I have been asked about this question a couple of times, so I've decided to write about it in my blog. A lot of people wanted to know whether Vitamin C actually works.
After going through a few papers and a few professional opinions, this is what I have managed to gather:
After going through a few papers and a few professional opinions, this is what I have managed to gather:
Benefits of Vitamin C
1. Reduces fine wrinkles around eyes and mouth.
2. Improve skin hydration.
3. Improve pigmentation appearance and age spots.
4. Improves wound healing through fibroblast stimulation nad migration.
5. Increases capacity of fibroblasts to repair potentially mutagenic DNA lesions.
6. Prevents scurvy.
7. Potent anti-oxidant that protects skin from UVA oxygen radicals.
However bear in mind that:
1. Ascorbic acid or vitamin C is pretty unstable and oxidizes easier when exposed to air.
Because of this, most vitamin C preparations have a pretty short shelf life and usually will change colour after a few months if stabilizing agents are not added in. An oxidized form of vitamin C is sometimes more harmful to skin and may cause sensitivity. An easy tip to keep it stabilize is to keep the bottle sealed tight, away from sunlight and chilled in the fridge.
2. Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin whereas the skin is protected by water by our keratinized layer.
Because of this, you need to be very careful when selecting vitamin C creams or gels to ensure that absorption can occur. Look for products which are lipophilic as it will absorb better into the deeper layers of the skin.
3. Topical Vitamin C has shown to have more benefits towards skin health compared to other methods, although oral vitamin C of 1000 mg daily is sufficient to maintain good health and good skin. Never exceed 2000mg daily as this will lead to vitamin C toxicity which gives you an orange discolouration of the skin, and some have reported renal side effects.
So what would I recommend for a good topical vitamin C?
Obagi has just launched its new range of Vitamin C + Hydroquinone 4% for whitening effect. So far I have been using this serum for the past 1 month and have noticed a significant increase in radiance. Recently, they launched another product which replaces the hydroquinone with Arbutin instead, thus making long term usage possible. Although I do admit these serum are not exactly cheap, but one bottle would last you a good 3 months with the benefits of vitamin C and enhanced whitening. There are also topical vitamin C ranges from 5%-20% for those who are looking for only vitamin C.
