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Why is Everyone Talking About Vitamin C in Skincare

The ESK blog

Why is Everyone Talking About Vitamin C in Skincare

13 July 2021

Dr Ginni Mansberg

You have probably seen tons of skin care brands advertising Vitamin C in their products, so should you be using it too? 

Vitamin C has excellent properties as an ingredient. Firstly, it acts as an anti-oxidant and reduces pigmentation, wrinkles, fine lines, and crow’s feet.

It also brightens and evens out skin tone while protecting and repairing your skin from UV ray damage. Vitamin C also helps promote and produce collagen and elastin. 

In short, Vitamin C makes your skin look younger and healthier. 

Problems with Vitamin C in Skin Care

While Vitamin C is effective as a part of your skin care, Vitamin C loses its power when exposed to 1) light; 2) air and 3) heat making it entirely useless at reversing the age of your skin.

Plus, water is needed to dissolve the Vitamin C, but water oxidises it. 

All of these properties make Vitamin C difficult to formulate in a stable and effective form.  

Luckily, these problems can be solved.

To overcome these issues, most Vitamin C products on the market try to use other stabilised forms of Vitamin C (ingredients with “ascorbate” or “ascorbyl” in their name). And despite the claims we’ve read, there is very little evidence that any of these forms work as anti-oxidants.

What to look for when choosing Vitamin C products:

The right form of vitamin C

Look for the most important ingredient: ASCORBIC ACID, which basically is Vitamin C.

The right concentration

Now that you know there’s ascorbic acid in the product, make sure the concentration is between 5% and 20%. Evidence has shown that any concentration exceeding 20% cannot be absorbed and can cause skin irritation

Oil-based Formulation

A key method of making Vitamin C effective for our skin is to formulate it with as little water as possible which is why our Vitamin C serums are oil based.

Our light and quick-absorbing oil-base formulations means we dramatically reduce the Vitamin C oxidising in the bottle and it makes the serums extremely nourishing for our skin. 

If the ingredient list has water as the first ingredient on the list, put the product down and look for another one.

Airless Bottles

It is vital that the skincare products containing Vitamin C is contained in an opaque, airless bottles. If you come across Vitamin C products that exposes the product to air, it will oxidise.

Packaging that exposes the product to air will not be effective for your skin. It has to be clear or pale yellow. 

Low PH Level

Skincare products that are formulated with an ascorbic acid at a low pH of 3.5 or lower will be stabilised and allow the formulation to be absorbed. This was the first criteria when we formulated our Vitamin C serums. 

How do you include Vitamin C in your skin care routine?

  • Best used in the morning as your skin will be working hard throughout the day fighting bacteria, pollutants and UV rays. Give your skin the best stuff in the morning by applying your Vitamin C skincare product after you have cleanse your face. 

  • In our kits, we have marked our Vitamin C serums as step 2, so use after step 1 of cleansing.  

  • Apply your Vitamin C serums before you apply your sunscreen. While sunscreen helps protect your skin from UV, adding Vitamin C to your skin care routine adds helps repair and protect you skin from the damage that UV does – ie. Sunscreen and Vitamin C work together synergistically.

C Forte

C Forte

Hydrate and brighten your skin with this 16% L-Ascorbic Acid Serum. Vitamin C's sun damage reversing abilities are boosted when Vitamin E is added. Adding Ferulic Acid boosts it to still further for your best glow.

  • Hydrate dry skin.
  • Repair sun damaged skin.
  • Reduce fine lines, crows feet and pigmentation.

Enjoy your Vitamin C!

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