not red, but brown).

I gave her 3 different options of what she could do, and she seemed OK with my suggestions (1. I could return the product; 2. she could take a break from the serum and see what happens with the spot, 3. continue to use the serum as it should work to lighten that spot.)  With either suggestion, I will see her in a week when her full size SPF comes in and I will reevaluate.  She said she liked the serum, the feel of it, etc, but didn't know what else to blame the pigment spot on since the serum and spf were all that changed.

Any thoughts??