Skin can darken for all sorts of reasons: Sun exposure, scarring and a host of dermatological disorders can all affect skin tone.

The lily of the desert, the aloe vera plant, is a plant with topical and oral value. Both the gel and the juice are beneficial, but come from different parts of the plant and have specific and vastly different uses. Talk to a trusted health care adviser before using aloe vera as an oral or topical medicine.

When the collagen and elastin in your skin tear, it forms scars known as stretch marks. Many factors and conditions can cause the marks to form, including weight gain and pregnancy.

Vaseline traces its roots to the 19th century, when Brooklyn chemist Robert Augustus Cheeseborough first developed it as a natural remedy for skin abrasions in 1869. Petroleum jelly is a mixture of paraffin, microcrystalline wax and mineral oil.

Melanin is a natural pigment that gives people their skin color. If too much melanin is produced in one area, hyperpigmentation or a “brown spot” can occur. Brown spots can be flat or raised, round or oval, and can appear anywhere on the skin, alone or in groups.

Bronzer tanning bed lotions are used to enhance a tan by making the skin appear darker or tan faster. These types of lotions also are known as tanning accelerators. After it's applied, the lotion reacts with the skin to increase the body's production of melanin, the pigment in skin.

At 35, you might be experiencing some of the inevitable skin conditions that come with age. These include wrinkles, sagging skin, paleness, thin appearance, age spots and dryness.

Freckles and dark spots on your face are the result of sun exposure. Also called age spots, they occur when production of melanin, which is the dark pigment of your skin, is accelerated by ultraviolet light. Most of the time they are harmless, but you may want to remove them for cosmetic reasons.

Most people know the health consequences of smoking, but cigarettes do more than cause damage to your lungs and heart. The nicotine in cigarette smoke can leave nasty-looking stains on your fingers.

After having a lesion on your skin, it can be a serious relief once it heals. However, if scars and dark spots are left behind, you might feel like you got the short end of the stick. Thankfully, you don't have to sit back and suffer with your scars and dark spots.

Hand lotions are designed to keep your skin healthy and soft. Like all cosmetics, they have individual shelf lives. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t require companies to list expiration dates, but this doesn’t mean your hand lotion will last forever.

Whether you cook with it, add it to your salads or use it topically, macadamia oil offers beautifying benefits for your skin.