How can I get rid of my age spots — for ever?

Anti-agers no one but you need know about

QI HAVE brown age spots, but lightening creams just make the skin surrounding them whiter, without affecting the spots. What should I do?

APiGMentAtiOn is such a difficult one. Dr Amy Hermon taylor of London’s Medicetics clinic urges you to let a doctor assess whether you’re dealing with sun damageinduced ‘age’ spots or the pigmentation disorder melasma, or indeed something more serious, as treatment obviously differs.

For simple age spots, if you’re caucasian, the likely best course of treatment is laser (£150 for spot treatment, £450 for full face) or intense Pulsed Light (£240 for 15 minutes), both of which can break up the pigment patches painlessly in 1-2 sessions.

For dark Asian or African skin tones, specialist peels and creams are required — but for those to really work, you need prescription products. the two best, she says, are Obagi nuderm (she prescribes a course of 3-6 months’ worth of lotions, from £525) and cosmelan, which consists of skincare, an in-clinic peel, and follow-up appointments over three months (£900).

Go to a clinic or dermatologist that offers a variety of laser and light devices and skincare brands so your treatment will be tailored precisely to you.

Oh — and if you don’t use a broad-spectrum sPF50 every day, you’re washing your treatment money down the drain.

Ingeborg van LotrIngen is beauty director at Cosmopolitan. email questions to inge@dailymail.co.uk.