Vitamin C serums are a fantastic addition to anyones beauty arsenal as a quality serum can reduce inflammation to help clear acne, promote collagen formation to plump out scars and fade post acne marks and hyper pigmentation for smoother, clearer skin.
However, with DIY natural beauty being more popular than ever, the misuse of certain ingredients is becoming more and more common. Today I'm sharing four reasons why you should never make a vitamin C serum at home.
Why You Should NEVER Make Your Own Vitamin C Serum
You may have heard some beauty bloggers touting the benefits of applying highly acidic fruits containing vitamin C, such as lemons, directly to the skin to speed up healing and fade scars.
I can't stress enough how BAD this advice is!
Lemon's don't actually contain that much vitamin C but they are very, very acidic so when applied directly to the skin they destroy our skin's acid mantle and cause redness and irritation.
Crushing up your vitamin C tablet or adding L-ascorbic acid powder to water or glycerin may seem like a much cheaper solution to a pricey vitamin C serum but they are many reasons why you should never make your own vitamin C serum at home!
Vitamin C will crystallise
So your favourite beauty blogger has told you that dissolving some L-ascorbic vitamin C crystals into water makes a great vitamin C facial mist and you are desperate to give it a go... The problem here is those vitamin C crystals may dissolve in water but as soon as you apply the mixture to your skin, the vitamin C will start to recrystallise - meaning it'll never penetrate much further that the surface of your skin and won't give you any of the desired effects that a properly formulated serum would do.
It's super acidic
The main ingredient used in DIY vitamin C serums is L-ascorbic acid, like the name suggests - it's highly acidic. Healthy skin naturally has a pH between 5.5-6.5 so applying a solution with a really low, acidic pH can sometimes cause your skin to become red, irritated and dry/flaky. NEVER a good thing.
L-ascorbic acid is highly unstable
L-ascorbic acid is highly unstable. What this means is that it when it's exposed to light, oxygen or heat it oxidises and looses its effectiveness. To make sure our skin receives a decent amount of topical vitamin C each time we apply our serum, quality brands use airless pumps, UV protected bottles and stable forms of vitamin C so there is minimal risk of oxidisation.
You're losing out on amazing key actives
If you were to make your own vitamin C serum, you'd probably just use a base of water and glycerin then just add the L-abscorbic acid into the mix. However, antioxidants work so much better as a team. In particular, vitamin C that has shown to be much more effective when combined with other antioxidants; retinol, vitamin E and ferulic acid.
What's your favourite vitamin C serums for plumping and smoothing the skin? Have you attempted to make you own serum at home and later regretted it? Let me know in the comments below!
Originally posted on Skyn Therapy.
For further acne advice, visit Amy's blog.