Protects the skin from uv damage & prevents dark spots, revealing bright & radiant skin.
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Ingredients overview
Aqua, 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid, Niacinamide, Pentylene Glycol, Panthenol, Phenoxyethanol, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Polysorbate 20, Allantoin, Ethylhexylglycerin, Lactic Acid, Tetrasodium EDTA
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Highlights
#alcohol-free #fragrance & essentialoil-free
Alcohol Free
Fragrance and Essential Oil Free
Key Ingredients
Anti-acne: Niacinamide
Antioxidant: 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid
Cell-communicating ingredient: Niacinamide
Exfoliant: Lactic Acid
Skin brightening: 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid, Niacinamide
Soothing: Panthenol, Allantoin
Other Ingredients
Buffering: Lactic Acid
Chelating: Tetrasodium EDTA
Emulsifying: Polysorbate 20
Moisturizer/humectant: Niacinamide, Pentylene Glycol, Panthenol, Lactic Acid
Preservative: Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin
Solvent: Aqua, Pentylene Glycol
Surfactant/cleansing: Polysorbate 20
Viscosity controlling: Hydroxyethylcellulose
Skim through
| Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aqua | solvent | ||
| 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid | antioxidant, skin brightening | goodie | |
| Niacinamide | cell-communicating ingredient, skin brightening, anti-acne, moisturizer/humectant | superstar | |
| Pentylene Glycol | solvent, moisturizer/humectant | ||
| Panthenol | soothing, moisturizer/humectant | 0, 0 | goodie |
| Phenoxyethanol | preservative | ||
| Hydroxyethylcellulose | viscosity controlling | ||
| Polysorbate 20 | emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing | 0, 0 | |
| Allantoin | soothing | 0, 0 | goodie |
| Ethylhexylglycerin | preservative | ||
| Lactic Acid | exfoliant, moisturizer/humectant, buffering | superstar | |
| Tetrasodium EDTA | chelating |
the NewLab. 10% Vitamin C Serum
Ingredients explainedAqua
Also-called: Water | What-it-does: solvent
Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.
It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.
Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.
One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.
3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid - goodie
Also-called: Form of Vitamin C, 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbate, EAC;Ethyl Ascorbic Acid | What-it-does: antioxidant, skin brightening
A very stable and promising form of the skincare superstar, Vitamin C. If you do not know why Vitamin C is such a big deal in skin care, you can catch up here. In short, Vitamin C has three proven magic abilities: antioxidant, collagen booster, and skin brightener. The problem, though, is that it's very unstable, turns brown and becomes ineffective in no time (after a few month) and the cosmetics industry is trying to come up with smart derivatives that are stable and have the magic properties of pure Vitamin C.
Ethyl Ascorbic Acidor EAC for short is an "etherified derivative of ascorbic acid" that consists of vitamin C and an ethyl group bound to the third carbon position. This makes Vitamin C very stable and soluble in bothwater and oil.
However, for a Vitamin C derivative to workit's not enough just to be stable, they also have to be absorbed into the skin and be converted there to pure Vitamin C. We have good news regarding the absorption: on top of manufacturer claims, there is somedata (animal study) demonstrating in can get into the skin, and it seems to be better at it than Ascorbyl Glucoside, another vitamin C derivative.
Regarding conversion, we can cite onlyamanufacturers claimsaying thatEAC ismetabolized in the skin into pure ascorbic acid (and the ascorbic acid content of EAC is very high - 86,4% - compared to the usual 50-60% Vitamin C content of other derivatives).
As for the three magic abilities of Vitamin C, we again mostly haveonly themanufacturer's claims, but at least those are very promising. EAC seems to have both anantioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect, and it's claimed to be able to boost the skin's collagen production. The strong point of EACthoughis skin brightening. On top of manufacturer claims, there is also clinical in-vivo (tested on real people) data showing that 2% EAC can improve skin tone and whiten the skin.
Overall, Ethyl Ascorbic Acid is a very promising but not a fully proven Vitamin C derivative. It's worth a try, especiallyif you are after Vitamin C's skin-brightening effects.
Niacinamide - superstar
Also-called: vitamin B3, nicotinamide | What-it-does: cell-communicating ingredient, skin brightening, anti-acne, moisturizer/humectant
- A multi-functional skincare superstar with several proven benefits for the skin
- Great anti-aging, wrinkle smoothing ingredient used at 4-5% concentration
- Fades brown spots alone or in combination with amino sugar, acetyl glucosamine
- Increases ceramide synthesis that results in a stronger, healthier skin barrier and better skin hydration
- Can help to improve several skin conditions including acne, rosacea, and atopic dermatitis
Read all the geeky details about Niacinamide here >>
Pentylene Glycol
What-it-does: solvent, moisturizer/humectant
A multi-functional, silky feeling helper ingredient that can do quite many things. It's used as anemulsion stabilizer, solvent and a broad spectrum antimicrobial. According to manufacturer info, it's also amoisturizer and helps to make the product feel great on the skin. It works synergistically with preservatives and helps to improvewater-resistance of sunscreens.
Panthenol - goodie
Also-called: Pro-Vitamin B5 | What-it-does: soothing, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
An easy-to-formulate, commonly used, nice to have ingredient that’s also called pro-vitamin B5. As you might guess from the “pro” part, it’s a precursor to vitamin B5 (whose fancy name is pantothenic acid).
Its main job in skincare products is to moisturise the skin. It’s a humectant meaning that it can help the skin to attract water and then hold onto it. There is also research showing that panthenol can help our skin to produce more lovely lipids that are important for a strong and healthy skin barrier.
Another great thing about panthenol is that it has anti-inflammatory and skin protecting abilities. A study shows that it can reduce the irritation caused by less-nice other ingredients (e.g. fragrance, preservatives or chemical sunscreens) in the product.
Research also shows that it might be useful for wound healing as it promotes fibroblast (nice type of cells in our skin that produce skin-firming collagen) proliferation.
If that wasn’t enough panthenol is also useful in nail and hair care products. A study shows that a nail treatment liquide with 2% panthenol could effectively get into the nail and significantly increase the hydration of it.
As for the hair the hydration effect is also true there. Panthenol might make your hair softer, more elastic and helps to comb your hair more easily.
Phenoxyethanol
What-it-does: preservative
It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.
It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.
Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10).
It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.
Hydroxyethylcellulose
Also-called: HEC | What-it-does: viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising
A nice little helper ingredient that can thicken up cosmetic products and create beautifulgel formulas. It's derived from cellulose, the major component ofthe cell wall of green plants. It is compatible with most co-ingredients and gives a very good slip to the formulas.
Polysorbate 20
What-it-does: emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
It's a common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together. Also, it can help to increase the solubility of some other ingredients in the formula.
Allantoin - goodie
What-it-does: soothing | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
Super common soothing ingredient. It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmeticproductsis produced synthetically.
It's not only soothing but it' also skin-softening and protecting and can promote wound healing.
Ethylhexylglycerin
What-it-does: preservative, deodorant
If you have spottedethylhexylglycerinon the ingredient list, most probably you will see there also the current IT-preservative,phenoxyethanol. They are good friends becauseethylhexylglycerincan boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too.
Also,it's an effective deodorant and a medium spreadingemollient.
Lactic Acid - superstar
What-it-does: exfoliant, moisturizer/humectant, buffering
- It’s the second most researched AHA after glycolic acid
- It gently lifts off dead skin cells to reveal newer, fresher, smoother skin
- It also has amazing skin hydrating properties
- In higher concentration (10% and up) it improves skin firmness, thickness and wrinkles
- Choose a product where you know the concentration and pH value because these two greatly influence effectiveness
- Don’t forget to use your sunscreen (in any case but especially so next to an AHA product)
Read all the geeky details about Lactic Acid here >>
Tetrasodium EDTA
What-it-does: chelating
A handy helper ingredient thathelps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time.It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes.
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Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products. [more] A stable form of Vitamin C, whose strong point is skin-brightening. It might also have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and collagen boosting abilities. [more] A multi-functional skincare superstar that has clinically proven anti-aging, skin lightening, anti-inflammatory and barrier repair properties. [more] A multi-functional, silky feeling helper ingredient that can do quite many things. It's used as anemulsion stabilizer, solvent, and a broad spectrum antimicrobial. [more] Pro-Vitamin B5 is a goodie that moisturises the skin, has anti-inflammatory, skin protecting and wound healing properties. [more] Pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, and can be used up to 1% worldwide. [more] A nice little helper ingredient that can thicken up cosmetic products and create beautifulgel formulas. It's derived from cellulose, the major component ofthe cell wall of green plants. [more] It's a common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together. Also, it can help to increase the solubility of some other ingredients in the formula. Super common soothing ingredient. It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmeticproductsis produced synthetically.It's not only soothing but it' [more] It can boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too. [more] A superstar AHA that not only exfoliates skin but is also a very good moisturizer. In higher concentration (10% and up) it can even improve skin firmness, thickness, and wrinkles. [more] A helper ingredient that helps to neutralize the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes. what‑it‑does solvent what‑it‑does antioxidant | skin brightening what‑it‑does cell-communicating ingredient | skin brightening | anti-acne | moisturizer/humectant what‑it‑does solvent | moisturizer/humectant what‑it‑does soothing | moisturizer/humectant irritancy,com. 0, 0 what‑it‑does preservative what‑it‑does viscosity controlling what‑it‑does emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing irritancy,com. 0, 0 what‑it‑does soothing irritancy,com. 0, 0 what‑it‑does preservative what‑it‑does exfoliant | moisturizer/humectant | buffering what‑it‑does chelating
