Ingredient Spotlight: VITAMIN C -

This dermatologist-recommended antioxidant offers many skin benefits. Vitamin C Is the Ultimate Brightening, Anti-Aging Antioxidant.

Ingredient Spotlight: VITAMIN C

Vitamin C ingredient is legendary for a reason. The ingredient works on almost everything such as uneven skin tone, refining skin texture, fine lines, acne scars, dullness to correcting hyperpigmentation — you can name just about any common complexion concern and there’s a good chance that vitamin C is a recommended treatment. Vitamin C is one of the most trusted antioxidants in skincare, recommended by dermatologists and estheticians alike as an important part of your morning skincare routine. Recently, vitamin C has become increasingly popular in skin care products and anti-aging creams.

Vitamin C is one of the most popular skin care ingredients, but is it worthy of the hype? With an abundance of research backing its impressive skin benefits, the answer is YES and it is one of my favorite ingredients.

So, what is vitamin C?

According to the Mayo Clinic, Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is a nutrient your body needs to form blood vessels, cartilage, muscle and collagen in bones. Vitamin C is also vital to your body’s healing process.

Vitamin C is an antioxidant that helps protect your cells against the effects of free radicals — molecules produced when your body breaks down food or is exposed to tobacco smoke and radiation from the sun, X-rays or other sources. Free radicals might play a role in heart disease, cancer and other diseases. Vitamin C also helps your body absorb and store iron. Because our body doesn’t produce vitamin C on its own, we need to get it from our diet.

While vitamin C provides plenty of benefits for the body, such as boosting your immune system, some of its other functions are its role in producing collagen and as a powerful antioxidant, which leads to positive outcomes for our skin. It is also a powerful antioxidant, assisting in protection against UV-induced photodamage.

There are many forms of vitamin C for the skin, and while they all have antioxidant benefits, they each work slightly differently. Some are more effective than others but here are two that’ll be discussed in details:

Ascorbic acid—also known as L-ascorbic acid—is the most potent form that is readily absorbed by the skin and the most well researched form of vitamin C. Ascorbic acid also helps skin’s surface defend itself from free radicals and external stressors, lessening the effects of exposure to the elements. It is very unstable. Exposure to air, light, and heat will cause Ascorbic acid to start oxidizing and that is why formula and packaging is so important when it comes to Ascorbic acid. Look for dark, opaque, and air-restrictive bottles or pumps to help ensure the ingredients remain stable. It is water soluble and requires a low pH ( > 3.5) for optimal skin penetration. It can also be irritating due to the low pH formula it’s in, making it less ideal for those with dry/sensitive skin. Its potency increases with concentration, starting at 5 % and up to 20% as anything stronger will not deliver best results.

3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid—also known as Ethylated Ascorbic Acid—is the more stable form of the two Vitamin C types. 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid consists of Vitamin C and an Ethyl Group bound to the third carbon position, making this form of Vitamin C very stable and soluble in both water and oil. This placement also enables it to penetrate the skin’s deeper layers without causing irritation. As it is soluble in both water and oil, 3-O-ethyl Ascorbic Acid is easily incorporated into a wide range of cosmetic formulations. Its efficacy is enhanced by its rapid absorption into the skin, which helps to yield the best results. At the recommended pH (of between 4 and 6), 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid is stable against oxidation and resistant against discoloration. This reduces the possibility of skin irritation caused by oils in other products which may oxidize due to exposure to high temperature or UV radiation.

Other forms of vitamin C for your skin that have notable research demonstrating their efficacy are sodium ascorbic phosphate, ascorbyl glucoside, ascorbic palmitate, tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate and magnesium ascorbic phosphate are the most stable and effective forms for the skin. These derived forms of vitamin C work better if they are mixed with other good antioxidant and cell-communicating products.

It is interesting to note that those with extremely sensitive or oily skin may have allergies or redness from vitamin C; so, if you tend to have sensitive skin, start with a lower concentration, do a skin test first to make sure that no allergy exists or ask your certified dermatologist which brand may be best suited for your skin type. Vitamin C works well with complementing antioxidants like vitamin E and ferulic acid, which will boost the efficacy and stability of the molecule.

While Vitamin C can be used both day and night, it’s more commonly recommended for your AM routine because of how well it pairs with SPF. Vitamin C and sunscreen are the perfect pair to protect your skin from the sun.

Here are a few Face to Curls-approved vitamin C picks.