A glucoside used in our formulas for the look of dark spots and uneven tone. The alpha-arbutin studies we have read tested it alongside other ingredients, so none measured it on its own.

Light in the formula

Alpha-Arbutin sits in our formulas for one job: evening the look of tone. We file it under Brightening in this glossary for the job we use it for, and the evidence section below says how far the studies behind it go.

Light in the melanocyte

The mechanism is the one stated in the summary above, and we have deliberately not extended it. Where a supplier or a competitor would reach for a bigger promise, the sentence we publish stops where the research stops.

Light in the evidence

We do not cite one study as this entry's source. The study previously cited here, Boissy 2005 (PubMed 16026582), tested deoxyArbutin, a different synthetic molecule, so it is not evidence for alpha-arbutin. The alpha-arbutin studies we have read, what they measured and who was in them, are set out in our article on kojic acid and alpha-arbutin. Where we cannot point to a specific study we say so, rather than implying one exists.

Light and its limits

The research behind Alpha-Arbutin studies the ingredient, not the finished Opuliss product it sits in. It is not a trial of our formula, and we will not present it as one.

Cosmetic claims describe how skin looks and feels. Nothing here is a medical claim, and nothing here treats a condition.