DIY Face-Saver, How to Make Vitamin C Serum

I used to spend a lot on vitamin c serum, and I mean a lot - my fave was about $100 for a 15ml bottle. For the last year or so, I've been making my own, and although it's probably hard to judge the awesomeness or otherwise of your own face, I think the results are the same. 

If you want to give it a go, here is what to do.

Ingredients for ~10% Serum:

• 1/4 tsp L-Ascorbic Acid Powder
• 1.5 tsp Water
• 1/2 tsp Glycerine (Glycerol 100%)

Assuming you are starting with the Sana L-Ascorbic Acid powder, or other food-grade, slightly granular ascorbic acid it's a good idea to grind it for about 30 seconds.

You don't have to grind it, but without it, the ascorbic acid takes longer to dissolve, and I have a short concentration span. Waiting for vitamins to dissolve? more than I can handle.

You can see the difference.

Take just 1/4 teaspoon of the L-ascorbic acid powder and dissolve it in 1.5 tsp of water.

Then add half a teaspoon of glycerine. You can get this from any pharmacy, or even online. You want Glycerol BP 100%.

The measurements provided give you a serum that is approximately 10% ascorbic acid and this is a nice starting point. As your skin adapts you can make the serum stronger. When I started using  my homemade blend, after a break of about 6 months from any serum, I got some stinging and peeling. I think I started too strong (~20%). However, I persisted and after a few weeks, my skin began to look great and the stinging stopped.  If you do get a reaction that you don't like,  either reduce frequency of use (say every two days) or dilute further with 50:50 water and glycerine. 

That's it! So very easy. I make mine in an espresso measure and keep it in the fridge. It is true what you hear about vitamin c, that it degrades really quickly when exposed to light and air. The glycerine stabilises it a bit, but you want to make small batches and use them quickly - probably the only disadvantage compared to a bought one. 

However, as you can see, it only takes a couple of minutes to whip up a batch. I consider it well worth the time for saving a hundred bucks.

I hope your weekend is going well. I'm hard at it with uni work and spent all of today getting my head around regression analysis and working with SAS (the statistical analysis software, not men with guns) :D 

Resources

Topical L-ascorbic acid: percutaneous absorption studies

Do you make your own cosmetics? Any top secret formulations you'd like to part with? (comment me!)