The shelves are flooded with acids these days—glycolic, salicylic, mandelic take your pick—but the best tranexamic acid serums have something different to offer. For the unfamiliar, tranexamic acid is an ingredient long used in medicine, but it’s only gotten recent buzz for its abilities to brighten skin and even out tone. It joins brightening agents like niacinamide, vitamin C, and kojic acid, but has the unique ability to help address more stubborn sources of discoloration, like melasma.
Vogue’s Favorite Tranexamic Acid Serums:
- Best Overall: SkinCeuticals Discoloration Defense, $110
- Best Mature Skin: Remedy Nightly All-in-One Treatment for Dark Spots, $38
- Best for Sensitive Skin: Naturium Tranexamic Topical Acid 5%, $20
- Best for Acne-Prone Skin: Vichy LiftActiv Specialist B3 Serum, $45
- Best for Dry Skin: PCA Skin Pigment Gel Pro, $128
- Best for Acne Scars: Topicals Faded Brightening and Clearing Serum, $38
- Best for Melasma: SkinMedica Even & Correct Advanced Brightening Treatment, $178
In this Article:
- What is tranexamic acid?
- What are the benefits of tranexamic acid?
- What form of tranexamic acid is best?
- What is the best percentage of tranexamic acid for skin?
- How to use tranexamic acid
- Meet the experts
Incorporated into some of the best-loved serums for hyperpigmentation, tranexamic acid stands out for its ability to complement other ingredients while working in a novel way to halt excess pigment production, which is often to blame for dark spots and brown patches on skin. With that, consider these formulas that highlight the ingredient to attain brighter, more radiant skin.
Best Overall: SkinCeuticals Discoloration Defense
- Why We Love It: Multiple dermatologists point to SkinCeuticals Discoloration Defense as an unbeatable formula for hyperpigmentation. “Tranexamic and kojic acid work together to reduce hyperpigmentation and niacinamide strengthens the skin barrier,” says Mina Amin, a board-certified dermatologist in Los Angeles; she also likes that it’s free of fragrance and hydroquinone. And despite having three potent ingredients to target pigmentation, this serum isn’t irritating, according to New York–based board-certified dermatologist Carmen Castilla.
- Key Ingredients: Tranexamic acid, kojic acid, niacinamide
- Best For: All skin types, but especially sensitive skin
- Size: 30 ml
Best Mature Skin: Remedy Nightly All-in-One Treatment for Dark Spots
- Why We Love It: Formulated by fellow dermatologist Muneeb Shah, Dr. Amin appreciates this formula “contains a lot of key ingredients to brighten dark spots,” she says, pointing to the 0.1% encapsulated retinol along with mandelic acid, kojic acid, niacinamide, licorice root, and tranexamic acid. Lest that sound too intensive, “it is free of fragrance and irritating ingredients,” she says. “The combination of all these ingredients together really help brighten the skin.”
- Key Ingredients: Retinol, mandelic acid, kojic acid
- Best For: Signs of sun damage
- Size: 1 fl. oz.
Best for Sensitive Skin: Naturium Tranexamic Topical Acid 5%
- Why We Love It: This serum puts tranexamic acid in the spotlight with a relatively high 5% concentration, where it works to “help reduce the look of dark spots and helps support the skin barrier,” says Dr. Amin, adding that she appreciates that this too is fragrance-free. Because it’s formulated without exfoliating acids, there’s little to no chance of irritation or sensitivity to sunlight.
- Key Ingredients: Tranexamic acid, kojic acid, niacinamide, licorice root extract
- Best For: All skin types
- Size: 30 ml, 60 ml
Best for Acne-Prone Skin: Vichy LiftActiv Specialist B3 Serum
- Why We Love It: More than a sum of its parts, Dr. Castilla likes the niacinamide-tranexamic duo that this serum offers. They “can work synergistically to fade hyperpigmentation, while glycolic acid functions as an exfoliant enhancing the penetration of the other actives and also helping to brighten skin,” she says. That glycolic acid can also help keep skin clear of breakouts, making this helpful for active blemishes and acne scars alike.
- Key Ingredients: Niacinamide, glycolic acid
- Best For: All skin types, but especially acne-prone skin
- Size: 1 oz.
Best for Dry Skin: PCA Skin Pigment Gel Pro
- Why We Love It: Designed to be a gentler alternative to hydroquinone, this serum deploys a combination of hyperpigmentation-targeting ingredients—tranexamic acid, licorice root, and niacinamide—with complementary actives that help level up its benefits. It gets “exfoliating properties from the lactic acid, which helps with penetration, but also contains skin barrier support with hyaluronic acid and skin-calming bisabolol,” says Dr. Castilla. That makes it potent enough to even target the brown patches that arise on skin due to hormonal changes.
- Key Ingredients: Tranexamic acid, licorice root, niacinamide, lactic acid
- Best For: Hormone-related hyperpigmentation
- Size: 1 oz.
Best for Acne Scars: Topicals Faded Brightening and Clearing Serum
- Why We Love It: Intended specifically for all skin tones, Topicals Faded Serum calls on a gentle (but no less powerful) lineup of azelaic acid, niacinamide, kojic acid, and tranexamic acid to address all forms of discoloration. It’s a boon for those with oily skin, too, as niacinamide helps control oil production and azelaic acid works to decongest skin. Keep in mind: It’s fragrance-free, but has a noticeably strong (and somewhat polarizing) scent.
- Key Ingredients: Tranexamic acid, azelaic acid, niacinamide, kojic acid
- Best For: All skin types, but especially acne-prone or oily skin
- Size: 1.7 fl. oz.
Best for Melasma: SkinMedica Even & Correct Advanced Brightening Treatment
- Why We Love It: SkinMedica's serum is one of the few products that has been clinically proven to improve melasma, a notoriously stubborn (and chronic) condition that can be difficult to manage. About 9% of the formula comprises a complex of lotus sprout extract, tranexamic acid, and niacinamide. Phytic acid gently refines skin texture, while vitis vinifera—derived from grapes—helps replenish moisture and smooth fine lines.
- Key Ingredients: Tranexamic acid, niacinamide, lotus sprout extract
- Best For: Melasma and mature skin types
- Size: 2 fl. oz.
Best for Uneven Skin Tone: Allies of Skin Tranexamic & Arbutin Advanced Brightening Serum
- Why We Love It: Perhaps you have a dedicated exfoliator in your routine, or you simply find exfoliation potentially irritating to skin. Whatever the reason for eschewing it, this Allies of Skin serum is the rare formula that doesn’t pair tranexamic acid (at 3%) with an exfoliating agent. Instead, the ingredient works alongside 2% alpha-arbutin, a plant-derived antioxidant, as well as licorice root, peptides, and red algae. Together, they promise brighter skin quickly—and without compromising comfort.
- Key Ingredients: Niacinamide, reishi mushroom, tranexamic acid
- Best For: Sensitive or sensitized skin
- Size: 1 fl. oz.
Best for Skin of Color: EADEM Cashmere Peel Gentle Exfoliating AHA Toner
- Why We Love It: Melanin-rich skin tends to be more sensitive, leading many potent hyperpigmentation products to inadvertently worsen matters. That’s not the case with this thoughtfully designed toner, which pairs chemical exfoliants—alpha-hydroxy acids and their gentler cousins, polyhydroxy acids—with soothing ingredients. Colloidal oatmeal helps quell any requisite inflammation, while tranexamic acid works to fade spots.
- Key Ingredients: Lactic acid, gluconolactone, tranexamic acid
- Best For: All skin types, but especially sensitive skin
- Size: 5.07 fl. oz.
Best for Nighttime: 111Skin Dark Spot Correcting Serum
- Why We Love It: While this overnight serum delivers tranexamic acid and niacinamide—a requisite pairing at this point—what sets it apart is the brand's proprietary NAC Y2 complex. It’s a combination of vitamin C, escin, and N-acetylcysteine, which work together to stimulate the skin's production of glutathione, an antioxidant that interferes with pigment production. In other words, it sets your skin up with its own in-house brightening agent.
- Key Ingredients: Tranexamic acid, niacinamide, NAC Y2
- Best For: All skin types, but especially mature skin
- Size: 1.01 fl. oz.
Best for Dark Spots: Lion Pose Unspotted 4X Acid Jelly Night Serum
- Why We Love It: Not for the faint of heart—nor the exfoliation newcomer—the Lion Pose Unspotted 4X Acid Jelly Night Serum indeed contains the titular four acids—namely, azelaic, glycolic, lactic, and tranexamic acids. They make for a powerful treatment that evens out skin tone and texture alike, leaving it smoother and brighter. While it does contain nourishing ingredients, among them hyaluronic acid, Centella asiatica, and aloe, it’s still a potent solution that may be too intensive for sensitive types.
- Key Ingredients: Azelaic acid, glycolic acid, lactic acid, tranexamic acid
- Best For: Age or dark spots
- Size: 1 fl. oz.
What is tranexamic acid?
Not to get too in the weeds, but tranexamic acid is a modified form of lysine, an amino acid. “In skin care, it’s used for its brightening effects to improve discoloration and melasma,” says Dr. Castilla. “Its skin benefits were discovered by accident when tranexamic acid was used for another medical purpose.” (In fact, it’s FDA approved to help prevent blood clots and reduce excessive bleeding, making it a common ingredient among surgeons and gynecologists,)
Another point of differentiation: Although it contains the word “acid” in its name, it doesn’t have the same exfoliating properties as, say, glycolic, lactic, or salicylic acids, according to Dr. Castilla. “The term acid refers only to its chemical structure,” she says.
What are the benefits of tranexamic acid?
Tranexamic acid’s primary benefit is brightening skin, even for conditions that are notoriously tough to treat—like melasma. It blocks pathways that lead to the overproduction of melanin, or the brown pigment in skin, says Dr. Castilla, and can also help fade post-inflammatory erythema, which are the red spots that can linger after pimples heal.
