Why Vitamin C for the Skin and Staying Young

 

One of the best gifts that you can do for your face and body for that matter is getting enough vitamin C. Sadly enough, we can eat all the oranges, grapefruits, broccoli, and other vitamin C rich foods, but only a tiny portion about 8 percent or so of this antioxidant makes it to our faces to produce collagen. Despite this drawback, vitamin C in skin care also has anti-aging benefits when you choose correctly. Here is what you need to keep in mind before plucking down money for vitamin C skin creams and serums.

Though collagen needs to be produced internally, some research studies have shown applied to the skin vitamin C may stimulate collagen production from how it manages to pile on antioxidants while it prevents a further collagen breakdown. Vitamin C or any antioxidant is not thought to absorb easily into the skin, but what passes through to remain helps anti-aging enough to matter. In the same light, it was shown to tighten up the skin, and benefit the skin’s texture, especially when combined with components like vitamin E or zinc (a physical sunscreen). Still other research suggests that vitamin C applied directly to the skin can turn back the free radical damage from the sun enough to reverse the evidence of photodamage.

The real challenge is how to preserve the stability of the product’s vitamin C to truly benefit. After all, vitamin C breaks down quickly to maintain its most advantageous potency. Therefore, more research continues toward this goal of prolonging vitamin C’s potency. In the meantime, I have some suggestions regarding vitamin C skin care.

First off, look for a dark bottle when considering vitamin C serums. Clear bottles allow light to more easily pass through to corrupt the integrity of the formula. Stick to those darker, amber-colored bottles to get the longest value from this serum.

Secondly, since vitamin C serums deteriorate quickly, you should also make sure that you store your skin care products safely. Avoid keeping your serums and creams in bathrooms where moisture and steam can contribute to harming the formulas. By the same token, you don’t want to keep your vitamin C serums too close to heat or under windows where sunlight could further break down their potency.

With all that vitamin C can do for a face applied topically, you might be wondering what concentration of this antioxidant should you be aiming for? The ideal concentration that you should be using is between 10 to 15 percent–and no more. The problem with using a higher concentration of vitamin C is the risk of irritation from all its alpha hydroxy acids.

Something else that you may be confused about is which form of vitamin C can help your skin to recover the most? L-ascorbic acid seems to have the most potential.  Use this form once a day without other products with alpha hydroxy acids or retinol for the best results. Yet, other research is pointing to vitamin C ester (ascorbyl palmitate) as even being better for anti-aging.

Keep these vitamin C skin care points in mind and you’ll have better luck with selecting the right vitamin C serums and creams.  What else that you may find helpful is reading my post on 10 skin care rules for beautiful skin.