Drunk Elephant C-Luma™ Hydrabright Serum for skin with dark spots

How to apply

Questions and answers

What the research says

• A single application of a moisturizing fluid containing hyaluronic acid 1%, glycerin 5%, and Centella asiatica stem cells extract significantly increased skin hydration by 29% and reduced transepidermal water loss at 24 hours compared to baseline and an untreated control site in twenty healthy women.

  Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 2017

• Treatment with ascorbyl glucoside-arginine complex lotion significantly decreased pigmentation scores and melanin index while increasing lightness in solar lentigos of Japanese females compared to placebo over 24 weeks.

  International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2024

• Ascorbic acid 2-glucoside gel significantly reduced gingival melanin pigmentation after 4 weeks compared to placebo in 73 subjects with symmetric pigmentation.

  Journal of Periodontology, 2009

• Topical oxidized glutathione significantly decreases the skin melanin index and improves moisture content, smoothness, wrinkle formation, and elasticity compared to placebo in healthy women.

  Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 2014

• Topical application of 5% vitamin C cream significantly improved global clinical scores, increased skin microrelief density, and induced elastic tissue repair in photoaged skin compared to excipient control in healthy female volunteers.

  Experimental Dermatology, 2003

• Topical application of VC-IP cream twice daily for 8 weeks reduces periorbital wrinkles in female subjects compared to a placebo cream.

  Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 2022

• Topical treatment with 5% vitamin C and 0.1% madecassoside significantly improved clinical scores for wrinkles, suppleness, firmness, roughness, and skin hydration, along with functional and structural remodeling of the elastic fiber network in 20 female volunteers with photoaged skin after 6 months compared to baseline.

  Experimental Dermatology, 2008

• Topical application of 0.1% hyaluronic acid formulations of different molecular weights led to significant improvements in skin hydration and elasticity, with low-molecular-weight formulations also significantly reducing wrinkle depth in seventy-six female subjects compared to a vehicle control.

  Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, 2011

• Topical application of hyaluronic acid in conjunction with free gingival graft significantly reduced donor site postoperative pain until day 7 compared to normal saline, with no significant differences in graft dimensions or patient satisfaction.

  Clinical Oral Investigations, 2022

• Treatment with a hyaluronic acid-containing mouth rinse or topical gel led to significant lesion reduction, pain relief, and normalization of lesion color in adult patients with minor recurrent aphthous stomatitis, with the gel formulation showing an earlier healing onset at 3 days.

  BMC Oral Health, 2019

• Glutathione amino acid precursors effectively increase cellular glutathione levels, reducing oxidative stress, ATP depletion, and DNA damage in human keratinocytes, clinical subjects, and ex vivo skin compared to controls.

  Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, 2024

• Topical glutathione improves hyperpigmentation, reduces ultraviolet-induced erythema and wrinkles, decreases transepidermal water loss, and enhances antioxidant capacity.

  The Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology, 2025

• RayGel reduced skin reaction severity with a lower average score of 93.7 compared to 123.3 for the placebo group in patients undergoing whole breast external-beam irradiation.

  American Journal of Surgery, 2005

• Squalane at 0.005-0.015% counteracts UVA-induced oxidative stress, inflammation, and collagen metabolism inhibition while stimulating fibroblast migration in human dermal fibroblasts.

  Molecules, 2025

• Plant-derived squalane protected human dermal fibroblasts against UVA-induced damage by counteracting ROS formation, suppressing apoptosis-related proteins p53, caspase-3, caspase-9, and PARP, and restoring the pro-survival p-Akt/mTOR pathway.

  Antioxidants, 2025

Why other serums fit skin with dark spots better

• Niacinamide significantly decreased hyperpigmentation and increased skin lightness compared with vehicle alone after 4 weeks of use in women by inhibiting melanosome transfer.

  The British Journal of Dermatology, 2002

• Treatment with 14% ferulic acid and 12% l-ascorbic acid significantly reduced pigmentation and erythema while improving hydration and elasticity in 20 women with photoaged skin, with neither acid proving definitively more effective overall though ascorbic acid showed slightly greater skin lightening.

  Dermatologic Therapy, 2022

Ingredients

Water, Propanediol, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Glycerin, Isodecyl Neopentanoate, Squalane, Neopentyl Glycol Diheptanoate, C9-12 Alkane, Sodium Polyacryloyldimethyl Taurate, Ascorbyl Glucoside, Coco-Caprylate Caprate, Sclerocarya Birrea Seed Oil, Pullulan, Sclerotium Gum, Diglucosyl Gallic Acid, Sorbitan Sesquiisostearate, Glutathione, Hyaluronic Acid, Sorbeth-30 Tetraisostearate, Dipropylene Glycol, Phloretin, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Metabisulfite, Ppg-8-Ceteth-20, Gluconolactone, Acrylates Beheneth-25 Methacrylate Copolymer, Citric Acid, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Silica, Lecithin, Xanthan Gum, Tocopheryl Acetate, Sodium Hydroxide, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Benzoate, Chondrus Crispus Extract

Behind this fit score

Lovi calculates every fit score from the full ingredient list with brand-independent rules our dermatologists and cosmetic chemists build and review, and personalizes every pick with AI trained on the real results of millions of users. Lovi trains its fit score models on a proprietary dataset built from more than 10,000 expert-labeled products and more than 100,000 simulated examples, following an internally consistent methodology presented at Cosmoprof, AMWC, and Skin of Color Update.