Birthmarks

• Cafe au Lait Spot: An oval shaped, light brown or milk coffee coloured birthmark that can appear anywhere on the body. No health problems are associated with cafe au lait birthmarks so can be treated cosmetically.
  
  
  
• Mongolian Blue Spot: An irregular, flat, bluish and bruise-like birthmark that occurs on the lower back or bottom. They are more common in darker skinned people notably East Asian descent. Mongolian Blue Spots gradually fade after birth and cause no health problems. However it is sometimes mistaken for bruises.
  
  
  
• Port Wine Stain: A large, pale pink, irregular birthmark that tends to grow darker with age to a deep wine red. Usually appearing on the face, port wine stain birthmarks are usually large - more than 10 cms across and will not fade naturally. They can sometimes be associated with glaucoma when the birthmark occurs around the eye. Laser treatment for this kind of birthmark is very successful.
  
  
  
• Stork bite: An irregular shaped, flat, pink birthmark that is found on the neck, head or top-lip. Almost half of all newborns have a stork bite birthmark. No treatment is required for this kind of birthmark as most fade before the end of the first year and have no known health problems associated with them. Also known as an Angel Kiss birthmark.
  
  
  
• Strawberry Mark: A raised, red and lumpy birthmark that can appear anywhere on the body. 1 in 20 newborns have strawberry birthmarks although these occur between one and four weeks growing rapidly before gradually fading. Sixty per cent of marks vanish before the age of five years and ninety per cent by age ten.
  

More extreme birthmarks include 'congenital melanocytic nevus' or the Giant Congenital Hairy Nevus. This is a severe birthmark with larger marks linked with cancer risk. It is also associated with a build up of melanin in the spinal cord or if close to the eye linked to glaucoma. Surgical removal is one possible treatment but this can lead to scarring.

Many people choose to conceal birthmarks as a means of enhancing their confidence and disguising the more noticeable birthmarks. View our range of concealing products for birthmarks.