Vitamin C is found in citrus fruits or green leafy vegetables. What is Vitamin C?
Vitamin C is found in citrus fruits or green leafy vegetables. What is Vitamin C?
How can Vitamin C be used in skin care products?
Vitamin C is a sugar-like molecule, called L-ascorbic acid, that acts a as a major anti-oxidant in the skin.
Vitamin C has other important functions in the body, including helping to make collagen and improving the barrier strength of the skin and blood vessels.
A lack or deficiency of Vitamin C is called Scurvy and has been recognized for hundreds of years in soldiers, sailors and others deprived of access to fresh fruit and vegetables.
Unfortunately, humans are nearly unique among plants and animals, in that we don’t make our own Vitamin C.
We must eat Vitamin C (citrus fruits or leafy green vegetables or supplements) to obtain it.
The amount of Vitamin C in the skin is closely regulated. Ingesting excessive quantities of Vitamin C in food or pill form does not add to the Vitamin C content of the skin beyond what the skin and intestine will naturally permit.
The only known way to add Vitamin C to the skin is to apply it topically.
Formulations containing Vitamin C are not easily made, because ascorbic acid is somewhat unstable and does not mix well with other ingredients.
Nevertheless, the potential benefits of adding Vitamin C to skin care products has encouraged some manufacturers to experiment with adding Vitamin C to various lotions, liquids and creams.
What are some of the potential benefits of using a topical Vitamin C product?
Vitamin C may partially protect against UVA and UVB induced redness (erythema) or sunburn.
Vitamin C may potentially improve collagen synthesis in the dermis or middle layer of the skin. Vitamin C may improve some of the skin signs of photoaging, including wrinkles. It should be noted that many of the studies using topical Vitamin C are small. The skin care products containing Vitamin C are mainly classified as ‘cosmeceuticals’ and thus do not have the same FDA proof of efficacy required.
Topical Vitamin C can also be irritating or drying to some skin types.
Cellex C Skin Care Products
References:
Cutaneous Photodamage, Oxidative Stress and Topical Anti-Oxidant Protection: Sheldon Pinnell MD
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology January 2003
Double Blind, Half-Face Study Comparing Topical Vitamin C and Vehicle for Rejuvenation of Photodamage.
Richard E. Fitzpatrick, MD and Elizabeth F. Rostan, MD
Dermatologic Surgery March 2002