The Truth About Vitamin C...

Vitamin C, aka Ascorbic Acid, is one of the most popular ingrediens in skincare products today.  With promises of glowing, younger looking skin, who wouldn't want to have it in their daily regimen.  Yes, it's true that Vitamin C is great for your skin cells, but there are a few things you need to know...


Let's start with the good news.  Vitamin C benefits skin in two very important ways:

First, it is essential for the synthesis of collagen,  the most abundant protein in the body.  Adding vitamin C to skin cells can dramatically increase the synthesis of collagen which results in younger looking skin, aka Halle Berry at 40+ giving these young chicas a run for their money.  Second, vitamin C is a great antioxidant that protects skin by neutralizing free radicals, which would otherwise destroy skin and its components.  As a result, wrinkles are less visible and your skin texture improves.  Sounds great right!!??

But here's the problem:

Vitamin C is very unstable, unless it is in dry form.  Most of the skincare products out there promoting it as their main ingredient, are serums and moisturizers.   In the presence of air, it is easily converted to oxidized form which makes it incapable of boosting collagen synthesis or weakening those free radicals. You would need high concentrations of it to even have a chance to work by actually penetrating your skin.

So what's a girl to do?  Well, one option is to try and get a dry product.  As mentioned above, the dry form of Vitamin C is not as unstable as the liquid form.  Philosophy's Turbo Booster C powder is a topical powder that claims to be 99.8% effective.  The way you use it is to apply a scoop of the powder to your moisturizer daily.  DO NOT pour the entire bottle into you moisturizer people, you want it to be a fresh mix every time you apply.  A few years ago, I purchased this product at Sephora, but never used it long enough to notice any results.  Honestly, I just like the sound of mixing products together, it was my own little chemistry project.  I was in my mid twenties at the time and barely had any aging issues with my skin.  However, now that I'm a few years older, I want to incorporate vitamin C in my regimen and think this would be my best option at doing so.  I'll letcha know how it goes in a few weeks...stay tuned!



Available at Sephora for $35.