You know this already. Not one skincare active can do it all. Vitamin C sounds like it can. We’re here to set the record straight. These 5 vitamin C skin benefits are ones you will honestly benefit from in real life.
1. Vitamin C Skin Benefits – UV Protection
It’s true. Prevention is key to great skin health. A study published in the Journal of Dermatologic Surgery in 2016[i] found when sunscreen was used daily for a year signs of skin ageing weren’t only prevented, they were reversed.
UV light is potently ageing to skin. UVA light is the most damaging. It’s silent. Doesn’t cause sunburn and is just as intense in winter as in summer.
Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant able to help prevent and reverse ageing UV skin damage. It’s not SPF however it does have overlapping benefits.
2. Use Vitamin C Skincare For Even Skin Tone
Freckles, sun spots, liver spots, uneven skin tone, mottling. Vitamin C skincare truly can help. Time exposes skin’s pigment manufacturing cells stress. Rather than switching off pigment cells, the cause of hypopigmentation, usually pigment cells experience hyperstimulation. A skin condition dermatologists call hyperpigmentation.
UV light damage is a potent mediator. Recent studies show pollution particles are a contributor. DIY skincare containing phototoxic actives like lemon juice are a cause.
How does vitamin C help your skin? Skincare containing vitamin C ‘gets in the way’ of a vital pigment manufacturing enzyme called tyrosinase. The amount of tyrosinase your skin contains determines skin’s speed of melanin production. Using a vitamin C serum daily can therefore help even skin tone and prevent hyperpigmentation.
3. Vitamin C Benefits For Acne
Does vitamin C help with acne? This vitamin C benefit is important. Most traditional anti-acne skincare focuses on sebum reduction. Usually ending in dry, dehydrated, flaky, irritated and still acne prone skin.
This vitamin C skin benefit is overlooked. Sebum oxidation is a key cause of spots, breakouts and acne. As sebum oxidises it becomes highly comedogenic, pores block and breakouts pounce.
Vitamin C skincare prevents sebum oxidation due to it’s antioxidant benefits.
4. Vitamin C Skincare Can Help Firm Skin
This vitamin C skin benefit works in two complimentary ways. Firstly vitamin C is intimately involved in collagen production. When collagen levels are high and healthy skin is firm and plump.
Secondly vitamin C helps prevent degradation of existing collagen fibres. A skin enzyme known as MMP (matrix metalloproteinases) degrades collagen fibres and it’s levels are boosted during times of skin stress. Vitamin C is a known MMP inhibitor[ii].
5. Vitamin C Skincare Can Help Improve Skin’s Stress Resilience
Vitamin C is a skin identical active. Skin makes, needs and knows how to use vitamin C. It’s vital. Without vitamin C skin literally falls apart. Let us introduce you to the vitamin C & E cycle. Where one plus one does not equal two.
Instead vitamin C and E work together synergistically. As vitamin E’s antioxidant benefits get used up, vitamin C works to regenerate its active form[iii], improving skins stress resilience. Preventing damage and preserving youth.
Pro-tip; most vitamin C serums using man-made vitamin C as ascorbic acid are highly unstable. Serums oxidise, go off and skin benefits are poor. The best form of vitamin C for skin is natural vitamin C which is hyper stabilised by Mother Nature’s own antioxidant networks. Get started with our Kakadu Plum Gummy Facial Cleanser – Kakadu is one of the world’s richest natural sources of vitamin C. Click here to find out more.
[i] Dermatol Surg. 2016 Dec;42(12):1354-1361
[ii] Photochem Photobiol Sci. 2002 Oct;1(10):826-33
[iii] Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1987;498:186-99
