I'm of Southeast Asian descent. My complexion goes from anywhere to coffee with milk to pecan pie. When I started using this product I was somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. I got this because I have always had hyperpigmentation on my body from everything. Scratching, cuts, bug bites. It's so bad that I actually considered getting whatever the equivalent of tattoo sleeves are but for legs. The permanent kind. The scars were piling on and on and I finally got fed up enough to do something about it.I noticed a difference within the first three uses (I read that in so many reviews but thought it was a load of crap until it happened to me too). I brush my teeth first in the shower so my skin has some time to soften up from the steam. Then I lather up and wait for what I think is three minutes. Then use an exfoliating glove and hot water to rinse off. I'm lazy and can't be bothered to use it everyday, but I did keep track of when I did and didn't use it. Right away my skin lightened up to the lightest end of my skin spectrum. I was legit freaked out because I wasn't trying to lighten my skin, only fade the scars. Then I realized that I was so shocked because I have been tanning for years, YEARS, to hide all the hyperpigmentation, that I no longer even recognized my own natural skin tone! The next thing I noticed was that in addition to all of my accumulated years of hp, there was also a lot of sun damage and that I even have the dreaded "strawberry legs!" I know this sounds terrible, and believe me I wanted to cry when I realized how bad I had let my skin get, but I persevered.I finished the two bars then tried another brand, now I'm back to this brand but the papaya version. My skin is sloooooowly getting better. The sun damage gets lighter and lighter with each use. My skin tone is evening out, even if I don't necessarily see my specific scars fading. It did help with an old acne scar/bump that's been on my nose since at least 2016 and is barely detectable now. I also had a scar from a weird bite, also on my beautiful face, that has improved tremendously. I definitely catch myself in the mirror and am surprised to see smoother skin looking back at me. I have a long road ahead, but I am so grateful to this product and others like it which I know will help.I haven't tried the pure kojic soap bc I'm afraid it'll be too irritating, so I cannot compare this to that. Both the Vit C and Papaya bars smell pleasant, but Papaya smells sooooo much better.I would also like to add that for this particular product I used it on it's own, just with a rich moisturizer. For the next set of bars I added Palmer's fade cream (which you should only use for three months before taking a three month break). Now, with the papaya bars I am using the retinol body oil from the Chemistry which is AMAZING.Anyway, I know this is a long af review, but I hemmed and hawed about these $10 bars for a year before trying them. A year! If you're thinking about it, the worst that can happen is you end up paying too much for soap that doesn't work one time in your life. But hopefully it will work for you like it has worked for me. <3
