The Pigmentation Guide
Which kind of pigmentation is mine? Freckles, sun damage, melasma and post-acne marks, told apart
Most facial pigmentation is one of four kinds: freckles, sun damage, melasma or post-acne marks. You can usually tell them apart by what caused them, when they appeared, and whether they fade in winter. Each one needs a different approach, so naming yours correctly is the first real step.
Brown marks on your face are easy to lump together and hard to tell apart. Most people arrive at the question the same way: something has changed, or something has not faded the way they hoped, and they want to know what it actually is before they spend money trying to address it.
The good news is that facial pigmentation almost always sorts into one of four kinds. Freckles, sun damage, melasma, and the marks left behind after acne each have a different cause, a different pattern, and a different answer. Telling them apart is not about a clinical eye so much as a few honest questions about your own skin.
This guide walks you through those questions, side by side, and points each answer toward the page you need next.
What are the four kinds of facial pigmentation?
Almost all of it falls into four groups. The table below is the fastest way to place yours, and the sections underneath unpack each one.
| Kind | What causes it | When it appears | Fades in winter? | Permanence | Where you see it | Where it routes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freckles | Genetic predisposition plus UV | Childhood, peaks in teens and twenties | Yes, lightens in winter and darkens in summer | Can be cleared with laser | Bridge of nose, cheeks, shoulders, arms | Freckle treatment |
| Sun damage / age spots | Cumulative UV exposure over years | Often from the thirties onward in Australia | No, stays put year round | Permanent without treatment, can be cleared | Face, décolletage, backs of hands | Sun damage treatment |
| Melasma | Hormones plus UV, heat and genetics | Twenties to fifties, often around pregnancy | No | Chronic. It can be managed but not permanently cured | Symmetrical patches across cheeks, forehead, upper lip | Melasma treatment |
| Post-acne marks (PIH) | Inflammation, usually from acne | After a breakout or spot has cleared | No | Fades slowly on its own, can be faded faster. Pigment, not a scar | Wherever the acne was | Melasma treatment page and the hub |
The single most useful column is the one most people skip: does it fade in winter? Only freckles do. If your marks lighten in the cooler months and darken again each summer, you are almost certainly looking at freckles. If they sit there unchanged through the year, you are looking at one of the other three, and the next questions sort out which.
Is it freckles or sun damage?
These two share a cause family. Both are driven by UV, both are brown, and both live on sun-exposed skin, which is exactly why they get confused. The difference is what the UV has done to the pigment-producing cells underneath.
Freckles are the pigmentation you were predisposed to. Your skin type produces more melanin when sunlight reaches it, so you see small, flat, well-defined spots, usually one to two millimetres, often clustered across the nose and cheeks. They appear in childhood, peak in your teens and twenties, and follow the sun: lighter in winter, darker in summer. The cell count underneath is normal. The cells are simply busy.
Sun damage is the pigmentation you have accumulated. Years of Australian sun have changed the pigment cells in specific spots so that they now produce colour permanently. These spots are larger than freckles, often five to twenty millimetres, more defined, darker, and they do not fade when summer ends. They tend to get darker over time, not lighter. In Pink's patients they show up most on the face, the décolletage, and the backs of the hands.
Both freckles and sun damage respond well to treatment, and both can be cleared. Pink treats them with the Fotona StarWalker MaQX, Q-Switched, using 532nm for pigment near the surface and 1064nm for anything deeper, with the SP Dynamis Pro added for heavier photodamage. Freckles typically take 3 to 6 sessions; sun damage usually lands at three to four, published as up to six to keep expectations honest. New spots can still form with future sun exposure, which is why daily SPF is part of holding the result rather than a one-off fix.
For the deep side-by-side on this exact pair, including how age spots fit in, read freckles versus age spots.
Is it melasma, and why does that change everything?
Melasma is the one that catches people out, because at a glance it can look like stubborn sun damage. The tell is in the pattern and the history.
Melasma shows up as larger, symmetrical brown or brown-grey patches, most often spread across both cheeks, the forehead, and the upper lip, rather than as discrete spots. People describe it as a "shadow across my cheeks," a "pregnancy mask," or "sun damage that just keeps coming back." That last phrase is the giveaway. Sun damage does not keep coming back once it is cleared. Melasma does, because it is not really about a single dose of sun.
Melasma is a chronic pigmentation disorder driven by a combination of hormones, UV, heat, visible light, and genetic susceptibility. It often arrives or worsens during pregnancy, on the contraceptive pill, or with hormone therapy, and it involves pigment at both the surface and deeper layers of the skin. This is the part that changes the whole approach: melasma is a chronic condition. It can be managed but not permanently cured. It can be reduced, kept quiet, and improved, but it asks for ongoing care rather than a one-off clearance.
That honesty matters, because melasma is where the wrong expectation does the most harm. Treated as though it were sun damage, with aggressive one-pass settings, melasma can flare and darken. Pink manages it with the Fotona StarWalker MaQX, 1064nm Nd:YAG at low fluence, as part of the Signature Melasma Protocol, usually around six sessions and then maintenance, paired with sun protection and trigger control. The low-fluence 1064nm approach is also why this is suitable for darker skin tones, Fitzpatrick IV to VI, where melasma is most common.
If the symmetrical-patches-that-keep-returning description sounds like you, the melasma treatment page is the right next step.
Are those marks after acne (PIH), not scars?
If your brown marks sit exactly where spots and breakouts used to be, you are most likely looking at post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, or PIH.
PIH is the dark mark left behind after acne, or any skin inflammation, has cleared. The inflammation switches the pigment cells into overdrive in that one spot, and the colour lingers after the spot itself is long gone. The most important thing to understand is the thing most people get wrong: PIH is not a scar. It is pigment, and pigment is treatable. A scar is a change in the skin's texture, an indent or a raised area. PIH is flat, and it is colour only.
That distinction is worth holding onto, because a lot of people quietly accept their marks as permanent acne scarring when they are nothing of the kind. PIH fades on its own over months, sometimes longer, and the right treatment can fade it faster. It is more common and more stubborn in darker skin types, which produce a stronger pigment response to inflammation, and those are exactly the patients who are most often told their skin is "too complicated" for laser.
Pink treats PIH with the Fotona StarWalker MaQX, 1064nm Nd:YAG at low fluence, the same wavelength and gentle setting that make it suitable for Fitzpatrick IV to VI. Marks are faded and reduced, not "removed," and active acne is settled first so the treatment is not chasing new marks as it goes. There is no standalone page for it, so PIH routes to the melasma treatment page and the pigmentation hub, where the same low-fluence approach is described.
One quick note on colour. If the marks left after acne are red or pink rather than brown, that is a different thing called post-inflammatory erythema, which is vascular rather than pigment. That one belongs with The Veins & Redness Guide. Brown marks are pigment and stay here.
When is it actually a mole or spot to get checked?
Most facial pigmentation is cosmetic and harmless. Some of it is not, and that line is worth drawing clearly before any cosmetic treatment.
Flat brown pigmentation that has been stable for years is one thing. A spot that is new, changing, growing, asymmetric, oddly coloured, itchy, or bleeding is another, and that one belongs with a GP or a skin-check clinic before anyone points a laser at it. Raised spots and moles also sit outside cosmetic pigmentation treatment and may need a medical assessment first. None of that is a reason for alarm; it is simply the right order to do things in.
Pink does not treat a pigmented lesion cosmetically until it has been medically cleared. If you are weighing up whether a mark is a freckle or something raised that should be looked at, the live guide on freckles versus moles, and GP or laser walks through exactly how to make that call.
What does each one need?
Once you have named yours, the path is fairly clear.
- Freckles are cleared with the Q-Switched StarWalker MaQX, usually over 3 to 6 sessions, with SPF holding the result. This is as much preference as correction; plenty of people love their freckles and simply want them lighter. See freckle treatment.
- Sun damage is cleared the same way, often in three to four sessions, with strict sun protection afterward so new spots do not form. Spots on the backs of the hands are treated the same way freckles are. See sun damage treatment.
- Melasma is managed rather than cured, with the 1064nm Nd:YAG low-fluence approach and the Signature Melasma Protocol, around six sessions and then ongoing maintenance. The honest framing is the point: it can be kept quiet, not switched off.
- Post-acne marks (PIH) are faded and reduced with the same gentle 1064nm setting, after any active acne is settled, with the reassurance that they are pigment and not permanent scars.
You do not have to arrive at a final diagnosis on your own. Naming the likely kind is enough to choose your next step, and a proper assessment confirms it. See how Pink approaches each kind of pigmentation on the pigmentation hub, where the four conditions are mapped against the right approach for each.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can pigmentation be dangerous, and when should I see a GP?
Most facial pigmentation is cosmetic and harmless, but any spot that is new, changing, growing, asymmetric, oddly coloured, itchy, or bleeding should be assessed by a GP or skin-check clinic before any cosmetic treatment. Raised spots and moles also need medical clearance first. A good clinic will not treat a pigmented lesion cosmetically until it has been checked. When in doubt, get it looked at before anything else.
Why does some pigmentation fade in winter and some doesn't?
Freckles fade in winter and darken in summer because they are a direct response to UV reaching the skin. Sun damage, melasma, and post-acne marks do not follow the seasons in the same way, so if your marks lighten in the cooler months and return each summer, they are most likely freckles. Marks that sit unchanged through the year point to one of the other three kinds.
Why won't my pigmentation fade no matter what I do?
It depends on which kind you have. Sun damage has structurally changed the pigment cells in those spots, so they do not fade on their own and usually need treatment to clear. Melasma keeps returning because it is a chronic condition driven by hormones and UV rather than a single sun exposure. Post-acne marks do fade, but slowly, often over many months, which is why they can feel permanent when they are not.
Is it the same treatment for all four kinds?
No, and this is the main reason naming yours correctly matters. Freckles and sun damage are cleared with a Q-Switched laser. Melasma is managed with a gentler low-fluence 1064nm approach because aggressive treatment can make it worse. Post-acne marks are faded with that same gentle setting once any active acne is settled. The right approach depends entirely on the condition.
Can I have more than one kind of pigmentation at once?
Yes, this is common. Many people have freckles and sun damage together, or melasma alongside marks from past acne. When more than one kind is present, the assessment sorts out which is which and sequences the approach so that the management for melasma is not undone by treating something else too aggressively. A proper skin read is the way to untangle an overlapping picture.
Does laser treatment for pigmentation hurt?
Most people describe pigmentation laser as a series of quick, warm pinpricks rather than something painful, and the sensation passes quickly. Comfort varies from person to person and depends on the area and the kind of pigmentation being treated. Your clinician talks you through what to expect before starting and checks in as they go.
Is laser safe for my skin tone?
Yes, when the right device and settings are used. Pink uses the Fotona StarWalker MaQX with a 1064nm Nd:YAG low-fluence approach for melasma and post-acne marks, which is what makes it suitable for darker skin tones across Fitzpatrick IV to VI, where those conditions are most common. If you have been told your skin is too complicated for laser, that usually points to the wrong device rather than your skin.
What's the first step to know which kind I have?
The first step is a proper assessment, where a clinician reads your skin and confirms what the marks actually are before recommending anything. You can narrow it down yourself using cause, onset, and whether your marks fade in winter, and that is enough to point you to the right page. A short consultation then confirms the kind and maps the approach.
See how Pink treats each kind of pigmentation
You do not need a diagnosis to take the next step. Once you have a sense of which kind is most likely yours, see how Pink treats each kind of pigmentation on the pigmentation hub, where the four conditions are mapped against the right approach for each.
For the deeper pairwise comparisons, see freckles versus age spots and freckles versus moles, and when it's a GP or laser question.
