Why Do I Need Vitamin C?

You may not recognise the name “Ascorbic acid” right away. But summon its more popular name—Vitamin C, and you know exactly what I’m talking about. Abundantly found in citrus fruits like oranges, lemons, and strawberries, Vitamin C is one of the essential nutrients required in our diet for growth, development and repair of body tissues.

Surely you knew from middle-school science that a Vitamin C deficiency causes gum bleeding, tooth loosening, and delayed healing of skin cuts and wounds—a condition we call as scurvy. So it is easy to establish a direct link between this micronutrient and skin and dental well-being. Many researches later, we know today that Vitamin-C is literally the guardian angel for skincare.

Let’s explore why you need Vitamin C for a glowing, healthy skin!

Vitamin C promotes the formation of collagen and elastin, the most abundant proteins in human body that makes up connective tissues like skin, ligaments, musculature and ligaments. Collagen and elastin formation is the secret behind skin elasticity and firmness, a deciding factor behind wrinkles, dryness and saggy skin. So it helps you achieve that youthful bounce and glow!

Vitamin C boosts the skin’s capacity to regenerate faster. This means rapid wound healing and disappearance of cut marks. This property helps smooth the wrinkles and fill fine lines on the skin’s surface, for a youthful, blemish-free skin.

Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant. Imagine your skin getting exposed to so many pollutants like cigarette and vehicle smoke, refrigerants from the fridge and air conditioners, and dust; UV rays ravage your delicate skin every day that you step out. Free radicals, or highly reactive particles floating in the environment, take their toll on the cells that make up your epidermis- the outer layer of the skin, giving it a dull look and aging it prematurely. Vitamin C neutralizes these effects quite naturally, helping it retain the true lustre of your skin.

One of the commercial derivatives of Vitamin C, magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, is used for its potent hydrating effect in skincare. It reduces loss of water through your skin pores for better moisture retentivity.

Vitamin C is a superior, natural skin-lightening agent. It has the property to fend off melanin overproduction, which causes skin darkening conditions like hyperpigmentation and dark patches. This is why it’s a recommended treatment for fading pigmentation due to tanning, acne marks, and scars. This is the wonder ingredient for getting an even-toned complexion!

The anti-inflammatory nature of vitamin C is very well known. It helps alleviate redness and puffiness, which is why it is an ideal ingredient for preventing under-eye sagginess and sunburnt patches.

Apart from these skin-friendly benefits, this wonder vitamin also promotes a healthy immune system, promotes maintenance of the cartilage, bones, and even teeth and gums, reduces swelling, and prevent risk of cancer and heart diseases. Further, Vitamin C enhances the absorption of iron from foods. Iron is what constitutes haemoglobin in your blood, so this nutrient is great for blood circulation, improving RBC capacity, and elasticity of the blood vessels. What’s more, studies have shown its role in delaying the onset of macular degeneration, an age-induced eye disorder.

While it’s true that consuming fruits and veggies is the easiest way to add Vitamin C to your body, there’s only so much vitamin C that you can get through your usual diet. Moreover, it’s a highly unstable compound that gets disintegrated at high temperatures, in strong sunlight, and by dissolution in water.

A direct and more efficient way to gain vitamin C for skin care is through topical application—think skin creams, lotions and serums. For most skin care products, the pure form of vitamin C used is labelled as ascorbic acid or L-ascorbic acid. It also often appears in derivative forms in skincare regimens, including magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate, and methylsilanol ascorbate. It thoroughly deep-penetrates the skin barrier, which makes its benefits reach the target area much more effectively. And when combined with other skin-friendly antioxidants like Vitamin E, its efficacy multiplies manifold for a double skin guard against free radicals.

Having said that, dermatologists concur that the best mode to get vitamin C through to your skin is Vitamin C serum, since serums contain highly concentrated and pure form of the vitamin as compared to creams or toners. Just a couple of drops of this skincare elixir massaged into the target area—under-eye bags, crow’s feet, fine lines and wrinkles, discoloured patches of skin, inflamed and puffy facial areas, redness due to sunburns, and so on—are enough to rejuvenate your skin.

Vitamin C serums are here to stay, and we at Indian style stealer are convinced of their miraculous properties. Here’s a list of some of our favourite tried-and-tested serums with Vitamin C:

Sintra Naturals Acai Facial Oil Serum
WOW Vitamin C Hyaluronic Acid Serum
Seer Secrets Rosehip And Kakadu Plum Vitamin C & 5% Niacinamide Facial Serum
Sage Apothecary Vitamin C 20% Serum
St Botanica Professional-C 20% Vitamin C Serum
Clinique Fresh Pressed Daily Booster with Pure Vitamin C 10%
Siachen Hibiscus Face Serum With Geranium & Neem
Biotique Vitamin C Serum
Mamaearth Skin Illuminate Serum
Minimalist 10% Vitamin C Face Serum

How to use serums?

Serums containing vitamin C can be used for extended periods by most people safely without side-effects. However, as a precaution, a patch test should be conducted prior.

As we’ve mentioned earlier, serums are potent stuff—if you’re a newbie user or with hypersensitive skin, you may experience mild tingling or discomfort. Start with a 5% concentration with smaller quantities in the beginning, which is gentle enough for sensitive skinned users to apply on a long-term basis. As your skin gets used to this new ingredient, you can gradually use stronger concentrations, as high as 20% Vitamin C. Higher concentrations may be best suited for treating differential discoloration.

Vitamin C is perfectly safe to use in conjunction with some other components used in skin products, including alpha hydroxy acids, retinols, and SPF. When using multiple products, serums should be applied first and then layered with a moisturiser.

Are you ready to grab this hero product for your beauty kit? Shop for your favourite organics here!