Ingredient Spotlight: Vitamin C is the #1 antioxidant in skincare

What do you know about Vitamin C?

Vitamin C is a popular skincare ingredient and “experts” say that you should be using it daily. I agree, however, there are a few things you must know about Vitamin C before using one on your skin.

Today, we are going to discuss what is Vitamin C, its benefits, potential side effects, and which recommended serums to use.

Antioxidants are important for our health both inside the body and out. Vitamin C helps boost our body’s immunity and keeps us healthy, especially during the winter months when cold & flu season is in full swing.

What is Vitamin C?

Vitamin C is an antioxidant. Antioxidants help keep our body and immune system strong by fighting free radicals.

A free radical is an unstable atom that damages the other cells around it. Free radicals happen when our body is fighting a virus OR it can happen from damage to the cell itself. Free radical damage causes us to feel sick and is the reason someone can age faster.

Basically what happens is free radicals steal electrons from healthy cells, causing more unhealthy cells in the skin or body.

By supplying our skin or body with antioxidants, we can repair these cells and keep our body and skin healthy.

Vitamin C is an important ingredient that we should be using both in our body and on our skin.

When reading product labels, here are some commonly listed ingredient names:

• L-ascorbic acid
• Sodium ascorbyl phosphate
• Tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate
• Magnesium ascorbyl phosphate
• Ascorbyl palmitate

Vitamin C is an unstable molecule, which is why you will see it listed as the ingredient names above. Unstable means it oxidizes quickly, so it cannot be used in its purest form unless encapsulated or stabilized.

Most over-the-counter skincare brands do NOT encapsulate their ingredients. If they do use one of these versions, they use a trace amount to be able to list it on the ingredient deck and market that product. Vitamin C used in a professional line contains the active form and is encapsulated to keep it stable and safe for use.

What are the benefits?

Vitamin C is safe for most skin types and recommended for anti-aging because it fights free radicals and keeps your cells healthy and functioning correctly.

Vitamin C aids in skin hydration because it is an antioxidant that repairs cells. When our cells age or become damaged, they can’t hold water in. Water is crucial to keeping the skin healthy. When you apply a moisturizer and your skin still feels dry, it’s because your cells lack water. This ingredient can help hydrate your cells!

Vitamin C is known for its brightening properties and works to even out the skin tone. If you have dark spots from the sun, use underneath your SPF to help lighten dark spots.

Are there any side effects?

If your skin is sensitive, you may not be able to tolerate vitamin C. If you have a sensitivity to this ingredient, you may experience itching, redness, tingling, burning, or skin irritation.

It could be from the form of the vitamin used, but it could also be your body not tolerating this ingredient and that’s okay. There are a multitude of ingredients that would be a great alternative, such as Bakuchiol and Peptides.

Recommended Products

I only recommend using Vitamin C in your serum. There is no need for it to be in your cleanser or moisturizer. Remember that I mentioned earlier, that this ingredient is not stabilized and is a waste of money if used in other products! This is just marketing to get you to buy products based on ingredients.

Active ingredients are key. You will see active ingredients in serums. These should ONLY be used in serums because serums are products that change the skin and improve a specific skin condition. When you see actives in cleansers and moisturizers, it’s more of a marketing gimmick to get you to buy. Actives in other products have no use for the skin!

You can use Vitamin C two ways: on its own, OR blended in with other active ingredients.

On its own: Vitamin C ampoules are a great addition to apply underneath your serum. We love these Flavo-C ampoules. You crack the ampoule open and this would be 4 applications, used twice daily (morning and night).

The key here is it MUST be used within 48 hours, otherwise, the Vitamin C will oxidize and can irritate the skin.

Blended with active ingredients: Vitamin C is a great addition to a blended serum because it will boost the effectiveness of other active ingredients. We love the Melatonik serum which also contains Bakuchiol and Melatonin to fight aging and brighten the skin.

Another great serum is the VitaLift-C serum which contains peptides for antiaging and brightening.

Our job at Skin Deep is to give you healthy skin. We wouldn’t recommend any product that we don’t believe in. All our ingredients and products are designed to help your skin.

We specialize in customizing skincare routines to help your skin stay healthy as you age.

If you have questions or comments, please write them below.

See you next week!

XO
Samantha