Vitamin C serums are a great addition to a healthy skincare routine at any age. It is beneficial for both younger and mature skin but starting a vitamin C serum in your younger years will only help your skin and make it’s aging and appearance even better when you are older.
Over the past few years, vitamin C serum has gained a lot of popularity and many brands have created their own new vitamin C serums to tap into this popular little niche market. It has become such a hot product due to its ability to make your skin look more youthful, glowy, and success at treating a wide variety of skin concerns. From acne to wrinkles to red blotches to acne, vitamin C serum has benefits for everyone, at any age, with any type of skin.
In this post, we will discuss the main benefits of vitamin C serum, how to use vitamin C serum properly, and a DIY serum that is much less expensive than buying a pricy version in stores or online! Let’s get to it.
Vitamin C Serum Benefits
There are heaps of benefits that vitamin C serum holds. Below are some of the ways that a high-quality and natural vitamin C serum will benefit your skin.
Collagen Production
In order to maintain healthy and youthful skin and minimize the development or appearance of wrinkles, collagen in the skin is a must. Vitamin C help boost your skin’s natural ability to make collagen, which in return makes fine lines and wrinkles look smoother. It can even stop the formation of more lines and wrinkles as well. Vitamin C is a concentrated antioxidant and a serum contain high concentrations of the vitamin making it highly effective.
Sun Damage Protection
In addition to fighting those pesky wrinkles, vitamin C serum will also protect your sensitive skin from the sun’s harmful rays. Since vitamin C is such a powerful and potent antioxidant, it protects your skin from UA and UVB and makes your skin stronger, so it can resist the damage from these rays.
Fights Skin Discoloration
Everyone hates when their skin is red, blotchy, or discolored from new and old acne marks. Uneven skin can really take a hit to your confidence levels and make you feel self-conscious and embarrassed to leave the house without any makeup. Vitamin C helps calm skin inflammation and discoloration, giving you a smoother and more even complexion that you can feel confident about.
Calms Inflammation
Similar to fighting skin discoloration, it can also help calm down irritated and inflamed skin. Whether you have puffy undereye bags or red pimples that are sore, painful, or inflamed vitamin C serums can help. The compounds are able to reduce redness and swelling associated with these skin conditions.
Brightens Skin
Furthermore, vitamin C serum also brightens your skin and gives you that dewy glow everyone is looking for these days. If you find that your skin is dull and lacks a healthy appearance, topical vitamin C application may just help you get that glowing skin you have always craved.
Increases Skin Moisture and Hydration
If you suffer from dry skin that tends to flake or even get red, painful, and split, a vitamin C serum may just help you. Vitamin C is an essential vitamin for the skin and body. Many vitamin C serums also contain a few other ingredients and essential vitamins and minerals that are also awesome for the skin. This high concentration of vitamins can restore your skin’s natural moisture an effectively combat dry skin.
DIY Vitamin C Serum
Of course, there are about a thousand vitamin C serums available to buy. But it is important to keep in mind that not all serums are created equally. There are high-quality serums and there are low-quality serums.
Even though you may come across a vitamin C serum that uses the proper concentration of vitamin C and other beneficial ingredients, has great reviews, and is quite pricy, that does not automatically mean it is a good product that is safe and healthy for you to use. In fact, even serums that claim they are natural can have many unnatural and harmful ingredients lurking in the bottle.
For instance, a very popular vitamin C serum with good reviews and best-seller status contains many harmful and unnecessary ingredients in their product. The ingredients are as follows:
Organic Deionized Herbal Infusion, Organic Aloe Barbadensis Leaf (Aloe), Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate (Vitamin C), MSM, Botanical Hyaluronic Acid (Cassia Angustifolia Seed Polysaccharide), Hamamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel), Vitamin E (d-alpha Tocopheryl Acetate), Carbomer, (2s)-2-Amino-5-guanidinopentanoic Acid, Organic Gotu Kola, Wildcrafted Horsetail (Equisetum Arvense), Wildcrafted Dandelion, Wildcrafted Geranium, Organic Jojoba Oil (Organic Simmondsia Chinensis), Phenoxyethanol, Ethyl Hexyl Glycerin.
As you can see, there are a lot of additives and some of them are deemed unsafe to use most notably phenoxyethanol. This ingredient is a preservative that acts to limit harmful bacteria from growing inside of the bottle and product.
It is linked to a number of health concerns like allergic reactions, hives, eczema, and nervous system issues, especially if breastfeeding mothers use this ingredient. It can be transferred to their babies through their milk and give the babies diarrhea and vomiting.
Luckily, there are other truly natural brands that leave these additives out, but the best way to avoid toxic chemicals in serums while not breaking the bank is to make some of your own products at home. You can control exactly what you are putting into your vitamin C serum, how much product you want to make, and if you want to add in anything else you know is safe and beneficial for your skin.
This recipe for a great DIY vitamin c serum comes from Live Simply and it takes about five to ten minutes to whip up! It is simple, easy, and doesn’t require a ton of ingredients or anything super fancy.
DIY Vitamin C Serum Ingredients
- 1 tsp vitamin C powder
- 1 tsp filtered water
- 1 TB aloe vera gel+ 2 tsp
- 1/4 tsp vitamin E oil optional
DIY Vitamin C Serum Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the vitamin C powder and filtered water. Whisk the ingredients until the vitamin C powder is completely dissolved. Once dissolved, stir in the aloe vera gel and vitamin E oil.
- Pour the serum into a dark amber bottle (a funnel helps).
- Store the serum in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. Around the two week mark, you may notice the serum’s pH level change*. Your serum may have a different color and consistency, depending on the vitamin C powder and aloe used to make this recipe.
And that is all there is to it. You have a safe, healthy, and high-quality vitamin C serum you can use in the months to come! The great part about doing it DIY is that when you run out of the product you can simply make another batch right at home and you don’t have to worry about rushing to buy more product from the store or waiting for it to be shipped to your home. All you have to do is gran your ingredients and do the same recipe all over again.
Final Thoughts
Vitamin C serums have tons of benefits for the skin and incorporating them into your daily skincare routine is an essential part of many people’s day. It is powerful and helpful and will keep your skin looking amazing for many years to come.
With such great benefits grab all of the ingredients above from this great DIY vitamin C serum recipe and whip up your own batch for healthy and glowing skin today!
Looking for more natural and organic products for your skin? Check out our Best Natural and Organic Moisturizers article and Best Natural and Organic Face Serums article.
This article was last updated on May 6, 2022 .
Many people think that vitamin C is nothing more than a nutrient that helps the immune system, but as you described here, it helps with skin care, too. Vitamin C has been known to reduce red and brown spots on the skin, resulting in clearer skin. It’s a great incentive that shouldn’t be overlooked.