Most of us are familiar with taking Vitamin C supplements orally for health benefits and boosting immunity. But since ingesting Vitamin C doesn’t directly deliver its benefits to the skin, we also need to use Vitamin C externally through skincare products. Here’s a complete guide to Vitamin C skincare serums and why you need it in your skincare routine.
What Is Vitamin C Skincare And Why Is Good For Your Skin?
Vitamin C skincare can include your everyday products such as cleansers, toners, moisturizers, serums, and eye creams. It is a potent antioxidant (and an acid) that’s added to your favorite beauty products to help fight free radicals from UV exposure and the environment. Vitamin C skincare helps repair damaged skin cells which aids in speeding up the skin’s 30 day turnover process. It also promotes collagen production which starts to slow down as we age. But in particular, this blog post will talk about Vitamin C serums as they are more concentrated and more effective than other forms of Vitamin C appearing in different skincare products.
Benefits Of Using Vitamin C Serums In Your Daily Skincare Routine
- Vitamin C skincare products, specifically serums, can fend off signs of aging as well as prevent premature aging through helping with collagen production to keep the skin youthful and plump. It also helps with managing the diminishing the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and scars and increasing firmness and elasticity. Vitamin C skincare products can maintain the collagen you have while protecting it from further damage.
- It heals wounds more quickly and repairs damaged skin from the sun and other environmental factors.
- Vitamin C serums brightens the skin’s complexion and provides radiance and glow while evening skin tone.
- It is high in antioxidants and protects us from the damage of air, smoke, smog, UV rays, and stress which alters DNA and cell functions and damages the skin. Vitamin C serums neutralizes free radicals from these harmful factors.
- Vitamin C serums also decreases redness, inflammation, and irritation.
- They also smoothens skin texture and as well as minimize dark spots and hyper-pigmentation.
- And finally, Vitamin C serums helps prevent dry skin and some serums even have hyaluronic acid added for extra hydration.
Forms Of Vitamin C And Which To Choose
L-ascorbic acid is the most potent and purest form of Vitamin C as well as the most researched. However, it is the least stable and can lose its antioxidant benefits when exposed to factors like air, light, or heat. So your Vitamin C serums should come in a solid or dark container to protect it from oxidizing, and rendered useless.
There are other forms of Vitamin C such as ascorbyl phosphate, ascorbyl palmitate, retinyl ascorbate, tetrahexyldecyl asobrate, and magnesium ascorbyl phosphate – but they aren’t as effective as they are not pure Vitamin C but they are combined with other ingredients to stabilize it. They are however, a good option for those with more sensitive skin as they are not as strong or irritating.
A Few Tips On Choosing Vitamin C Serums
- Vitamin C is a very reactive ingredient and having other ingredients such as Vitamin E and Ferulic Acid helps stabilize it, so keep an eye out for these ingredients!
- Choose Active Vitamin C and not encapsulated Vitamin C or Vitamin C Complex since they use other ingredients or fillers to boost stability.
- Look for serums with a Vitamin C concentration of 10 – 20%. Anything below 10% may not bring the benefits you want to see and higher can aggravate the skin.
Who Should Use Vitamin C Serums
Vitamin C skincare product, with an emphasis on serums, are great to implement into everyone’s skincare routine since it protects the skin from the harmful environment as well as provide great skincare benefits. But for those with more sensitive skin, be aware of the percentage of active Vitamin C and how often you use it. Always do a patch test if you’re more prone to reacting to new products or ingredients.
How Often To Apply Vitamin C Serums
Vitamin C serums should be applied once or a twice daily, preferably in the morning to help protect your skin throughout the day. You can start by incorporating Vitamin C serums into your skincare routine every other morning, and working your way up to every morning. You can also apply your Vitamin C serum at night time since your skin will be depleted by then. Don’t forget to use SPF every morning as well! Here’s A Guide To Sunscreen Use And Choosing The Safest One For You. With using Vitamin C serums and sunscreen in conjunction, you’ll be doing the most to protect your skin.
How Long Do Vitamin C Serums Take To work?
Vitamin C serums usually take about 2 to 4 weeks to work, but if you want more benefits, you can really see results at around the 3 month mark. For me, I was able to see my skin become more bright and glowy within a few days. With long-term use, I like the peace of mind that using Vitamin C serums provide me through neutralizing free radicals and added protection from the sun as well as more radiant skin. It also helps heal any acne scars much quicker than by not using it, which is really important to me!
Ingredients You Should Not Mix With Vitamin C Serums
The following ingredients and their pH don’t react well with Vitamin C together, so avoid using them together:
- Benzoyl peroxide
- Retinol / Vitamin A
- AHA/BHA (glycolic, salicylic, lactic acids)
How To Store Vitamin C Serums
As mentioned above, Vitamin C is very reactive so it is best to keep it stored away from air, heat, and light. Keep an eye on storing your Vitamin C in the bathroom as it does get pretty humid in there after showers. You want to make sure to keep the ingredient stable and effective, which leads to the next point.
How To Know When Your Vitamin C Serum Goes Bad
The biggest telltale sign of knowing when your Vitamin C serum goes bad is if the color has turned a dark yellow or brown. Normally, the serum will come in a clear or very light yellow color and if you see it any other color, the product has most likely oxidized. It won’t be harmful to the skin to use, but it will be less effective or not work at all.
Which Vitamin C Serums Are The Best?
The below Vitamin C serum options are voted as one of the best and have thousands of great reviews. The prices range from $20 to almost $200 so there’s one available for everyone’s price range, but are still of high quality and has effective and safe ingredients. There are options below that include different forms of Vitamin C so that people with sensitive skin are still able to find a good serum to use!
Skinceuticals C E Ferulic – The Skinceuticals Vitamin C serum has won many awards and voted the best Vitamin C serum by many beauty brands and blogs out there. It has both Vitamin C and Ferulic Acid to keep the ingredient stable and effective. It is also medical grade skincare.
Tatcha Violet-C Brightening Serum – Tatcha is a luxurious Japanese skincare products and I really enjoy using all of their products and their Vitamin C serum is one of my favorites!
Biossance Squalane + Vitamin C Rose Oil – The Biossance Vitamin C skincare product is more of an oil rather than a serum so the packaging is clear. They are also an Allure Award winner.
Sunday Riley C.E.O. 15% Vitamin C Brightening Serum
PCA Skin C & E Advanced
Glow Recipe Pineapple-C Bright Serum
Ole Henriksen Truth Serum
Tula Brightening Treatment Drops Triple Vitamin C Serum
Summer Fridays CC Me Serum With Vitamin C + Niacinamide
Drunk Elephant C-Firma Fresh Day Serum
Marie Veronique Vitamin C + E + Ferulic Serum
La Roche Posay Pure Vitamin C10 Anti-Aging Serum
Paula’s Choice Super Antioxidant Concentrate Serum
Peach & Lily Transparen-C Pro Spot Treatment
Naturium Vitamin C Complex Serum
Wander Beauty Sight C-er Vitamin C Concentrate
Dermadoctor Kakadu C 20% Vitamin C Serum With Ferulic Acid & Vitamin E
Vichy LiftActiv Viamin C With Hyaluronic Acid
CeraVe 10% Pure Vitamin C Serum
Maelove Glow Maker
TruSkin Vitamin C Serum
To learn more about skincare, here are The Correct Amount Of Skincare Products To Apply and How Long Does It Take For Skincare Products To Show Results.