Vitamins are essential in keeping the skin healthy. In fact, there are a lot of beauty and skincare products in the market that use these natural vitamins and minerals as their ingredients.
Vitamin C is said to be one of the vitamins that are very beneficial in helping the skin regenerate.
In order to be used on the skin, Vitamin C is transformed to L-ascorbic acid but it is unstable and hard to use in cosmetics.
This is perhaps the reason why there are only a few cosmetic products that carry Vitamin C when compared to other vitamins like A and E.
L-ascorbic acid is dissolved in the water. Although it is concentrated inside the cell, it cannot protect its shell from the free radicals.
It also possesses strong acidic properties and sufficiently irritates the skin and then it rapidly decomposes and loses its force after 24 hours.
Still, chemists are trying to find ways as this form is found to stimulate collagen synthesis on the skin.
Unlike other vitamins, it is also able to stay on the skin for as long as three days as well as prevents a reaction called UV immunosuppression, often seen in 90 percent of cancer patients in the country.
The ether form of vitamin C is derivative from L – ascorbic acid with the fatty acid, isolated from the palm-tree oil. It’s also called palm acid.
The ideal medicine for the skin will come out if we add a small quantity of palm oil to the molecule of vitamin C.
In this particular case, ether won’t irritate the skin and it is possible to bring that kind of vitamin C even to the open cut of the skin.
More importantly, the ether form of vitamin C is capable of being dissolved in the fat.
Therefore, it easily absorbs by the skin.
Thus, the ether form of vitamin C is capable of penetrating the thin membrane surrounding cells. The membrane of the cellular plasma itself consists predominantly of fat.
As a result, the ether form of vitamin C will strongly protect against free radicals precisely that part of the cell, where they can cause the greatest harm.
The stability is another advantage of the ether form of vitamin C.
That’s why it is possible to add this form to the creams and the lotions, and it will preserve the ability to act for months and even for years, completely without spoiling or losing its anti-oxidant effect.
In looking for Vitamin C in products, make sure that it contains a stable L-ascorbic form and a low pH level. Highly concentrated products are also recommended.
Remember that just because a product advertises Vitamin C on its front level, it does not mean that it contains the kind or the form (L-ascorbic acid) that your skin can use.
Vitamin C as Shield from the Sun
Vitamin C serves as a good shield from the sun, which harms the skin by drying it up and causing wrinkles and lines to show up.
Vitamin C does this by neutralizing the reactive oxygen or free radicals, which is often caused by the interaction of sunlight, skin tissues and of course the cell membrane.
But though it prevents the absorption of light, it should not be used to replace sunscreen. Skin care experts still recommend the use of sunscreen for maximum sun protection.
Still, vitamin C can be combined with sunscreens for more coverage and longer protection because once this gets into the skin. It cannot be easily washed or rubbed off.
Vitamin C as an Anti-oxidant
Vitamin C is known to play a crucial role in the oxidation process. It prevents free radicals from destroying the skin.
Free radicals are caused by ultraviolet rays from the sun and its reaction with oxygen.
Vitamin C Stimulates Collagen
The vitamin helps synthesize collagen, a component of the skin that is essential in slowing down the aging process of the skin.
L-ascorbic acid signals the collagen genes to begin creating new collagen
Vitamin C Treats Scars
Mildly deep scars are healed skin lesions. The only difference is that some collagen is missing from the bottom of the scar. It, therefore, looks depressed.
You can get this collagen refilled with an injection at regular intervals or try to use Vitamin C and find out if you are getting satisfactory results.
Vitamin C encourages production of collagen and elastin in the skin. With more collagen and elastin, the skin looks healthy, young and the scars don’t look that prominent.
The Vitamin C Challenge
Vitamin C skin care, however, faces a major challenge today. This is related to the oxidation tendency of Vitamin C skin care products.
On coming in contact with any oxidizing agent like air, the Vitamin C in the Vitamin C skin care products gets oxidized. Thus, makes the Vitamin C skin care product useless and counter-effective.
The oxidized Vitamin C imparts a yellowish-brown color to the Vitamin C skin care product.
This is something that you need to check before buying a Vitamin C skin care product.
Even after you buy a Vitamin C skin care product, you need to store it properly and keep checking that it’s still good to use. For example, examine if it hasn’t attained a yellowish-brown texture.
The manufacturers of Vitamin C skin care products have tried to deal with this (oxidation) problem in multiple ways and research on Vitamin C skin care products is on the top of their list.
One such method of retaining the effectiveness of Vitamin C skin care products for a long term is to keep a high concentration (say 10%) of Vitamin C.
However, this makes the Vitamin C skin care products even more expensive. The Vitamin C skin care products are already pretty inexpensive and making them even more expensive will throw the product manufacturers out of business.
The other way is to use Vitamin C derivatives like ascorbyl palmitate and magnesium ascorbyl phosphate.
These are not only more stable but also inexpensive.
Even though the derivatives-based products are not as effective as the Vitamin C skin care products, their stability against oxidation is a very desirable feature that makes them very attractive. Moreover, these are known to be less irritating too.
Talking of effectiveness of Vitamin C skin care products, it’s important to mention that not everyone responds to Vitamin C treatments. So it’s not a magic potion in any way.
If you don’t see a noticeable difference in your skin, it might be because of your skin not responding to Vitamin C treatment and the Vitamin C skin care products might not be at fault, at all.
As more research goes on, one can only keep our fingers crossed and wait for a complete solution to the challenges faced by ‘Vitamin C skin care’ today.
Vitamin C is often regarded as a wrinkle fighter or an anti-aging agent.
The main objective of ‘Vitamin C skin care’, in scientific terms, is to increase the synthesis of collagen, a structural protein that is found in the skin.
The additional benefit is related to its capability of countering free radicals which cause damage to the skin.
Please consult your doctor about vitamin C topical formulations. Vitamin C is unstable and your doctor will guide you best about which brand to use. Your doctor will also guide you about your scar concerns and how Vitamin C will help.
