Vitamin C and Your Skin

Vitamin C and Your Skin

At The Dr Jenni Clinic, we know that Vitamin C is a powerhouse ingredient when it comes to skincare and anti-ageing.

Our skin is subject to daily pollution and environmental factors that increase the production of free radicals. These free radicals attack our cells and cause skin damage. Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant that helps mop up those free radicals. It’s also the only antioxidant proven to stimulate collagen synthesis and it’s an anti-inflammatory. This means that it can help counter almost every key sign of ageing skin, including pigmentation.

If you’ve mastered applying cleanser, serum and moisturiser twice daily (well done!) and are ready to look to the next step in your anti-ageing skincare routine, introducing just one more step and adding a vitamin C booster could be a total game changer.

When choosing your vitamin C product, it’s crucial to bear in mind these things…

1. The amount of vitamin C within the product you use, matters. Many products say that they contain vitamin C, however the actual amount within them is negligible and will offer very little skin benefit.

2. Lots of products claim to contain Vitamin C, but if you want an effective product, you need to ensure it has L-ascorbic acid in the ingredients list. This is Vitamin C in its most stable form.

3. Vitamin C is super-sensitive to light and it degrades VERY quickly. Because of this, you should avoid any Vitamin C product sold in clear packaging. You should also keep your products in a cool, dark place, as heat exposure reduces the potency of Vitamin C too.

4. When fresh and at its most effective, vitamin C serum is clear in colour. As it oxidises and degrades, it turns a light straw colour, gradually getting darker and darker until it is orange and then brown, at which point it no longer offers much benefit at all. You can still use the product but it won’t do much for your skin and in fact, on rare occasions, oxidised Vitamin C products can cause some slight yellow discolouration of the skin. With this in mind, you should consider throwing away any Vitamin C products that have dramatically changed colour since you bought them, especially if they are orange or brown.

On the left is a vitamin C serum that I mixed and then left in the bottle for 6 months. This may sound like a long time but many skincare products will have been mixed and packaged for up to 6 months before you even buy them, let alone before you use them up! On the right is a freshly made vitamin C serum. The difference is (literally!) clear.