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Bearberry extract turns up more and more often in skincare. This edible red berry (which is a favorite food of bears – hence the name) has long been used in herbal medicine. It contains something called arbutin, which is a natural skin brightener.
Arbutin, alpha arbutin or bearberry extract are in Dermalogica's Chromawhite and Meladerm, Arcona Instant Magic Reversal Serum ($105) and La Vie Celeste Restorative Rose Hydrosol Eye Cream ($60 in the shop). So what is bearberry extract and its arbutin component and how effective is it?
First a skin pigmentation 101. Skin color is the result of a number of different things. Haemoglobin is responsible for red and bluish tones, carotenoids for the basic yellow tinge of us Caucasians, while brown comes from a couple of pigments that are produced in special cells called melanocytes. Lurking around in melanocytes are enzymes called tyrosinase. They get activated by UV light ultimately form melanins - we are talking freckles and age spots. This is where arbutin comes in - it works by blocking tyrosinase.
Alpha arbutin is a glucoside and potion makers like it because it is water soluble and stable. But more importantly, it seems to work. A one-month study on 80 Chinese women, using a 1% alpha arbutin concentration, resulted in a "skin lightening effect". It was faster and more effective than kojic acid (another commonly used skin lightener) and it left hydroquinone in the shade. This is particularly good news because hydroquinone, once the most popular lightener/brightener around, is carcinogenic. It is banned from over the counter sale in the US, Europe and Japan.
Alpha arbutin, on the other hand, doesn't appear to have any nasty side effects. However, it is still a form of hydroquinone and questions about its long term safety hang in the air. Anecdotally, it is much less irritating to the skin than hydroquinone at similar or even greater doses.
As well as bearberry, a few other plants harbor arbutin. One is dockweed (a plant that most kids know as an emergency cure for nettle rash). Bearberry is especially interesting because it has sun protection properties and may reduce the degree of skin tanning after sun exposure.
Ingredients in Restore: Reverse osmosis water, ascorbyl tetraisopalmitate (vitamin c), alpha arbutin, ppg5 ceteth-20, vitamin B5, dimethyl isosorbide, niacin, spin trap (phenyl butyl nitrone), vitamin e, c10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer, sodium hyaluronate, polysorbate-20, Lipochroman-6 (dimethylmethoxy chromanol), triethanolamine, paraben du