Vitamin C and Its Many Faces

There has been so much information and misinformation published about Vitamin C, its stability, its variations and its effects on the skin that it has become almost impossible to find concise and accurate facts about this vitamin. The most significant of these issues focuses on what forms this ingredient takes and which ones are useful.

Firstly, Vitamin C can only be utilized by the skin (or the human body) in the pure form of L-Ascorbic Acid. All other derivatives (including ascorbyl palmitate, magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, sodium ascorbyl phosphate, DHEA-ascorbate, ascorbyl glucoside, etc.) must first be coverted to L-Ascorbic Acid. Not only is this conversion guaranteed or easy, but also the final concentration of L-Ascorbic Acid will be much lower than the actual concentration of the derivative used. A similar comparison can be made between retinoic acid (for example, Retin-A, available by prescription), retinol and retinyl palmitate. A 0.1% concentration of pure retinoic acid can make a dramatic impact to the skin's texture, while a 1% concentration of retinol offers almost 20 times less benefit and retinyl palmitate offers less than 100 times the effectiveness. When using Vitamin C products topically, it is most important to pay attention to the concentration, particle size, formulation and, most importantly, to the type of Vitamin C -- if it is not pure, free-form L-Ascorbic Acid, its utilization will be highly impaired if existent at all.