Friday, September 6, 2013

Vitamin C serum

Vitamin C serum is a natural skin care ingredient that is often found in high-end beauty regimes, and are popping up everywhere.
Why?

Vitamin C is touted as an anti-aging and anti-wrinkle cream. Many of these products also cost an arm and a leg. Thankfully, there is a natural, homemade and inexpensive alternative (noticing a trend here?) that seems to work just as well. Vitamin C is helpful for brightening and tightening skin (this works if you take it internally too!).

Why Vitamin C? Glad you asked… Vitamin C has been reported to:

Increase collaged production in the skin (this helps get rid of wrinkles) – I personally like to take gelatin and Vitamin C internally too for this purpose.
Brighten and tighten the skin
Reduce the effects of negative sun exposure (Not all sun exposure is bad)
Reduce chlorine exposure
Help skin repair itself

Some cautions from experience:

Measure carefully and do not add extra Vitamin C as it is acidic and can/will burn skin if the concentration is too high.
If you have extra sensitive skin, dilute with even more water
This is best paired with a skin care routine like Oil Pulling
For dry or aging skin, Vitamin C serum is a good solution. It can be used for acne prone skin too, but it seems that Sea Spray for skin works better.
If you are dealing with a lot of wrinkles or very dry skin, extra vitamin C can be added, but work up slowly and test on the inner arm before applying to the face


Ingredients

½ tsp Vitamin C Powder (I used this one)
1 tablespoon distilled water OR 1 teaspoons distilled water to dissolve and 2 Tablespoons vegetable glycerine (I used this one)
a dark colored container to store (Vitamin C oxidizes easily) I used this one.

Instructions

Dissolve the Vitamin C powder in the water.
If only using water and Vitamin C, you are done. This will store for up to 2 weeks or longer in the fridge.
If using glycerine, dissolve the Vitamin C in the smaller amount of water, then stir in glycerine and store. This version will last a month or longer.

Notes
Personally, I like the pure Vitamin C and water recipe as a toner after cleansing, though glycerine is moisturizing and softening for the skin and will extend the recipe. DO NOT use glycerine on anything that is used in oral care or in the mouth as it is bad for teeth.

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