My Melasma Fight - Mountain View, CA

Well my nightmare started on november of 2008, when i saw a little brown spot close to my eye on my upper right cheek, i was on birth control and also i never took care of my skin or used any type of sunscreen, also i was a heavy smoker. How the spot was so little i did not really cared a lot about it and then i just forgot.... i guess i got used to have it and though it will go away ... after one year dark brown irregular spots spread on both of my cheeks and forehead, i tried to get rid of them using naturals remedies i found in internet... it just did not work very well, so then i decided to give it a try to Hydroquinone 2% gel, it did work a bit, but part of my skin was damaged from it and turned light pink... I decided to stop using birth control and the Hydroquinone. On January 2010 i got a cooper DIU, so I've being hormones free since then. Last year on September 2015 I found Skinceuticals Phyto + Botanical gel for hyperpigmentation, it was recommended to me from a consultation i did at Skin-Spirit, they also gave me a free laser test on a little spot of my melasma to see how the skin respond.... long story short this serum was too expensive for me $80 USD and the laser treatment costed $800 USD each section... they recommended 3 session for my problem without guarantees of success. So in the web and i found the gel on amazon, i bought it for $48USD and one bottle lasted more than 3 months. I was very glad with the result,...at first i was not sure if it was working because it does not make u feel nothing at all like peeling or anything, so i waited, then December came and i went on vacation to Chile and to be honest i did not take care too much of my problem and some days i forgot to use sunscreen (very bad, i know!). So now is february 2016 and i realized some new spot are coming back not to dark, but i can tell is spreading a bit more from my cheeks. I order a new gel from amazon and i started to be very carefull again using it morning and night every day and sunscreen too. Even though this gel helped me a lot i think i am stuck in point that i have the feeling it won't fade more than this, so after reading reviews in Realself i decided go to see the doctor William Ting and see what can he do for me. So i will keep you all posted about my melasma. I am posting the photos i took before treatment gel and the photos i took 2 weeks ago. Wish me luck! *English is not my first language so i apologise for any error*

It's quite pricy though $80.00, I bought it for $48.00.
Also i was taking Niacin Pills ( I read somewhere that it was good to clear the skin, the pills i used are the Nature's Plus - Niacinamide 1000mg )
It took me a while to find a real and honest seller for the gel so guys be carefull!

So this is an update of my achievements using just Skinceuticals gel. The photos are mostly from my Right side because that is the most problematic area i have. I feel the photos might have too much light, but i believe or i want to believe it has faded a lot more.
As i commented before i got an appointment with Doctor William Ting and it was amazing! I feel so happy, he gave me all the options and also told me to avoid alcohol, nuts and soy, because they trigger the production of estrogen.... So of course the options are not cheap, but he assured me they will be a huge step to get my face back as it was and also showed me photos of the treatment on people with melasma and they were really amazing. So now i have to save money and wait for the next winter to do any of the treatment option he gave me =). In the meantime i will keep using my sunblock and using the gel. I will post better photos of my melasma as soon as i can get a better camera.