What Vitamins Are Good for Skin Pigmentation?

Your skin's pigment is important to helping protect your skin from the sun's rays. Pigment levels can vary among individuals and ethnicities. They can also form discolorations on parts of the skin where pigment clusters, coagulates or disperses from. These discolorations can be lighter or darker than your normal skin tone and can vary in severity. But you can treat discolorations and overall pigment health, and function can benefit from a steady supply of certain vitamins.

One of the most important vitamins to your skin's overall health is vitamin C, which plays a key role in the production of collagen in your skin. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant and works to brighten the skin's tint, but its value to skin pigmentation is its tyrosinase inhibitors. These inhibitors help prevent enzymes in your body from creating excessive amounts of melanin--your skin's pigment--in response to a skin injury such as overexposure to sunlight. This can cause dark splotches on the skin in areas that were harshly burnt by sunlight.

Hyperpigmentation is the darkening of skin in certain parts of your body. This skin problem can develop from overexposure to sun but also can be caused by numerous diseases. One such cause is a vitamin B12 deficiency. Vitamin B12 helps regulate your skin's pigment production and location, thereby preventing hyperpigmentation from plaguing your skin and ruining your complexion. The best way to take vitamin B12 is as a vitamin supplement or part of a multivitamin.

Vitamin A has several functions as a treatment for your skin, and one of its benefits is the ability to treat blotchy skin resulting from slight discolorations in the pigment. Vitamin A can be found in creams as a way to even out the tone of your skin. You can also purchase vitamin A as a supplement to take orally.