Think this is just a myth? Think again. Black skin gets dry or ashy faster than white skin because of a problem called Trans Epidermal Water Loss.

Here's the science: 

The very outer layer of black skin is denser than lighter skin, so the cells are packed together more tightly. While this gives us better protection from damage and infection, it creates another problem.

Because the gaps between cells are smaller, it's harder to absorb water on the surface of our skin so it evaporates quickly. And this is made even worse because in order to keep this protective layer in good condition, black skin also replaces these surface cells faster and that means more dead cells are lost, and the water in those cells is lost too.

So ashiness isn't just because black skin is darker, so it shows up more (that's what a lot of people think). It's really because of this super protective layer on the very surface of our skin that makes it hard to absorb water deeper into our skin and stay moisturized.

The dark color in our skin is melanin, but did you know that melanin is produced in a specific cell called a melanocyte? These melanocytes look like little octopuses and they sit right at the bottom layer of our skin, with their arms reaching up between some of the cells above

Now the part of a melanocyte that produces melanin is larger in black skin, because we need more melanin. It makes sense, right? But this also creates a specific problem.

Because it's larger, it gets irritated much more easily and guess what happens when it gets irritated?

It starts over-producing melanin which is why we develop dark spots. The melanocytes are irritated and the reaction is that all this excess pigment is produced. That's what our dark spots are; it's our larger melanocytes reacting to irritation from chemicals in products and from friction in areas like our inner thighs. 

Because a lot of skin care products are designed and tested on white skin, they contain ingredients that cause this irritation in our melanocytes and lead to dark spots. These ingredients don't affect lighter skin because their melanocytes are smaller and don't react the same way.

And it's almost impossible to avoid these ingredients in most skincare products:

Ethanol - in thousands and thousands of skincare products but it's pure irritation for black skin.

Sodium lauryl sulfate - a very popular cleansing ingredient that not only strips away natural oils from our skin's surface, but also irritates our melanocytes and increases dark spots.

If these are in any part of your intimate care routine (and they probably are), then they're not helping your dark inner thighs - they're making them worse

The first step is removing all these irritating ingredients - that's the easy part.

But a lot of products sold as "natural" or "gentle" are really just weak products. They don't irritate your skin, but they don't help it either.

Remember that thick outer skin layer we talked about? If your product isn't designed to pass through that, then none of the ingredients actually get absorbed deep down where they're needed. They just sit on the surface, doing nothing, until they get rubbed off. Just a big waste of time and money.

You need something specifically created for black and brown skin that avoids all the most irritating ingredients that cause dark spots to form, but is still able to get through our strong protective outer skin layer and deliver moisture right where you need it.

We created The Melanin Skin Bundle to give you the perfect 5 minute skin care routine for black and brown skin, no other products required.

It's specifically designed to protect your melanocytes from irritation to stop further damage, to clear up dark spots on your inner thighs, underarms and bikini line, and to lock in moisture so you glow all the way through the day.

And this is how it works: