The Best Vitamin C Serum

Someone recently asked me what I thought was the best vitamin c serum and I didn’t hesitate. This I Am Bright serum is seriously the most best option out there – it’s clean, it’s effective, and it’s positively perfect.

Best Vitamin C Serum

I started using brightening serums when I was pregnant – man is the hyperpigmentation REAL with pregnancy and postpartum. But even now, my skin tone gets uneven with all my time out in the sun (yes, even with my daily wear of the best tinted sunscreen for face)!

• Most Effective: Crunchi Vitamin C Serum (*my pick)
• Fan Favorite: Counter Vitamin C Serum
• Oil-Based: Royal Tulip Vitamin C Facial Oil
• Budget Friendly: MadHippie Vitamin C Serum

I’d been using a great vitamin C serum before I started using the I Am Bright, so I wasn’t starting from scratch, and I saw results in less than 2 weeks. 2 WEEKS!

I LOVE Crunchi. They’re the cleanest skin care brand and their products are so wildly effective, it’s AMAZING! If you’re only going to get one – it should be the vitamin C serum. It’s the best!

Use code ADVOCATE15 for 15% off your first order. And be sure to check my Crunchi discount code page for all the latest and best deals!

What does Vitamin C do in Skincare

Protects Skin from Pollution

Vitamin C is an antioxidant, fighting harmful toxins that come into contact with your skin. Protecting your skin from these environmental stressors helps reduce signs of aging and dullness in your skin.

Brightens Skin, Evens Skin Tone

Vitamin C can help curb the production of melanin, which leads to sun spots and hyperpigmentation. In order to really get these benefits, however, you must wear a sunscreen daily!

Improves Fine Lines & Wrinkles

Topical vitamin C has been shown to stimulate collagen production, which can fill in fine lines and even out wrinkles!

Heals Wounds & Scars

Vitamin C helps to heal wounds, assisting in acne scars – a source of hyperpigmentation for many of us.

Types of Vitamin C

There are a few types of topical Vitamin C ingredients that I look for in clean skincare – Ascorbic Acid, Tetrehexyldeyl Ascorabate (aka THD Ascorbate or THDA), and Ascorbyl Glucoside.

L-Ascorbic Acid

The most common and least expensive form of vitamin C is L-ascorbic acid. It is the most widely studied and it is proven to be very effective, but it breaks down easily in heat, light, and when mixed with water. All this is to say that it loses efficacy very quickly.

To counter this, it’s often combined with a booster ingredient like ferulic acid, which helps protect it a bit. This can also be very acidic, so it can upset the skin barrier if you have very sensitive skin.

Tetrehexyldecyl Ascorbate (THD)

THDA is a very common form of vitamin C. It’s synthetic though safe and it’s lipid-soluble. All synthetic forms do break down to L-ascorbic acid in the skin. This form is way more stable, so the efficacy lasts until you use it. It’s well tolerated across most skin types, including sensitive skin, combination skin, dry skin, and mature skin. Because it’s oil-soluble, it can penetrate the skin better!

Ascorbyl Glucoside

Ascorbyl Glucoside is water-soluble, so it’s often combined with other ingredients – namely ferulic acid, to keep it shelf stable. This form of vitamin C is great for sensitive skin and is generally gentler though very effective across all skin types.

Do You Need Vitamin C Serum

The answer is yes!

Well, if you want to help protect your skin from environmental stressors that cause signs of aging and dullness, then yes. Vitamin C acts as an antioxidant, protecting your skin from pollution.

If you have any sort of hyperpigmentation – dark spots (big and small), then you want to use a vitamin C serum. Vitamin C hinders the production of melanin which creates these spots.

If you’re hoping to stave off or help with any fine lines and wrinkles, then yes! Vitamin C encourages the production of collagen, helping to fill in those fine lines.

How to Choose the Right Vitamin C Serum

Look at the Ingredients

l care a lot about clean beauty and ingredients. You can learn more about ingredients to avoid in skin care to learn more. All products recommended here are clean, so I’ve done that hard work for you!

Switching Ingredients

Different forms of vitamin C can breakdown hyperpigmentation, so if you’ve used one good product but it doesn’t seem to be getting all your pigmentation, try switching products to another one with a different form of vitamin C to see if that helps.

• Most Effective: Crunchi Vitamin C Serum (*my pick)
• Fan Favorite: Counter Vitamin C Serum
• Oil-Based: Royal Tulip Vitamin C Facial Oil
• Budget Friendly: MadHippie Vitamin C Serum

How to Use Vitamin C Serum Effectively

If you wonder if you’re doing your skincare correctly, you aren’t alone! Here is a complete rundown of what order to do your skincare. You serum step should come after cleansing and, ideally, after applying a toner or essence (see when to use toner in a skincare routine).

You can do the vitamin c serum day or night, but I recommend using it in the morning. Besides generally brightening and evening your skin tone, it will add a boost of brightness, which is best to see during the day. It also helps protect your skin from environmental stressors, blue-light damage, and premature aging.

Because Vitamin c serum is an active product, it’s best not to use it twice daily (and I haven’t found a need with one so effective as the I Am Bright) – it’s hands down the best hyperpigmentation serum!

Cleanse Face

It seems so basic to wash your face, but serums and moisturizers will perform better on a clean face.

Apply an Essence/Toner

This is the most commonly skipped step in a skincare routine and I wish more people know what it did and why it’s so important. Imagine putting soap onto a dry sponge versus a wet sponge. The soap will dissipate and do it’s job better on the wet sponge, right? The same goes for using an essence or toner – it adds a light layer of moisture and can rebalance your skin’s pH.

Apply Vitamin C Serum

Then you want to apply your vitamin C serum. While I think the Crunchi serum is the best c serum for your face, these directions are the same no matter what product you’re using. Use one pump (or follow directions on your product). Rub the product between your palms to ‘warm’ it up and then press it into your face.

You can rub it around since there isn’t a lot of product on your face at this point, but I’ve found the pressing technique to be effective and help make sure I get product evenly dispersed across my face.

Follow with moisturizer

You can use a moisturizer or a face oil depending on your needs here, but you’ll want to follow up the vitamin C serum with a moisturizer to protect.

SPF

I know – again with the SPF, but daily sunscreen wearing is what helps prevent skin spots and hyperpigmentation, so it’s really the other part to fighting hyperpigmentation!

If you’re looking for something to use for sun spots on your skin below your neck, you’ll want to see this Crunchi body treatment review for my experience with their age-defying cream!

Which Vitamin C Serum Gives the Best Results

Hands down the Crunchi Vitamin C is the most effective. You can read my complete Crunchi skin care review to see how much I love this brand, but their vitamin C serum was the first product that made me a convert to how effective their products are.

I’d been using that cult-favorite vitamin C for a few years, which was good. And then I started with this one and within 2 weeks, I noticed the sun spots on my upper cheeks (present for years) starting to break up.

I will tell you that at first, I though my sun spots were actually becoming more noticeable but I soon realized the lighter spots around the periphery were actually just disappearing which made the darker spots easier to see. And by the end of that first bottle, with daily usage and daily sunscreen, those dark spots were all but gone!

Use code ADVOCATE15 to get 15% off and free shipping on this product – the best vitamin C serum!

Clean Skincare

I’m a bit of a clean skincare fanatic, but it’s been a lot of learning. If you want to make it easy? My Low Stress Guide to Low Tox Living has specific items swaps for everything from cleaning products to personal care items for men and women.

If you’re starting fresh on creating your routine, you’ll want to figure out what your skin type is. From there, it’s important to get the most out of your skincare routine. What order should I do my skincare? Here is my AM skincare routine but find what works best for you. A few places to get started…

What are Skin Toners For?
Benefits of Facial Serums
The Best Skin Brightening Products
Best Facial Oil
The Best Exfoliating Mask
Best Natural Retinol Options

The two brands I recommend the most for complete clean skincare are Crunchi and Counter. Read the first of my Crunchi reviews (as well as my Crunchi makeup review) and then discover the best Counter products.

Still unsure? Take this skincare quiz.