Product Review: Kiehl’s Photo-Age High-Potency Spot Treatment

As my devoted readers know, I’m highly dedicated to my Skinceuticals CE Ferulic.  However, as a student, there are just some months my budget can’t stretch to make it (and believe me, I pulled hard)!  So when a reader recently sent me the brand-new Kiehl’s Photo-Age High-Potency Spot Treatment ($49.00, Kiehls.com), I figured that I might as well try it under my sunscreen for 30-plus days.  After all, the preliminary data looked great:  According to Kiehl’s in-house clinical studies, 89 percent of women reported more even skin tone and 96 percent saw more overall radiance within four weeks of daily use.

The key ingredient in Kiehl’s Photo-Age High-Potency Spot Treatment is vitamin C, which is present in this product as ascorbyl glucoside.  Developed by Hayashibara International, ascorbyl glucoside is vitamin C as L-ascorbic acid bound to glucose.  Once ascorbyl glucoside enters the skin, it is broken down into L-ascorbic acid and glucose by the naturally-occurring enzyme alpha-glucosidase.   According to research from Hayashibara International, ascorbyl glucoside lasts two times longer than L-ascorbic acid alone on average, due to the molecule’s greater stability in heat, light, the presence of oxygen, and at certain pH levels.  This is a great thing, too, considering that Kiehl’s Photo-Age High-Potency Spot Treatment comes in a screw-cap tube, regularly exposing the cream to light!   I can honestly say, however, that the cream has not changed color at all after one months’ use, indicating the vitamin C has remained relatively stable.

Another key ingredient in Kiehl’s Photo-Age High-Potency Spot Treatment is ellagic acid.  Long noted to be a naturally-occurring potent antioxidant in strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries, ellagic acid first came onto the scene in the mid-eighties as it demonstrated anti-tumorigenic activity in the skin of mice.  However, interest in the dermatologic community truly spiked around 2000, when it was demonstrated in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science that ellagic acid could inhibit tyrosinase in mice, inhibiting melanogenesis, and hence preventing the repigmentation of treated skin.  Kiehl’s addition of ellagic acid to the product is therefore well-founded and somewhat novel, as not many hyperpigmentation treatments on the market today include the ingredient.

A final key ingredient is salicyclic acid.  Cosmetically speaking, salicyclic acid in as little as 1-2% concentrations has been reported to improve signs of aging including wrinkling, roughness, and mottled pigmentation in as little as 6 months application.   In this product, a major benefit of salicyclic acid is that it may help the other ingredients penetrate the skin better, thereby increasing their efficacy.

Personal Use and Opinions

I’ll admit it – I’m hooked on skin serums, and in general, the less substantial and more self-absorbed they are, the more I like them.  (Kind-of like the guys I had crushes on before I met my boyfriend.  But that’s a different type of blog entirely.)  So, despite the great research and ingredients behind Kiehl’s Photo-Age High-Potency Spot Treatment, I was initially less-than-thrilled to feel its thicker, silicone-based formula.

Eventually, however, I started to realize that the consistency and silicone-base of Kiehl’s Photo-Age High-Potency Spot Treatment made it a really great makeup primer.  I mean, yes, I still had to put sunscreen over it in the morning (of course), but if I was running out to dinner at night, it was a great way to get the cosmetic benefits of a makeup primer while still treating sunspots and feeding my skin key antioxidants.

The best part of Kiehl’s Photo-Age High-Potency Spot Treatment came subtly, at a friend’s birthday dinner, about three weeks after I started using the product.  A fellow med student was asking me questions about skin care (cleansers, actually), and then she looked at my skin and asked what I was currently using.  “You’re glowing!”  What can I say.  I was sold.

The Bottom Line

I’ll be completely honest:  It is entirely doubtful that you will ever get the results from this product that you could get from, say, prescription-strength hydroquinone, a dermatologically-administered chemical peel/targeted laser treatment, or even the new Lumixyl.  But, if you’re not in a rush and you are on a budget, I will say that the ingredients in Kiehl’s Photo-Age High-Potency Spot Treatment make it as good as almost any other over-the-counter hyperpigmentation treatment I’ve seen on the market today.  So I’m sticking with it, at least until I have the funds to restock my Skinceuticals CE Ferulic every month.

What are your favorite hyperpigmentation treatments?  Have thoughts on this or any other Kiehl’s product?  Let me know in Comments!