Shero Science Vitamin C

Power-C Brightening Serum

Vitamin C Serum

Uploaded by: wilmymom on 12/20/2018

Ingredients overview

Water (Aqua), Ethoxydiglycol, L-Ascorbic Acid (15%), Propylene Glycol, Glycerin, Sodium Hyaluronate, Panthenol, Laureth-23, Ferulic Acid (0.5%), Tocopherol (Vitamin E 1%), Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Triethanolamine

Highlights

#alcohol-free #fragrance & essentialoil-free

Key Ingredients

Other Ingredients

Skim through

Ingredient name	what-it-does	irr., com.	ID-Rating
Water (Aqua)	solvent
Ethoxydiglycol	solvent, moisturizer/humectant, perfuming	0, 0
L-Ascorbic Acid (15%)	antioxidant, skin brightening, buffering		superstar
Propylene Glycol	moisturizer/humectant, solvent, viscosity controlling	0, 0
Glycerin	skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant	0, 0	superstar
Sodium Hyaluronate	skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant	0, 0	goodie
Panthenol	soothing, moisturizer/humectant	0, 0	goodie
Laureth-23	emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing	0, 3
Ferulic Acid (0.5%)	antioxidant, antimicrobial/antibacterial		goodie
Tocopherol (Vitamin E 1%)	antioxidant	0-3, 0-3	goodie
Phenoxyethanol	preservative
Ethylhexylglycerin	preservative
Triethanolamine	buffering	0, 2

Shero Science Power-C Brightening Serum
Ingredients explained

Also-called: Aqua | 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.

A nice odorless liquid used mainly as asuperior solubilizer and efficacy booster for cosmetic active ingredients such as skincare bigshot vitamin C, self-tanning active DHA or the anti-acne gold standard, benzoyl peroxide.

Other than that it can also be used in hair care products where it gives a longer-lasting and more uniform coloring. According to a manufacturer, it might even prevent the formation of split ends.

Works best between a concentration of 5-20%
Boosts the skin's own collagen production
Fades pigmentation and brown spots
If used under sunscreen it boosts its UV protection
Extremely unstable and oxidizes very easily in presence of light or air
Stable in solutions with water only if pH is less than 3.5 or in waterless formulations
Vit E + C work in synergy and provide superb photoprotection
Ferulic acid doubles the photoprotection effect of Vit C+E and helps to stabilize Vit C
Potent Vit. C serums might cause a slight tingling on sensitive skin

Read all the geeky details about Ascorbic Acid here >>

It's a helper ingredient that improves the freeze-thaw stability of products
It's also a solvent, humectant and to some extent a penetration enhancer
It has a bad reputation among natural cosmetics advocates but cosmetic scientists and toxicology experts do not agree (read more in the geeky details section)

Read all the geeky details about Propylene Glycol here >>

A natural moisturizer that's also in our skin
A super common, safe, effective and cheap molecule used for more than 50 years
Not only a simple moisturizer but knows much more: keeps the skin lipids between our skin cells in a healthy (liquid crystal) state, protects against irritation, helps to restore barrier
Effective from as low as 3% with even more benefits at higher concentrations up to 20-40% (around 10% is a good usability-effectiveness sweet spot)
High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin

Read all the geeky details about Glycerin here >>

It's the - sodium form - cousin of the famous NMF, hyaluronic acid (HA). If HA does not tell you anything we have a super detailed, geeky explanation about it here. The TL; DR version of HA is that it's a huge polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) found in the skin that acts as a sponge helping the skin to hold onto water, being plump and elastic. HA is famous for its crazy water holding capacity as it can bind up to 1000 times its own weight in water.

As far as skincare goes, sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid are pretty much the same and the two names are used interchangeably. As cosmetic chemist kindofstephen writes on reddit "sodium hyaluronate disassociates into hyaluronic acid molecule and a sodium atom in solution".

In spite of this, if you search for "hyaluronic acid vs sodium hyaluronate" you will find on multiple places that sodium hyaluronate is smaller and can penetrate the skin better. Chemically, this is definitely not true, as the two forms are almost the same, both are polymers and the subunits can be repeated in both forms as much as you like. (We also checked Prospector for sodium hyaluronate versions actually used in cosmetic products and found that the most common molecular weight was 1.5-1.8 million Da that absolutely counts as high molecular weight).

What seems to be a true difference, though, is that the salt form is more stable, easier to formulate and cheaper so it pops up more often on the ingredient lists.

If you wanna become a real HA-and-the-skin expert you can read way more about the topic at hyaluronic acid (including penetration-questions, differences between high and low molecular weight versions and a bunch of references to scientific literature).

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.

A white waxy solid that helps water and oil to mix nicely together (emulsifier). It is derived from the fatty alcohol lauryl alcohol by ethoxylating it and thus making the molecule a lot more water-soluble. In fact, Laureth-23 is mostly water-soluble acting as a solubilizer for dissolving small amounts of oily things into water-based formulas.

Ferulic Acid (FA) is a goodie that can be found naturally in plant cell walls. There is a lot of it especially in the bran of grasses such as rice, wheat and oats.

FA - whose main job is to be an antioxidant - owes its fame to a 2005 research that discovered that adding in 0.5% FA to a 15% Vitamin C + 1% Vitamin E solution not only stabilizes the highly unstable, divaish Vit C, but it also doubles the photoprotection abilities of the formula.

Couple of other studies show that FA just by itself is also a nice addition to cosmetic formulations: it can penetrate the skin (which is kind of important to do the job) and it has protecting properties against UV caused skin damage.

So if you spot it on the ingredient list be happy about it. :)

Also-called: Vitamin E | What-it-does: antioxidant | Irritancy: 0-3 | Comedogenicity: 0-3

Primary fat-soluble antioxidant in our skin
Significant photoprotection against UVB rays
Vit C + Vit E work in synergy and provide great photoprotection
Has emollient properties
Easy to formulate, stable and relatively inexpensive

Read all the geeky details about Tocopherol here >>

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.

If you have spotted ethylhexylglycerin on the ingredient list, most probably you will see there also the current IT-preservative, phenoxyethanol. They are good friends because ethylhexylglycerin can 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.

What-it-does: buffering | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 2

It's a little helper ingredient that helps to set the pH of a cosmetic formulation to be just right. It's very alkaline (you know the opposite of being very acidic): a 1% solution has a pH of around 10.

It does not have the very best safety reputation but in general, you do not have to worry about it.

What is true is that if a product contains so-called N-nitrogenating agents (e.g.: preservatives like 2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1,3-Diol, 5-Bromo-5-Nitro- 1,3-Dioxane or sodium nitrate - so look out for things with nitro, nitra in the name) that together with TEA can form some not nice carcinogenic stuff (that is called nitrosamines). But with proper formulation that does not happen, TEA in itself is not a bad guy.

But let's assume a bad combination of ingredients were used and the nitrosamines formed. :( Even in that case you are probably fine because as far as we know it cannot penetrate the skin.

But to be on the safe side, if you see Triethanolamine in an INCI and also something with nitra, nitro in the name of it just skip the product, that cannot hurt.

You may also want to take a look at...

Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products. [more]

A nice odorless liquid used mainly as a superior solubilizer and efficacy booster for cosmetic active ingredients such as vitamin C or benzoyl peroxide. [more]

Pure Vitamin C. A skincare superstar that is clinically proven to boost collagen production (in 5-20% concentration), fade hyperpigmentation and boost UV protection under sunscreen. Also, it's extremely unstable and hard to formulate. [more]

A common glycol that improves the freeze-thaw stability of products. It's also a solvent, humectant and to some extent a penetration enhancer. [more]

A real oldie but a goodie. Great natural moisturizer and skin-identical ingredient that plays an important role in skin hydration and general skin health. [more]

It's the salt form of famous humectant and natural moisturizing factor, hyaluronic acid. It can bind huge amounts of water and it's pretty much the current IT-moisturizer. [more]

Pro-Vitamin B5 is a goodie that moisturises the skin, has anti-inflammatory, skin protecting and wound healing properties. [more]

A great antioxidant that is most famous for stabilizing the highly unstable Vitamin C. It also doubles the photoprotection abilities of Vit C+E formulas. [more]

Pure Vitamin E. Great antioxidant that gives significant photoprotection against UVB rays. Works in synergy with Vitamin C. [more]

Pretty much the current IT-preservative. It's safe and gentle, and can be used up to 1% worldwide. [more]

It can boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too. [more]

Helps to set the pH of a cosmetic formulation to be right. It's very alkaline. [more]

Shero Science Vitamin C

Source: https://incidecoder.com/products/shero-science-power-c-brightening-serum

Kamis, 02 Desember 2021

Shero Science Vitamin C