Vitamin C + Skin: An overview
All about your skin’s favorite ingredient.
When you think about Vitamin C, your immune system probably comes to mind first, as Vitamin C supplements are known for their ability to help increase immunity, making them a go-to during cold and flu season. Yet in the past few years, there’s been a large shift in the beauty industry, as Vitamin C has become a popular ingredient in skincare. Here’s exactly how it works, and how you can use it to get your best skin yet.
Vitamin C 101
Vitamin C is water-soluble, meaning that when ingested, it is carried to the body’s tissues as opposed to being stored in the body. It aids our immune system by supporting various cellular functions, but our bodies are unable to synthesize it naturally, meaning that we can only get it through diet. When we are nutritionally deficient in Vitamin C, we can develop scurvy, which is perhaps most well-known as a common sailor’s ailment in the 18th century, but one that, if left untreated, is characterized by fatigue and widespread connective tissue weakness. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant and helps to protect our bodies from free radicals, which is essential for skin support.
VITAMIN C + COLLAGEN
If you’ve ever wondered what keeps your skin firm, plump, and strong, the answer is collagen, a protein that gives skin its structure. In fact, when your skin begins to sag, it is due to a combination of a lack of collagen and elastin, which gives skin its stretchiness. As we age, we stop producing as much collagen, causing the levels in our body to begin to drop over time –– which is our skin begins to change as we get older.
This is where Vitamin C comes in. When ingested, Vitamin C helps to increase the synthesis of collagen, due to its ability to stabilize mRNA. This means that large doses of Vitamin C help your body to kick start its own collagen production.
TOPICAL VITAMIN C
Vitamin C is an antioxidant that helps fight free radicals, which are unstable atoms that can cause damage to cells in the body. While they can be introduced to the body through several external sources including cigarette smoke and pollutants, they can also be caused by sun exposure. When our skin is damaged due to sun exposure, it essentially causes the essential proteins in our skin to break down, leading to increased fine lines, wrinkles, dullness, and pigmentation.
THE PROBLEM WITH VITAMIN C SERUMS
Vitamin C is an incredibly volatile compound, and interactions with oxygen, heat, and light can make it quickly less effective. This means that the majority of products and serums on the market are likely to lose their efficacy somewhere between manufacturing and hitting the shelves due to potential interactions. So if you’ve tried out Vitamin C serums in the past with little success, this could be why.
HOW WE USE IT
TOPICAL - C
TOPICAL - C is a powdered product, which you activate with your favorite moisturizer or even just water. This ensures that Vitamin C stays potent each time you use it, and that you get all of its benefits. We pair L-Ascorbic acid with ferulic acid, a restorative antioxidant which, when paired with L-Ascorbic acid, doubles its photo-protection properties, and fortify the formula with tapioca starch, colloidal oatmeal, and aloe vera. The tapioca starch is a natural exfoliant that helps even skin tone, and assists in the stabilization of Vitamin C, while the oatmeal and aloe vera are added to soothe skin while reducing redness and irritation. Use the powder daily to see brighter and smoother skin, evened out pigmentation, and a reduction of fine lines.
SKIN FOOD + PREBIOTIC
Skin Food + Prebiotic was designed to deliver a concentrated dose of antioxidants and boost your skin’s collagen levels through 100% food-based vitamin C sources. The daily powder can be mixed in easily to your favorite smoothie and juice, or even directly to milk to form a latte. Made with Camu Camu and Baobab, two natural sources of vitamin C, the powder also includes Lucuma, a naturally high source of zinc and beta-carotene (a precursor to Vitamin A), and prebiotic inulin. Together, the ingredients keep your skin bright and taut, and the prebiotics in the formula keep your gut happy as well.
SKIN FILTER
Though less of a hero ingredient than compared to its volume in Topical - C and Skin Food, Skin Filter relies on Vitamin C as well. The key ingredient in the formula, SkinAx®, is a patented blend that includes champagne grape seed, melon, and zinc in addition to Vitamin C, and helps to increase skin’s overall luminosity.