Vit C – Which one is on your skin?

Vit C matters a lot, and the right Vit C matters even more.  Are these in your ingredient list?

L Ascorbic Acid, Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate or Ascorbyl Phosphate, these are all derivatives of Vit C and while they are all making appearances in many levels of skincare they are not found in Savant Apothecary ingredient lists.  

What’s all the fuss about Vit C anyhow? 

One little molecule, so essential to life and yet so common it’s almost boring, it’s not even a really complicated molecule but it does a lot in the body and it’s absence quickly leads to problems.  Likewise it’s continual presence has remarkable effects on the body long term and your skin is no exception.  If I had to only have one active ingredient and forego all others I would keep Vit C.

But back to which one……Tetra hexyldecyl Ascorbate, yep seriously that’s its name, but it’s easy to recognise in an ingredient list at least.

Why? Vitamin C does marvellous things to you skin, it protects cells against UVA and UVB damage, in inhibits the formation of pigmentation, it is a very good antioxidant, induces collagen production, breaks down pigmentation.

So here’s the thing with those different forms of Vit C, they don’t all do the same things. If you put all of them on at once they would work, but individually they only do some of the things and then to varying degrees. 

Tetra hexyldecyl Ascorbate does All of them, yep every single one and not just by a small difference but by a huge difference. And it’s more stable and comfortable to wear as well, so your product lasts longer.

Why do so many brands use all these other forms?

They are heavily used because some of  them are cheap and others will perform well in some of the areas and not in others and that is a good enough trade off for most brands when it comes to choosing profit over performance. They rely on your ignorance…..truly! 

Yes Tetra Hexyldecyl Ascorbate is expensive for me and hard to source for a young business like Savant Apothecary but on my skin, everyday for my lifetime, I’m choosing it.  

Using the right ingredients has been a constant bugbear for me for over 25yrs and the number one reason Savant Apothecary came into being.

I really got fed up of having to hunt around for products that had the right ingredients and worse still having to pay through the nose for products with lesser quality ingredients. Or finding too low a concentration of the night ingredients (those serious skin care people who know what to look for on ingredient lists will understand ha ha).

Sales Reps from cosmetic brands often didn’t like me when they visited my shop. I was picky and asked lots of questions, or I’d glance over the ingredient list and decide then and there the meeting was over.

So I made my own with a strong background in Chemistry and Biology and understanding what was on offer to deliver great skincare at this point in the world.  First it was made for me, then for some friends, then favourite clients and now I make them for you.

Knowledge is a powerful thing, you put products on your skin for most of your life, they have to be healthy and deliver the right outcomes.

Two of our all time favourites – Luminous Face Cream and Vit A & C Oil are standout products when it comes to using Vitamin C on your skin.