Vitamin C Serum Checklist: How to find the best Ascorbic Acid Vitamin C Serums.
In this video i’m going to be arming you with all the information you need to go forth and find an epic vitamin c serum that’s going to do all these incredible things for your skin! i’m going to run expect to get out of it, what to look for when purchasing a vitamin c serum and definitely what to avoid – because it is a
Minefield out there. it is like the vitamin c road is full of potholes hello everybody! i am julia, i am obsessed with skincare and particularly obsessed with vitamin c. i’ve been using it for years, my skin loves it. i have gotten so many benefits from this ingredient, it’s really really incredible when you choose
The right one. when you choose one that has been that cares about the results that you’re science that we have behind this ingredient. that is the key to getting the most out of vitamin c. i’m going to be taking you through a checklist of what to look out for and what to avoid when it comes to finding the right vitamin
C serum and in part two of this series i am going to be talking about the particular products that i have used time and time again that i stand by that i absolutely love and have really transformed my skin. so what can vitamin c do for your skin? in this video i’m going to be talking primarily about the active
Form of vitamin c which is ascorbic acid. this is in its active bioavailable form, the form that it needs to be in for your skin to identify it and use it. it’s the form that it’s found naturally in our bodies. vitamin c it’s one of the only ingredients that has been shown by science by a decade’s worth of study
It’s pretty impressive these are firstly it is a collagen booster it plays a really really important role in the complicated process of our bodies or our skin making more collagen it’s actually the primary water-soluble antioxidant within our skin within our tissue and it does decline with age secondly it’s an epic
Antioxidant vitamin c gets in there it neutralizes these damage in your skin by donating an electron them and they can no longer do any damage so it’s a really really potent effective antioxidant when you layer a vitamin c serum under your sunscreen it can increase the photo protection of your sunscreen
So it just really boosts that uv protection it is definitely not a replacement for sunscreen it does not work that way it’s just that those two together are a great pairing when you layer on your vitamin c sunscreen on top that is just a match made in heaven in terms of antioxidant protection and uv protection
Thirdly it is a skin brightener it’s able to even out your skin tone so any little dark marks like sunspots or pigmentation spots from uv damage or post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation those dark marks that are left behind after you have like a blemish or a breakout that heals or even a wound that heals it’s able to go
In and brighten those areas and just keep everything even so for dark spots like pigmentation or sunspots tyrosinase the vitamin c works by inhibiting that enzyme tyrosinase so that the dark spots and areas of pigmentation can’t actually form effectively so now we’ve established we want this ingredient in our
Skincare routine what do we need to look for before we spend our hard-earned cash on a vitamin c serum when it comes to choosing a vitamin c serum i am super fussy i have tried so so many over the years a lot of them i have not seen results from there are a small handful that have been really really impressive so as you
Might already know vitamin c is an extremely unstable molecule it’s one of those ingredients that when it’s done well it is super effective but it is really really difficult to formulate with so a lot of brands choose to stay away from the active form of vitamin c and they choose to formulate with a derivative
Because it’s a lot easier there’s also a lot of brands out there that do use the active form but unfortunately are using the hype around this ingredient they’re wanting to put the term vitamin c on the front of the box they’re wanting to appear in all those search results for ascorbic game they’re not giving it to us in the
Way that the science is showing its most effective i get really peeved when i see a company doing aren’t checked off if they’re just if they’re not met within the formula that vitamin c is not going to be stable by the time you get it home it’s not going to be doing anything for you on your skin so purchasing
Or using a vitamin c serum the active form of vitamin c ascorbic acid is c needs to be in the form of ascorbic acid to be bioavailable to the skin meaning your skin can identify and use it so anything that is a derivative or a different form of vitamin c needs to be converted into ascorbic acid in the skin
C the active form is my personal preference of visible results in the skin with this form of vitamin c when it’s formulated effectively there are just some people out there who cannot tolerate ascorbic acid no matter how gentle it is or how low the percentage is or some people that just prefer not to use it it can
Be a bit of a pain in the butt you’ve got to think about where you’re keeping it how you’re storing it it’s best refrigerated you can’t stockpile it you know you kind of need to purchase it as you are going to be using it and i can totally see how a derivative might be the way to go for some people for some people’s
Skin or just their purchasing preferences the second thing to check off when it comes to purchasing a vitamin c is the packaging from the second it can it’s going to start it’s not going to wait until it’s on your skin to do that it can’t hold back its antioxidant ability it’s just it’s just going for it so
Vitamin c for as long as possible to suspend that antioxidant activity from starting until it’s within your skin that is that is what you want to be looking for you want it to be as active as possible when it hits your skin and the packaging plays a massive part because exposure to air light and heat can start introducing
More free radicals into the formula and it and the vitamin c is just going to use up all of its antioxidant ability on neutralizing those free radicals within the jar before it even gets onto your face pump packaging is amazing um opaque packaging or that tinted sort of uv protected glass is great anything
That’s going to minimize the amount of air and light that can get in i should also remind you guys to be storing your vitamin c in the fridge it’s a cool dark environment that is going to basically prolong that stability if your vitamin c serum is becoming a dark orange to rusty kind of brown color then at that point
It is oxidized its antioxidant properties have all been used up and it’s not going to offer any benefits to your skin at that point the next factor that you need to be checking off is the percentage of ascorbic acid within the formula so all of the science and all the evidence we have behind this ingredient gives
Us a range of between five to twenty percent where this ingredient is effective and can benefit the skin within this range there are a few different different points within that range so at the lower end sort of between five and ten percent it has the benefits of antioxidant ability and also the skin brightening
The skin tone evening abilities if you really want to take advantage of the collagen boosting elements of vitamin c you definitely want to be looking at the higher end of the scale around 15 to 20 if you can tolerate it so just because you increase the amount of vitamin c within a product doesn’t mean your skin
Can absorb it so all of the studies that we have maxes out its absorption of ascorbic acid at 20 anything more than that your skin is not going to absorb it it’s just going to hang around and cause more irritation and reactivity on your skin personally i like to stick to a 15 to 20 vitamin c serum because i want
All three of those amazing magic abilities that vitamin c can offer but it really depends on your individual skin’s needs and your preferences the next thing that shown us that the optimal ph range for ascorbic and also the absorption of it into our skin is at a ph of 3.5 or below now this is where a lot
Of brands fall short this is because a low ph major challenges with a vitamin c serum is getting the product through that uppermost layer of the skin called the stratum corneum so this layer is basically kind of a gridlock or like a a brick wall of dead skin cells and the glue that holds them together so it’s a
Real challenge to get anything water-based through this level like through this layer of the skin because that layer of the skin is full of lipids and it’s a hydrophobic layer so it repels water it likes oil so anything oily or lipid-based is able to pass through that layer way way way more easily than anything
That’s water-based so the challenge here for the cosmetic formulator is to get that vitamin c at a certain at a ph low enough to be able to sort of disrupt that barrier and for it to pass through into the living cells underneath the stratum corneum so a lot of feedback to a lot of mainstream brands is you know that
This is irritating this caused a reaction there’s a lot of refunds there’s a lot of returns um there’s a lot of people that just can’t tolerate ascorbic acid so these are all challenges that brands have to deal with when they’re formulating a vitamin c serum and so many of them just put this in the too hard
Basket and and end up formulating with the ph that’s closer to the skin’s natural ph it’s less irritating you’re not going to get that feedback from customers but unfortunately it means that that product is probably going to be oxidized by the time it reaches the customer’s face and even if it’s not oxidized the ph
Is completely wrong to be able to deliver the ascorbic acid through that barrier into the living skin cells let me know if you are interested in seeing a them but today i just want to focus on the ones that are worth your time and money the products i’m going to be mentioning today are all at the correct
Ph so the next requirement for a vitamin c and this is more of a personal preference a water-based serum so for the skin to be able to use it it has to be dissolved it has to be solubilized water contains oxygen and so once you dissolve this ingredient in water the oxidation process begins so some brands are getting
Around this by basically creating a suspension of vitamin c powder throughout a base that’s like silicone or avoiding using water in their product which is a great idea in theory because it means that that powder remains stable because it’s not touching water it’s not going to dissolve and it’s not going to
Start that oxidation process but the problem with this and this is more a personal preference is that at some point that vitamin c has to dissolve to be effective it’s depending on that to dissolve with your natural skin’s water content i am skeptical as to how much of that powder is actually dissolving and penetrating
And getting to where it needs to in the skin i get it in theory um but but personally i’ve not seen the best results from formulas like this so yes it’s ticking off the stability issues but then in terms of penetration and absorption it’s i think it’s failing in those areas it’s just not for me and i have
I’m done with that i have completely moved on so the next thing to consider when purchasing a vitamin c serum is the other ingredients it has been compounded with so research shows us that other antioxidants can effectively preserve the antioxidant ability of ascorbic acid in a formula and this is great news because it
Means that we can basically suspend that antioxidant activity until it hits our skin vitamin e and fluorulic acid specifically are really really effective at doing this when it’s when they’re formulated with a vitamin c and this is referred to as the holy trinity um if you’re a skincare nerd you will know what i’m
Talking about it’s sort of the holy it’s the holy trinity of antioxidants vitamin c vitamin e and ferulic acid and you’ll see a number of well formulated vitamin c’s on the market that are called ce for rolex obviously the famous one is from skinceuticals they pioneered a lot of this research most of the products i’m
Going to be referring to later on do have this holy trinity but just because a product doesn’t contain vitamin e and probiolic acid doesn’t mean it’s not effective it’s just definitely something that can product the last thing to consider before you buy a vitamin c serum is whether or not it has any fragrant
Components in it a lot of people can tolerate fragrance on a daily basis until they introduce something that is a very active potent skincare ingredient like vitamin c alpha hydroxy or beta hydroxy acids or a retinoid i personally vitamin c combined with fragrant components now i just want to make it clear i’m
Not anti-fragrance across the board in terms of skin care i think and you enjoy it in your skincare routine go for it it’s just my preference that brands give us the choice because when we’re talking about a really high percentages of actives at a low ph that can be a recipe for disaster and it’s going to
Be a challenge for a lot of people’s skin just to adapt to that ingredient and to be able to tolerate that ingredient without the added pressure of a fragrant component in there some people are just able to use fragrance in every step of their routine no matter what and their skin is completely fine but for those of us
That can’t deal with such a potent product alongside fragrance i just really appreciate the choice to be able to add that in if i want and to avoid it when i don’t want thank you so much for watching and for joining me for part one of this vitamin c series please join me for part two which will be coming soon where
I delve into the specific product recommendations when it comes to vitamin c serum i hope you found this video helpful please interested in skincare content and just drop a comment say hi let me know what you thought of the video and i will see you guys soon bye
Transcribed from video
How to Choose the Best Vitamin C Serum – Your Ascorbic Acid Checklist! By Julia Pratt