6 Dark Spot–Correcting Products That Dermatologists Swear By

If you're noticing dark spots on your face, you're not alone. Once called age spots, we now refer to them as just dark spots, or sometimes liver spots or sun spots. They tend to happen to many of us as we age and can appear on the face as well as other parts of the body, including the neck, arms, and hands.

They’re generally caused by sun damage over time but may be due to other causes as well. So, there’s no need to beat yourself up if you spent time in tanning beds or covered yourself in oil as you laid around the beach with reflectors in your teens. That being said, it’s never too late to treat your skin better.

Stacy Salob, M.D., a board-certified dermatologist in New York City, addresses a common misconception. “Eighty percent of what people think of as [skin] aging is actually due to toxic external factors in our environment: ultraviolet [UV] light, pollution, blue light from computers,” Salob says. “The other 20 percent? You could live in a cave, and still you would get those little spots.” Certain factors can’t be helped, such as genetics.