Best Dark Spot Correctors | A List That Won’t Break the Bank

It’s a brand new year and with that comes the search for the newest, hottest beauty products of the year. One particular product that many people want to know more about are dark spot correctors. Finding one that works well, is affordable, and doesn’t cause unwanted side effects can be tricky. To help you out, we’ve listed our favorite products below.

Top Choice – Civant’s Meladerm Skin Lightener

Topping the list, as it has for a few years now, is Meladerm, a skin lightening cream from a cosmetics company called Civant. This product has proven to be highly effective at getting rid of stubborn dark spots, unwanted freckles, and even nasty scars left behind from acne breakouts.

Meladerm is currently only sold online. It’s a topical cream that is applied to the affected areas daily. Civant backs this product up with a 30 day money back guarantee. This skin lightener is one of our absolute favorites and comes highly recommended.

How Do We Build a List of the Best Dark Spot Correctors?

As I mentioned above, there’s just too many to test them all. You have to decide how to reduce the list to a reasonable number and just test those.

Here’s the factors I like to use:

• reviews I’ve found done by others
• number of sites that have decided to sell the product
• affordability
• easy to find list of ingredients
• company discloses where they manufacture and isn’t on naughty lists like the Better Business Bureau
• return policies that are reasonable
• available on Amazon.com

Most of these criteria should make sense to you. If not, here’s why I think each is critical.

Other Online Reviews and Customer Testimonials

Women are NOT shy about product reviews.  I never buy anything without looking for reviews online!

My favorite sources for beauty product feedback are Ulta and verified purchases on Amazon. There are other places too, but I almost always ignore testimonials on the product maker’s website – just because it will be hard for them to be impartial and they can make sure negative input is removed from their site.

Believe me, once you’ve read a few thousand beauty products reviews, you begin to know what legit ones sound like. And dark spot correctors often get before and after pics from real buyers… super helpful.

Online Popularity & Product Availability

First, the more places you can find the product online, the more popular it already is.  Does that mean it’s more effective?

No, but you won’t find a really great dark spot corrector on Page 7 of Google Search.

There’s just too many women who need hyperpigmentation treatment. So, if a cream is REALLY good, the demand will explode very quickly.

Is the Price Right?

If one skin lightener with 4.6 stars on Amazon and costs $25, and a different one is only available on the manufacturer website for $200, don’t you get pretty skeptical?

I shop at Amazon.com all the time.  In fact, I just read that 100 million American households now have Amazon Prime.

Let’s face it.  That one website can save thousands a year for a family budget. I love that.

It also puts every dark spot correctors on a single page, ranked by real customer reviews. So if your product is $200 and doesn’t have way higher reviews than a $25 Cream, which one do you think I’m trying?

Exactly!

I’m proud to say that I’d rather save money for my family budget than shop somewhere snooty. And I try products that look reasonably priced these days.

Show Me a List of Ingredients

I’m a label reader.  If you can’t tell me what’s in your cream, I’m really not interested in it.

And there are things in skin lighteners, like a Hydroquinone, that you need to know about.

I can’t tell you what’s dangerous because I’m not qualified. But I’m in charge of what goes on, and within, my family’s budget and I take the responsibility seriously.

Are You Trustworthy?

Every once in a while, I get a certified letter from a manufacturer who threatens me over a review I’ve published. Those are fun (and my husband hates them).

But here’s why I don’t worry about them.  Before I do any review, I scour the internet for EVERY THING I can find about a product and its manufacturer.

I save all the dirt I find. And if the product really does turn out to be junk, I call it like I see it.

You’d be surprised by what a manufacturer will try to suppress.  But their attorneys always slink away when they get a return letter from me with printouts of all the slime I’ve saved about them.

Caveat emptor (buyer beware) is a valuable life philosophy for food, beauty products and a whole lot more).

What is Your Return Policy?

There are two things that make beauty products tough to review. One is that no two creams, lotions or serums work the same for everybody.

Your skin is not like my skin.  The dark spots on my face won’t necessarily change if I use Cream A… but yours might.

So, a good solid return policy is something worth looking for.  I like the policies that say you can use the product first, and then send it back if you don’t see results.

I mean, what’s the point of a 30-day return window if the manufacturer says you won’t see results until you’ve used it 2-3 months?

I’m going to tell you a secret just below that will save you a ton of money.

But don’t ever sleep on the return policy, especially with beauty products that are up in that $100+ range (or come in sets/kits that can cost hundreds of dollars)

Can I Buy it on Amazon.com?

There are two reasons that I love seeing a product available on Amazon. Do I always buy there? No, but I do almost always… and here’s why.

First, how often do you shop for something where Amazon’s price isn’t the best? Can’t be often!

If you have your eye on the family dollar, Amazon is an important way to save money without limiting your options. And their subscribe and save program is impossible to beat.

AMAZON TIP

Considering Amazon’s sheer size, you might think it’s tough to get help when a product doesn’t work out for you.  But that’s not true.

Amazon is staffed by an amazing customer service team that goes out of their way to keep you happy! Honestly, it must be the best customer satisfaction training program in history!

So, how does this help you?

Well, let’s say you buy a skin lightener and it just doesn’t work. You’re not happy, but the manufacturer return policy doesn’t apply on Amazon.com purchases.

First thing you’ll want to do is make sure you’re calm.  You’re going to contact Amazon support to either return the product to them or get a credit…

BUT it’s only going to;work if you’re calm, cool, collected… and polite.

People are just people. So if you want an exception made, you want to be exceptional when you ask for it.

I’ve had them send me prepaid return labels to send back $100 dollar products.  I’ve even seen them just apply full or partial credit as a gift card to an account (you can keep or throw away the bad product).

The reps are clearly trained to keep you happy.  I can’t prove it, but I suspect that the more you buy from Amazon, the more they’ll do to keep you pleased.

Just. Be. Kind.

Final Thoughts on this “Best Of” Breakdown

Somewhere on this list, there’s an answer to your dark spots.  It might not be Meladerm or StriVectin TL, but those two are where I’d start.

I might be inclined to buy Meladerm directly from their site to get the easy return policy the first time around. But then I’d use Amazon after that if it works for you as well as it did for us.

Some of these creams are on and off Amazon for reasons I can’t really figure out. Just try to make sure you shop for the best return policy the first time you try one.  Then switch to wherever the price is best after that.

This lift is current as of now, but we will keep it updated.  The two biggest categories on our site are dark spots / skin whitening and acne treatment. New products are coming all the time, so check back for changes.

And thank you for the time you spend reading our reviews and buying/trying beauty products from our links. Your questions and comments always help us improve.