Friday, November 30, 2012

VITAMIN C SKIN CARE - THE CHALLENGE

Vitamin C is often regarded as a wrinkle fighter or an anti-aging agent. The main objective of Vitamin C skin care, in scientific terms, is to increase the synthesis of collagen (a structural protein that is found in skin).  The additional benefit of Vitamin C skin care is related to its capability of countering free radicals which cause damage to the skin.

Vitamin C skin care, however, faces a major challenge today. This is related to the oxidation tendency of Vitamin C skin care products. On coming in contact with any oxidizing agent (e.g. air), the Vitamin C in the Vitamin C skin care products,  gets oxidized; thus making the Vitamin C skin care product useless (in fact counter-effective). The oxidized Vitamin C imparts a yellowish-brown color to the Vitamin C skin care product. This is something that you need to check before buying a Vitamin C skin care product. Even after you buy a Vitamin C skin care product, you need to store it properly and keep checking that it’s still good to use (i.e. it has not attained a yellowish-brown texture).

The manufacturers of Vitamin C skin care products have tried to deal with this (oxidation) problem in multiple ways and research on Vitamin C skin care products is on the top of their list. One such method of retaining effectiveness of Vitamin C skin care products for a long term is to keep a high concentration (say 10%) of Vitamin C. However, this makes the Vitamin C skin care products even more expensive. The Vitamin C skin care products are already pretty inexpensive and making them even more expensive will throw the product manufacturers out of business. The other way is to use Vitamin C derivatives (like ascorbyl palmitate and magnesium ascorbyl phosphate). These are not only more stable but also inexpensive.  Even though the derivatives based products are not as effective as the Vitamin C skin care products, their stability against oxidation is a very desirable feature that makes them very attractive.  Moreover, these are known to be less irritating too.
Talking of effectiveness of Vitamin C skin care products, it’s important to mention that not everyone responds to Vitamin C treatments. So it’s not a magic potion in any way.  If you don’t see a noticeable difference in your skin, it might be because of your skin not responding to Vitamin C treatment (and the Vitamin C skin care products might not be at fault, at all).

As more research goes on, one can only keep our fingers crossed and wait for a complete solution to the challenges faced by Vitamin C skin care today.

http://www.satinhaircare.com

Disclaimer: We are intended to provide readers with news and information. It is not intended to give personal medical advice, which should be obtained directly from a physician. Acting on any information provided herein without first consulting a physician is solely at the reader’s risk

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