Luisa True Skincare 10% Vitamin C Serum ingredients (Explained) (2024)

Luisa True Skincare 10% Vitamin C Serum ingredients (Explained) (1)

This unique vitamin c serum works with a unique combination of 3 brightening ingredients- vitamin c , niacinamide, and licorice- to give you a brighter, even toned, and dewy look.

Uploaded by: princessme on

Ingredients overview

Water, Niacinamide, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Propanediol, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate, Glycerin, Xanthan Gum, Sclerotium Gum, Lactic Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Benzyl Alcohol, Dehydroacetic Acid

Read more on how to read an ingredient list >>

Highlights

#alcohol-free #fragrance & essentialoil-free

Alcohol Free

Fragrance and Essential Oil Free

Key Ingredients

Anti-acne: Niacinamide, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate

Antioxidant: Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate

Cell-communicating ingredient: Niacinamide

Exfoliant: Lactic Acid

Skin brightening: Niacinamide

Skin-identical ingredient: Glycerin

Soothing: Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate

Other Ingredients

Moisturizer/humectant: Niacinamide, Propanediol, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate, Glycerin, Lactic Acid

Perfuming: Benzyl Alcohol

Preservative: Phenoxyethanol, Benzyl Alcohol, Dehydroacetic Acid

Solvent: Water, Propanediol, Benzyl Alcohol

Viscosity controlling: Xanthan Gum, Sclerotium Gum, Benzyl Alcohol

Skim through

Ingredient name what-it-does irr., com. ID-Rating
Water solvent
Niacinamide cell-communicating ingredient, skin brightening, anti-acne, moisturizer/​humectant superstar
Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate antioxidant, anti-acne goodie
Propanediol solvent, moisturizer/​humectant
Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate soothing, moisturizer/​humectant goodie
Glycerin skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/​humectant 0, 0 superstar
Xanthan Gum viscosity controlling
Sclerotium Gum viscosity controlling
Lactic Acid exfoliant, moisturizer/​humectant, buffering superstar
Phenoxyethanol preservative
Benzyl Alcohol preservative, perfuming, solvent, viscosity controlling
Dehydroacetic Acid preservative

Luisa True Skincare 10% Vitamin C Serum

Ingredients explained

Water

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.

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 >>

Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate - goodie

Also-called: Form of Vitamin C, SAP | What-it-does: antioxidant, anti-acne

The sodium salt form of skincare superstar, vitamin C. If you do not know what the big fuss about vitamin C is, you are missing outand you have to click here and read all the geeky details about it.

Pure vitamin C (aka ascorbic acid, AA) is great and all, but its lack of stability is a big challenge for the cosmetics industry. Onesolutionis to create stable derivativesthat can be absorbed into the skin, convert there to AA and do all the magic AA is proven to do (which is being an antioxidant, a collagen booster, and a skin brightener).

SAP (the vit C derivative, not the enterprise software, obvs) is a promising derivative that has great stability up to pH 7. The challenge with it thoughisskin penetration. Unfortunately, it seems to be limited, or to quote a great article from theJournal of Cosmetic Dermatology "topically applied ascorbyl phosphate salts are, at very best, poorly absorbed in comparison with AA". Regarding conversion to AA, there seems to be no data about it, so we can neither deny nor confirm it.

We have better news regarding the three magic abilities of vitamin C: there is in-vivo (tested on real people) data showing that SAP does have photo-protective (aka antioxidant) properties, though less than pure AA. SAP might also aidcollagen boosting;in-vitro (made in the lab) data shows that it works, but is less effective than another vitamin C derivative, called MAP (that seems to be as effective as pure AA). As for skin-brightening, there is a trade publication with in-vivo data showing that SAP can fade brown spots.

Another thing SAP might be able to do is to help with acne. A 2005 study showed in vitro (in test tubes) that 1% SAP has a strong antimicrobial activity on evil acne causing P. acnes and it also showed in vivo (on real people) that 5% SAP can strongly improvethe inflammatory and non-inflammatory lesions of acne vulgaris. In fact, the results were comparable or even slightly better than with 5% benzoyl peroxide.

And there is even more regarding SAP and acne. A nice double-blind study from 2009 showed that 5% SAP reduced the inflammatory lesions by 20.14% and 48.82% within 4 and 8 weeks respectively and when combined with 0.2% retinol the results were even better. With this combination treatment, the improvement was 29.28% after 4 weeks and 63.10% after 8 weeks of application.

Aside from research studies, anecdotal evidence also supports SAP being a promising vitamin C derivative. One of the best-selling (vitamin C) serums in Sephora is the Ole Henriksen Truth Serum, while on Amazon it's the OzNaturalsVitamin C 20 Serum. Another popular choice is the Mad Hippie Vitamin C serum, and all of these contain vitamin C in the form of SAP.

Overall, we think SAP is a goody! In terms of anti-aging, it's probably not as effective as pure Ascorbic Acid, but it's totally worth a try. However, if your skin is acne-prone, SAP is yourform of Vitamin C and it's a must-try.

Propanediol

Also-called: Zemea | What-it-does: solvent, moisturizer/humectant

Propanediol is a natural alternative for the often usedand often bad-mouthed propylene glycol. It's produced sustainably from corn sugar and it's Ecocert approved.

It's quite a multi-tasker: can be used to improve skin moisturization, as a solvent, to boost preservative efficacyor to influence the sensory properties of the end formula.

Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate - goodie

Also-called: Licorice | What-it-does: soothing, moisturizer/humectant

The salt form of one of the main anti-inflammatory ingredients in the licorice plant, monoammonium glycyrrhizinate. It’s a yellowish powder with a nice sweet smell.

It’s used mainly for its soothing and anti-inflammatory properties, but according to manufacturer info, it’s also sebum regulating so it's a perfect ingredient for problem skin products.

Read more about licorice and why it's a skincare superstar here.

Glycerin - superstar

Also-called: Glycerol | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

  • 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 for dry skin at higher concentrations up to 20-40%
  • High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin

Read all the geeky details about Glycerin here >>

Xanthan Gum

What-it-does: viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising

It's one of the most commonly used thickeners and emulsion stabilizers. If the product is too runny, a little xanthan gum will make it more gel-like.Used alone, it can make the formula sticky and it is a good team player so it is usually combined with other thickeners and so-calledrheology modifiers (helper ingredients that adjust the flow and thus the feel of the formula). The typical use level of Xantha Gum is below 1%, it is usually in the 0.1-0.5% range.

Btw, Xanthan gum is all natural, a chain of sugar molecules (polysaccharide) produced from individual sugar molecules (glucose and sucrose) via fermentation. It’s approved by Ecocert and also used in the food industry(E415).

Sclerotium Gum

What-it-does: viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising

A big sugar molecule (polysaccharide) that is used as a natural thickening and gelling agent. It is similar to more commonly used Xanthan Gum, and the two are also often combined to create gel formulas or to stabilize emulsions.

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 >>

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.

Benzyl Alcohol

What-it-does: preservative, perfuming, solvent, viscosity controlling

It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. It can be naturally found in fruits and teas but can also be made synthetically.

No matter the origin, in small amounts (up to 1%) it’s a nice, gentle preservative. Has to be combined with some other nice preservatives, like potassium sorbateto be broad spectrum enough.

In high amounts, it can be a skin irritant, but don’t worry, it’s never used in high amounts.

Dehydroacetic Acid

Also-called: Geogard 111A | What-it-does: preservative

A helper ingredient that helps to makethe products stay nice longer, akapreservative. It works mainly against fungi and has only milder effect against bacteria.

It is Ecocert and Cosmos approved, works quite well at low concentrations (0.1-0.6%) and is popular in natural products.

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

what‑it‑does solvent

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

what‑it‑does cell-communicating ingredient | skin brightening | anti-acne | moisturizer/humectant

A multi-functional skincare superstar that has clinically proven anti-aging, skin lightening, anti-inflammatory and barrier repair properties. [more]

what‑it‑does antioxidant | anti-acne

The sodium salt form of skincare superstar, vitamin C. If you do not know what the big fuss about vitamin C is, you are missing outand you have to click here and read all the geeky details about it.Pure vitamin C (aka ascorbic acid, AA) is great and all, but its lack of stability is a big challenge for the cosmetics industry. [more]

what‑it‑does solvent | moisturizer/humectant

A natural corn sugar derived glycol. It can be used to improve skin moisturization, as a solvent, to boost preservative efficacyor to influence the sensory properties of the end formula. [more]

what‑it‑does soothing | moisturizer/humectant

The salt form of one of the main anti-inflammatory ingredients in the licorice plant, monoammonium glycyrrhizinate. It’s a yellowish powder with a nice sweet smell.It’s used mainly for its soothing and anti-inflammatory properties, but according to manufacturer info, it’s also sebum regulating so it' [more]

what‑it‑does skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant
irritancy,com. 0, 0

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]

what‑it‑does viscosity controlling

A super commonly used thickener and emulsion stabilizer. [more]

what‑it‑does viscosity controlling

A big sugar molecule (polysaccharide) that is used as a natural thickening and gelling agent. It is similar to more commonly used Xanthan Gum, and the two are also often combined to create gel formulas or to stabilize emulsions. [more]

what‑it‑does exfoliant | moisturizer/humectant | buffering

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]

what‑it‑does preservative

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

what‑it‑does preservative | perfuming | solvent | viscosity controlling

It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. It can be naturally found in fruits and teas but can also be made synthetically.No matter the origin, in small amounts (up to 1%) it’s a nice, gentle preservative. [more]

what‑it‑does preservative

A preservative that works mainly against fungi and has only milder effect against bacteria. Popular in natural products. [more]

Luisa True Skincare 10% Vitamin C Serum ingredients (Explained) (2024)

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