4 Amazing Benefits Of Vitamin C For Your Skin
Many people now eat meat as the main diet, but vegetables and fruits are also important to our health because fruits and vegetables contain the health factor that this article focuses on—-Vitamin C.
Vitamin C has experienced a legendary history from discovery to becoming a skin care ingredient.
Please read this post carefully.
A God of Death At Sea–Scurvy
In the era of great navigation, adventurers often sailed on the sea for several months. Many sailors got sick somehow. Their symptoms usually manifested as bleeding gums, hair loss, weakness of limbs, wounds that could not heal, and finally died of organ failure.
This is the scurvy that tortured the adventurers of the great voyage era. Soon, scurvy swept across Europe madly, and the navigation industry in Britain, France, and other countries was paralyzed.
Life-Saving Medicine–Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C)
To fight the god of death, adventurers searched for various solutions. Captain James Cook, recorded in history, has his own way. He ordered the crew to keep absolutely clean and keep the food fresh. It is forbidden to cook food in a copper pot. This is because cooking food in a copper pot will produce a copper compound, which will accelerate the oxidation of vitamins in the food.
However, Captain Cook is also based on experience. He didn’t know the principle. Captain Cook was very lucky, none of his crew had scurvy, but the same method would not work for the other fleets.
This disaster did not turn around until the appearance of Dr. James Lind. He conducted the first clinical trial on diet and scurvy in history with 12 sailors suffering from scurvy and found that Lemon has a preventive effect on scurvy.
As a result, the officers and soldiers of the British Navy began to consume lemon juice every day, and scurvy gradually disappeared from the British Navy, and British sailors and seamen became known as “Lemon Man”.
What magical ingredient is hidden in lemon juice?
More than 100 years later, Charles Glen King and W. A. Waugh separated a crystalline substance from lemon juice, which revealed the answer—vitamin C can prevent scurvy.
Since then, lemon has almost become synonymous with vitamin C.
Vitamin C has a structure similar to glucose and is a polyhydroxy compound.
In the human body, vitamin C is mainly involved in the synthesis of antibodies and collagen, tissue repair, fat, and protein synthesis, maintaining immune function, keeping blood vessels intact, and promoting the absorption of non-heme iron.
Vitamin C is mainly used in skin care products for skin lightening and anti-oxidation.
Vitamin C cannot be synthesized by the human body on its own, but we can easily obtain vitamin C from food.
At this time, vitamin C is only an oral medicine to fight scurvy.
More than half a century passed quickly. In one afternoon, a group of Duke University scholars became interested in a shaved pig. Everyone discussed how to deal with this bald pig. At this moment, a person suddenly thought: I have a little vitamin C. Try applying a little vitamin C to the pig?
So, a paper was published, the topic was “Vitamin C can reduce the spots on the skin from the sun.” The group of scholars probably never imagined that this discovery would excite all skincare companies!
Merchants have the keenest sense of smell, they smell business opportunities. Since then, more and more skin care products have added vitamin C. Years of studies have shown that vitamin C in skin care products can play a role in anti-oxidation, skin lightening, anti-aging, and sun protection.
4 Benefits of Vitamin C For Skin
Anti-oxidation
Our skin is subject to various irritations in daily life, such as ultraviolet rays, radiation, inflammation, pollution, etc. After the skin is stimulated, a large number of free radicals will be produced. These free radicals will wantonly damage the skin, cells, protein structure, DNA, and so on.
If these free radicals are not eliminated in time, they will also infect healthy molecules into free radicals, which will increase the number of free radicals in the body. If things go on like this, our skin will get worse and worse, and it is very easy to produce wrinkles, acne, and other factors that make the face ugly.
Vitamin C is very powerful in removing free radicals. Vitamin C can remove a variety of free radicals in the skin, such as superoxide anions, hydroxyl free radicals, singlet oxygen, and hydrogen peroxide.
Vitamin C can also revive vitamin E and coenzyme Q10 that has been consumed. Vitamin E and coenzyme Q10 are also strong antioxidants.
Under normal circumstances, many anti-oxidant skin care products will use vitamin C and vitamin E in combination, one of the reasons is that their antioxidant capacity is very strong.
The second reason is that vitamin C and vitamin E kill free radicals by sacrificing themselves. If both vitamin C and vitamin E are consumed, there will be no antioxidants to eliminate free radicals. But vitamin C can revive the dead vitamin E, and vitamin E can also revive the dead vitamin C. Skin care products can be added with vitamin C and vitamin E at the same time to achieve the effect of 1+1>2.
Skin lightening
The process of skin darkening is as follows:
1. The skin is exposed to sunlight for a long time. To resist the damage caused by ultraviolet rays to the skin, the skin is prepared to produce melanin to protect against ultraviolet rays.
2. Tyrosine in melanocytes synthesizes melanin under the co-catalysis of tyrosinase and free radicals.
3. To resist the invasion of ultraviolet rays, the melanin located in the basal layer of the skin needs to be transferred to the stratum corneum to block the ultraviolet rays.
Vitamin C and its derivatives can inhibit the activity of tyrosinase and scavenge free radicals so that tyrosine cannot be converted into melanin, and the skin cannot be darkened.
Vitamin C can also restore the melanin that has been produced to achieve the purpose of whitening the skin and eliminating spots.
Anti-Aging
Collagen loss is the main factor in skin aging and wrinkles.
The main reason why vitamin C can treat scurvy is that vitamin C can promote the synthesis of facial collagen. External use of vitamin C will also strengthen the production of collagen in the dermis to a certain extent, provide the necessary support for the skin, and have the effect of anti-aging and reducing wrinkles.
Moreover, those who are more affected by topical vitamin C usually consume very little vitamin C in their diet.
Photoprotection
Vitamin C has a photoprotective effect on the skin. It can block a certain amount of light to avoid damage to the skin.
Moreover, when vitamin C and vitamin E are used in combination, the photoprotective effect can be greatly enhanced.
Stability of Vitamin C
Early skin care products directly added vitamin C, also known as L-ascorbic acid or L-vitamin C.
The antioxidant effect of vitamin C is the strongest in the vitamin C family. However, vitamin C is easily soluble in water and not easily soluble in oil. It has a poor affinity with the skin and is not easily absorbed by the skin because the sebum and stratum corneum on the skin surface are lipophilic.
Besides, the stability of vitamin C is poor, and it is easily oxidized and decomposed when exposed to ultraviolet rays or air, the efficacy of oxidized vitamin C is greatly reduced.
How to maintain the stability of vitamin C and extend the shelf life is always a problem that plagues various companies. Different companies have developed various technologies to increase the stability of vitamin C.
The method to increase the stability of vitamin C is usually to develop vitamin C derivatives. However, the effectiveness of vitamin C derivatives is not as good as that of vitamin C, because vitamin C derivatives must be converted into vitamin C after entering the skin to be effective.
Assuming that 100 parts of vitamin C derivatives enter the skin and convert into 20 parts of vitamin C, only 20 parts of vitamin C are playing the role of anti-oxidant and skin lightening.
Let’s take a look at the common vitamin C derivatives.
Magnesium Vitamin C Phosphate, Vitamin C Phosphate Sodium
Also known as magnesium ascorbyl phosphate and L-ascorbic acid-2-phosphate sod. Their stability is better than vitamin C, but they are also water-soluble and have a poorer affinity with the skin.
Magnesium ascorbyl phosphate has slightly better antioxidant properties than L-ascorbic acid-2-phosphate sod.
Vitamin C Glucoside
Also called ascorbyl glucoside or AA2G, is the product of vitamin C and glucose grafted. Vitamin C glucoside has both hydrophilicity and lipophilicity, which increases its affinity and stability to the skin.
The antioxidant capacity of vitamin C glucoside is one of the better among vitamin C derivatives.
Vitamin C Ethyl Ether
Vitamin C ethyl ether is more lipophilic than vitamin C glucoside, and its affinity with the skin is also better.
Its stability and antioxidant capacity are also relatively good among vitamin C derivatives, and the price is cheaper than vitamin C glucoside, and it is the most cost-effective among vitamin C derivatives.
Vitamin C ethyl ether has many names: 3-o-ethyl ascorbic acid, 2-o-ethyl ascorbic acid, ethyl vitamin C, ethyl ascorbic acid, ethyl ascorbate.
Summary
Stability: Vitamin C Ethyl Ether > Vitamin C Glucoside > Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Vitamin C Phosphate Sodium > Vitamin C
Antioxidant Capacity: Vitamin C > Vitamin C Ethyl Ether > Vitamin C Glucoside, Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate > Vitamin C Phosphate Sodium
Affinity with skin: Vitamin C Ethyl Ether > Vitamin C Glucoside > Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Vitamin C Phosphate Sodium > Vitamin C
Precautions For Using Skin Care Products Containing Vitamin C
1. Packaging and preservation
Although the effect of vitamin C is very powerful, the stability of vitamin C is very poor. It is easy to be oxidized when encountering sunlight and air, and the antioxidant capacity of vitamin C will be greatly reduced.
When purchasing skin care products containing vitamin C, look at whether the packaging will block the sun and the air. When storing vitamin C products, it is best to keep them in the refrigerator and avoid the sun to prevent vitamin C from being oxidized.
2. What concentration of vitamin C should be chosen?
For vitamin C to exert its maximum effect, the concentration of 10%-20% is the best, but sensitive skin should be used with caution.
When the concentration is less than 10%, it is difficult to achieve the desired effect.
When the concentration reaches 15%, the effect is better, and the irritation is also greater, and some people will find it difficult to bear.
10%-15% are feasible concentrations, and its efficacy and absorption rate can reach a high level.
At a concentration of 20%, the skin can absorb vitamin C to the maximum. However, high concentrations of vitamin C are also very irritating to the skin. Under normal circumstances, the skin is unbearable, and if the concentration is too high, the absorption rate will decrease.
When choosing a vitamin C product, you must first consider the tolerance of your skin. If the tolerance is poor, it is recommended to choose a low-concentration vitamin C product.
Although some businesses advertise that the product contains vitamin C or vitamin C derivatives, the added concentration is not enough, the product cannot play the role of vitamin C.
3. When to use vitamin C in skin care?
Vitamin C can be used in the morning and evening. Use vitamin C during the day for anti-oxidation and prevent free radicals from damaging facial skin. However, considering the poor stability of vitamin C, it is easy to be decomposed by ultraviolet rays in the sun, and it is necessary to use a parasol and sunscreen when using vitamin C during the day.
Use vitamin C at night to whiten the skin and inhibit the production of melanin.
4. Ingredients suitable for use in combination with vitamin C
The combination of vitamin C and vitamin E and ferulic acid will increase the antioxidant effect.