Is Vitamin C serum a necessity in your skincare routine? — GalaGlo
The beauty and skincare industry raves about vitamin C. You can find almost every beauty guru suggesting different brands of vitamin C and talking about its benefits. In recent years, Vitamin C has been a holy grail ingredient for every skin type.
Due to its potent benefits, it is quite a hot topic in the industry. While you can always consume vitamin C-rich fruits and veggies to give you the glow from within, you can also use it as a topical treatment for your skin and incorporate it into your daily skincare routine!
The most common form of vitamin C applied in skincare has to be the good old vitamin C face serums. You will surely lose count of the number of vitamin C face serums released until now in the market. However, not all of these Vitamin C products are safe for consumer usage and effective enough.
If you are wondering whether you should incorporate a vitamin C face serum into your skincare routine, let's discuss everything about the hype and craze around Vitamin C and understand the major benefits that will validate your choice. Stick to us till the end of the post, and you will end up making a decision for your skincare routine that will bring you benefits for ages.
What is Vitamin C face serum exactly, and what's in it?
You may be wondering what the hype really is about Vitamin C serums? What makes it such a special skincare product?
A vitamin C serum is a power-packed potion with vitamin C as the main ingredient that usually has the consistency of a liquid or gel.
Vitamin C is naturally present in our skin, responsible for boosting collagen production and antioxidant levels. It protects the skin against the pesky damage of the UV rays and other irritants in the environment. It also aids in water retention in your skin, making your skin soft and supple.
Aren’t Vitamin C fruits and veggies enough for your skin?
Vitamin C is an exceptionally potent ingredient that is necessary for your diet. However, simply increasing the content of Vitamin C may boost your immunity well but won't be enough to bring you the skin of your dreams.
This is because the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin, doesn't have many blood vessels that can send the nutrients to the skin. Thus, when applied topically in the form of face serum, vitamin C is the best choice to neutralize the free radicals and gradually improve your skin health.
According to research, the participants in the experiment witnessed an increased collagen production in tier skin within the first 40 days of treatment. After the 60 day mark, the results were even more affirmative, concluding that Vitamin C is a splendid ingredient that most people should incorporate into their skincare routine.
Is Vitamin C Serum appropriate for every age group?
The best part about vitamin C is that it is not limited to a certain age group. For example, most people claim you should start using retinol in your 20s and above. There are no such restrictions with vitamin C until you keep the concentration right as per your skin type.
Vitamin C face serums are one such preventive skincare product that can be used irrespective of your age.
Are you suffering from pigmentation, acne scars, and melasma in your teenage days? Choose a good Vitamin C face serum.
Or is it fine lines, wrinkles, and saggy skin in your late 50s? Again, Vitamin C face serum is the way to go!
Reasons to incorporate Vitamin C face serum into your skincare routine
The thumb rule before incorporating skincare products into your skincare routine is to analyze the purpose of using them in the first place. Here is a list of skin concerns well targeted by a good vitamin C serum. Also, you can get multiple valuable reasons to start using this magical product in your skincare routine. Let's check them out.
Safe for every skin type
Vitamin C is one such amazing ingredient that is well suitable and safe for every skin type. Most people who use vitamin C face serum do not face any such adverse reactions related to the skin care product.
However, if you have an overly sensitive skin type, you may want to go for a patch test before you apply the serum to your entire face. This will ensure that you are not allergic or your skin doesn't get irritated with this ingredient.
Also, vitamin C is safe to use with other skin activities, which is usually not the case with other potent ingredients such as retinol, niacinamide, etc. You can include it with your alpha hydroxy acids, SPF, and other products without any restrictions.
Hydrates the skin
Do you suffer from constant dry and dull skin? According to research, vitamin C is one of the best ingredients you incorporate into your body and skin to boost its quality. According to this review of literature, topical vitamin C penetrates deep into the skin in the form of ascorbic acid and contributes to your skin's hydration. Magnesium ascorbyl phosphate and other derivatives of vitamin C also offer some great hydrating properties to your skin in the long run. It reduces the rates of transepidermal water loss in your skin which helps your skin retain moisture for long hours.
Reduces pigmentation
If there was one such ingredient that works best for pigmentation, it has to be the good old Vitamin C face serum. Suppose you have darkness around your mouth, nose, and other areas of the face, no worries. This usually occurs due to many factors such as environmental changes, hormonal disbalances, sun exposure, and more.
Irrespective of the reason for the hyperpigmentation on your skin, Vitamin C is an active ingredient that targets the affected areas, eliminates the excess secretion of melanin, and contributes to a youthful glow.
With consistent usage of a vitamin C serum. You can slowly find your hyperpigmentation fading around the affected areas, resulting in more radiant and glowing skin!
Reduce redness in your skin
Is your skin always red and inflamed? If nothing seems to reduce the redness in your skin, try out the anti-inflammatory properties of a vitamin C face serum. According to a review, vitamin C face serum can effectively reduce puffiness and redness and improves the shine of your face.
Vitamin C face serum basically neutralizes the free radicals in your skin that causes oxidative damage and optimizes your skin's immune system to discourage any further inflammatory immune response. You may even find your redness fading right from the first few uses as the anti-inflammatory effects of Vitamin C face serum is usually high.
Reduces under-eye circles
Just pulled an all-nighter for the assignments and now ranting about the dark under-eye circles that make you look dull and tired? A good skincare routine with vitamin C face serum is the best fix for your under-eye circles. Vitamin C serums are great for smoothing out the fine lines and wrinkles around your eyes by plumping and hydrating the skin. It also helps alleviate the discoloration under the eyes and aids in a brighter under eye.
According to a study, Vitamin C face serums usually consist of a small amount of sodium ascorbate, which evidently contributed to improving the dark circles after 6 months of usage and concealed the dark coloration due to the congested blood.
To make the process quicker, you can also include some cold compresses under your eyes, and the results can be visible within just a few weeks of usage.
Promotes collagen production
Collagen is an essential protein that is naturally produced in our skin. Lower levels of collagen are associated with fine lines, wrinkles, and other signs of aging. Vitamin C face serum is great for boosting collagen production. Vitamin C face serum boosts the process of collagen synthesis,
In fact, you also need to consume vitamin C-rich foods to maintain a healthy balance of collagen in your body. This is because vitamin C is an excellent cofactor for the two most crucial enzymes for collagen synthesis - prolyl hydroxylase, which stabilizes the collagen molecule, and lysyl hydroxylase, which offers structural strength. Both of these combined together contribute largely towards increasing the collagen production in your skin and getting youthful skin!
Vitamin C face serum is also excellent if your skin is sagging and losing elasticity and firmness. Skin sagging can result from oxidative damage, stress, extreme weight loss, and many other reasons. Applying a vitamin C serum to your skincare routine will boost collagen production, which will result in an overall tightening and toning effect on your skin.
Protects against sun damage
We already know the effects of excessive sun exposure on your skin. Excess sun exposure leads to oxidant stress in your skin via pollutants or UV radiation which readily depletes the vitamin C levels in your skin. It also makes your skin photosensitive and photodamaged. All of the sun damage is usually caused by molecules called free radicals.
Vitamin C serum is rich in antioxidants that protect your skin from the free radicals and ensure that your skin is always well protected from the sun.
It also helps to soothe sunburns by accelerating cell turnover. Vitamin C face serums help to replace the damaged cells with healthy ones.
However, ensure that you apply a good sunscreen layer on top of your vitamin C face serum if you use it under exposure to the sun.
Boost wound healing
Did you know sometimes you create micro-tears by using harsh face scrubs on your skin? Apart from the micro-tears, sun exposure can also lead to sunburn, a wound to your skin.
Vitamin C face serum application can readily speed up the wound healing process and reduce the risk of infection and scarring on your skin.
Dos and Don'ts of choosing a good vitamin C face serum for your skincare routine
Not every vitamin C serum is potent enough to give you adequate results or safe for consumer usage. The goal is to trust only the most reputed brands for sourcing your Vitamin C face serums, such as the GalaGlo Vitamin C serum designed to give your skin the best results. If you are still on the hunt to find a good vitamin C face serum for your skincare routine, here are a few dos and don'ts you need to follow to ensure that you are always investing in the best products.
Dos:
- Check the vitamin C face serum's color and consistency regularly to ensure it has not oxidized.
- Always store your vitamin C face serums in cold and dark places as exposure to light and sun rays can cause oxidation to the serum, resulting in losing out its potency.
- In case you find your serum yellow or brown, it's time to dump the bottle as it is now oxidized and harmful to your skin.
- Always purchase serums that are offered in airtight and opaque bottles. This will prevent the entrance of air and light into the bottle.
- Always close the lid of the bottle tightly as contact with oxygen can break down the vitamin C face serum.
- There are different concentrations of vitamin C added to your vitamin C face serum. If you are just starting out, it is better to start with the lower concentration ones and then upgrade for better results.
Don'ts:
- Do not store your vitamin C face serum in the bathroom. the humidity can lead to oxidation
- Do not use an excess serum. A pea-sized amount in your skin is more than enough to bring you the magic results of the product.
- Do not add benzoyl peroxide to your vitamin C serum as it can oxidize it.
- Do not pair your vitamin C face serum with retinol as it may cause skin irritation.
Final thoughts
Vitamin C face serum is a dire necessity in every skincare regime. Irrespective of the skin concerns you have, a good quality vitamin C face serum can literally transform the quality of your skin and add the radiance and glow you have always wished for. Using it twice a day religiously, at least for the first few months, should be enough to help you observe the results in your skin. Thus, don't wait any further. Get the best vitamin C face serum for your skincare routine, and you will no longer want to go back to your older skincare products.