Murad Post-Acne Lightening Gel
The Murad post acne lightening gel is a hydroquinone based treatment designed to make the skin lose its pigmentation where applied. It is used for bleaching out moles, sun spots, birthmarks, etc.
It is a questionable ingredient as far as safety is concerned. Hydroquinone has been shown to cause leukemia in mice and other animals. Banned by the European Union in 2001, it is not available legally in any products there, but it is still sold in the United States as an over-the-counter drug. The percentage of 2% concentration is the maximum allowed still in the USA. While this may be OK to use in cosmetics in the USA, we sort of feel like the risks might outweigh the rewards in this case.
Our tester felt it was fine to try the product, so she went ahead and did so. The darkness around her acne scars did start to go away in about 2 weeks. There was no improvement, however, to the texture of her scars or the bumps/holes on her skin. On the other side of the coin, Murad makes no claims that the product will heal the scars themselves, so we were OK with that. However, as an “acne scars removal” product, we have to take into consideration the one-sidedness of the product.
The customer service and ordering process of Murad was fine. They answer the phone right away, and readily had order information and could answer questions and concerns very well. The reputation of Murad products is good , and as far as how they treat the customers, it is well deserved.
Overall, we can’t really complain about how the Murad post-acne lightening gel worked, since it did what it promised as far as bleaching the discoloration out. However, since we are looking for a complete acne scars removal treatment, we have to give it a lower rating. The real downside for us, is the use of Hydroquinone. We really don’t feel like using a product that is banned in some places, and has links to cancer is worth it. Although none of these claims are taken as 100% proven in the USA, the fact that the EU banned it is good enough for most of us to avoid using it. For these reasons we rated this product so low.