Which vitamin C serum?

[Thinkpositivethoughts1]

I’ve decided to start incorporating a vitamin c serum into my daily morning routine but have been overwhelmed by the choice.
The price range is huge! Is it really worth spending £100 rather than £10? What’s the difference between them??

Vitamin C gives my skin a real glow but I've had to try loads of them to find one that doesn't break me out. The only one that doesn't and that I really like is the Medik8 one.

https://www.cultbeauty.co.uk/p/medik8-c-tetra-serum-30ml/11795619/?affil=thggpsad&switchcurrency=GBP&shippingcountry=GB&gadsource=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD82pqEpfwARHJjFkoIuxRIQScZ0F&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4L67BhDUARIsADWrl7G026tEhBchAgFSSA0qG-gumeelrZ1X-T4z1KSXjkQF3uTrcaz7O9EaAjCFEALww_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Interesting that it’s a mid range price point. Medik8 has a great name so I’ll give it a try, thanks.

I highly recommend the cerave vit c serum - it was reviewed by India knight who ( I know she controversial) I do trust beauty wise and so I gave it a go - two weeks in I’m really pleased

I’ve just read the article; interesting insight into the benefits of vitamin c; I’m really hoping to get brighter skin!
Thanks; I’m going to give this one a go as well.

Besr in mind that it's a bit like retinol - it can irritste the skim when you start. I would suggest starting with a moisteriser with vitamin c and working up - lots of brands have moisterisers or spf/moisterisers with vitamin c so you can experiment a bit. The Body Shop vitamin c range is a good entry point. The inkey list do a very light serum that's good for a beginner.

I have been eying the medi8 one as well - gets rave reviews. The Ordinary 23% is pretty good but definitely build up to it. I really like the Murad vitamin C range but had to stop using the serum because I found the smell annoying - I suspect that's just me though and I love the vitamin c cleanser and moisteriser/spf.

@OhBling thanks; I didn’t know about the possibility of skin irritation. I have experienced this with retinol. I’ll start with a moisturizer containing vitamin c first.

Do you use vitamin c as well as retinol or instead of? Tried to read the article to see if it said but it's paywalled.
Thanks!

You won't see much Vitamin C benefit in a cream form, rarely ever the right delivery system never mind the low concentration. Irritation with Vitamin C is usually not being able to tolerate the ingredient rather than having to work up tolerance like with a retinol.

I'm a big fan of Geek and Gorgeous C Glow, it's very affordable and pretty much a direct dupe (the patent has lapsed) of the gold standard Skinceuticals Vitamin C serum. I actually prefer it to Skinceuticals.

Its around £10 and that's a fair price, the ingredients in a vitamin c serum as they are not expensive or complex to formulate. The derivatives for those who can't tolerate L-Ascorbic acid well do tend to warrant higher prices as the ingredients are more expensive but it depends on the derivative.

Interesting. I have been told by a few people at beauty counters to be careful with some of the higher concentration stuff. I also found when I started I was using the body shop vitamin c spf which was great but there was a noticeable tingle which stopped after a while. Then when I first used the murad serum tingle that i got used to. Not irritation like retinol but I imagine it would have felt much worse starting with that?

But then I'm all about the high levels in the Ordinary now! 😆😆

My skin is really reactive (I have rosecea) and found Medik8 to be pretty much the only stuff I can tolerate.

I started with their c-tetra cream. I used it twice a week to begin with and then slowly worked my way up to every day. Tried the serum but it gave me a rash. I didn't notice enough of a difference to justify buying another pot of cream so I switched to their advanced night repair cream.

I'm currently using their calmwise serum and press and glow and my skin is dewy now. I got a bonus from work so have bought the crystal retinal in the lowest strength. I'm going slow so will use once a week for 2 weeks and then twice a week for 2 weeks and so on. Tried it last night and no stinging or burning so fingers crossed.

Huge novel to basically say I love Medik8 so usually recommend their stuff.

@OhBling it probably is good advice from beauty counter staff to proceed with caution as some people just don't get on with it. There's another dimension to it though, aside from concentration (at least for the L-Ascorbic acid types) and that's pH of the formula. To stop it from oxidising it has to be acidic, but some make it very acidic. This was very common when Skinceuticals still had its patent as they had patented the ideal pH range in their formula patent so everyone else could either make it more base and less effective and quicker to oxidise or go more acidic which makes it much harsher on the skin to the point it works as a mild exfoliant.

Wrt concentrations L-Ascorbic acid formulas are best at 10-20%, over 20% is useless as we can't absorb more than 20% and it'll just oxidise on your skin and stain you orange. Derivatives usually require higher concentrations to have similar effect so that's usually an easy way to differentiate what type of vitamin c it is. But the marketing certainly likes to suggest that high concentrations are more effective but usually they're the milder variants.

@mynamechangemyrules the article didn’t mention retinol; it only talked about vitamin c. My understanding is that vitamin c should be part of your morning routine and retinol part of your evening routine.

Medik8 or perricone md

I use an Emma Hardie one. It's £60. Smells amazing.

The India Knight article quoted above says that she uses Skinceuticals CE Ferulic but this is expensive ( £165 for 30ml) so a good alternative is Cerave vitamin C serum ( £39 for 30ml).
I’ve noticed that the difference in prices isn’t accounted for by concentration of Vitamin C. The Skinceuticals product contains 15% vitamin c and Cerave contains 10%.
Medik8 is £39 with 7% vitamin c and The Ordinary contains 23% vitamin C but isn’t one of the most expensive.
Maybe it’s best to just try a few and see what works?

I'm using the £4 one from Primark. It works for me.

My dermatologist recommended La Roche Posay for Vit C and hyaluronic acid serums. They seem to work well but I haven't tried anything else to compare them with.

I adore this one by Medik8 and have used it for a while. Bought the Geek and Gorgeous C Glow which is amazing value and does a good job. However, I still prefer the Medik8 as it glides on and makes my skin really soft. https://www.cultbeauty.co.uk/p/medik8-c-tetra-luxe-30ml/11795622/

I’ve got one from Tesco that cost £1 or £2. I’ve used it every day with no negative issues - and my skin is fair / sensitive / burns easily type and can also be reactive to some stuff.

I use the medik8 luxe version at the moment.