What is Hyaluronic Acid?
Your skin cells produce specific acids, proteins and nutrients to keep your skin hydrated, strong, nourished, and healthy. Hyaluronic Acid (HA) is an acid that is naturally produced by your skin, one that is crucial for your skin’s overall health, especially for keeping your skin moisturized.
Although this acid is found naturally in your skin cells, you can also reap its benefits for your skin by applying it topically in the form of a serum.
Using hyaluronic acid serum on your skin is a fantastic way to maintain your skin’s ideal levels of moisture and hydration. Keeping your skin moisturized is always one of the keys to getting and maintaining a youthful, refreshed appearance.
Whenever your skin is lacking the moisture that it needs, your complexion will suffer, and you may start to notice that age-related skin issues like wrinkles and lines become more prominently visible.
To keep your skin looking and feeling great, daily use of a hyaluronic acid serum can be extremely effective. This natural acid helps to keep your skin moisturized all day long, preventing dryness, irritation, and other issues that can arise when your skin isn’t getting sufficient moisture.
What is Vitamin C?
Vitamin C is an antioxidant, which means it’s crucial for the health of your skin as well as your body as a whole. Supplying your skin with vitamin C in the form of a serum can help to brighten and even out your complexion over time. This antioxidant is ideally used daily if you are struggling to minimize the appearance of dark spots, wrinkles, lines, or blemishes.
One of the characteristics of vitamin C that makes it so beneficial for your skin is its natural ability to reduce signs of sun damage. Dark spots (hyperpigmentation), wrinkles, and other issues can commonly arise from overexposure to the sun, especially without consistent use of sunscreen. Fortunately, daily use of a vitamin C serum can help to brighten your complexion if it has been negatively affected by the sun’s UV rays.
Vitamin C is incredibly gentle on your skin, making it an ideal ingredient for any skin type. Even if you have sensitive skin, daily use of vitamin C serum should not cause any irritation or other uncomfortable side effects. In addition to being an ingredient that can be used effectively in the form of a serum, vitamin C is also an excellent main ingredient to use in cleansers and moisturizers.
Wait, What is a Serum and Why Should I Use One?
A serum is a skincare product that contains highly concentrated ingredients. Serums typically only have a few ingredients, and these are found in amounts that are far higher than you would get from heavier products.
A serum typically has the consistency of a slightly thick liquid, giving it a lightweight feel. Serums are some of the lightest products you can include in your daily skincare routine.
You can use a serum to supply your skin with a high concentration of a beneficial ingredient. Some of the most common main ingredients found in serums are acids and antioxidants.
Both hyaluronic acid and vitamin C are commonly found in serum form, often with added ingredients to increase their benefits for your skin.
So, why should you consider making serums part of your daily skincare regimen?
For one, these skin treatments are extremely simple, no-nonsense, and easy to use. When you want to use the fewest possible ingredients on your skin, getting only what you need, a serum is the way to go. In addition, serums are easy to apply to your skin – all you need is a few drops per application on your fingertips or a cotton pad.
Another major benefit of using serums as part of your beauty routine is their effectiveness.
Serums contain high concentrations of their main ingredients, which means you only have to use a small amount of a serum to get the same amount of an ingredient that you would get in a large amount of a heavier product.
The absence of added filler ingredients makes serums some of the most effective skincare products out there, with their light weight and minimal additives making them easy for your skin to absorb.
Preparing Your Skin for Serums
Using a serum is a quick and simple process. You can apply most serums, including hyaluronic acid and vitamin C serum, twice per day – once in the morning and once at night. Some serums are best used once per day only.
Because serums are some of the lightest products you’ll be including in your skincare routine, they are most effective when used before any heavier products.
Before applying a serum, make sure your skin is cleansed. Using a gentle cleanser removes impurities like dirt, excess oil, and makeup from your skin before you start applying additional products to your skin. You can use a gentle cleanser that includes vitamin C to get even more out of this beneficial antioxidant.
After cleansing your skin, you can also apply toner before moving on to serums. Toner can help to remove any residue left behind by your cleanser, and can also minimize the appearance of your pores. Toner is another lightweight product, and is most effective when used early on in your beauty routine.
Before you put your serums on, one last product that you can benefit from using is a gentle exfoliator.
Exfoliators remove dead skin cells from your face, working to even out your appearance and give you a refreshed look. A gentle exfoliator can also improve the texture of your skin, giving it a feel that is baby-soft.
It’s best to steer clear of exfoliators that contain harsh chemicals or rough particles. You shouldn’t have to remove dead skin cells through harsh scrubbing or artificial ingredients.
Instead, stick with a gentle exfoliator like glycolic acid or microdermabrasion cream. These products exfoliate your skin without running the risk of leaving your skin raw or irritated.
Can I Use Multiple Serums at Once?
You don’t have to use just one serum in your skincare routine. Sometimes, combining multiple serums can make your beauty regimen even more effective, and can help you address your specific skin concerns.
If you are mainly aiming to reduce the appearance of wrinkles, lines, dark spots, and other age-related skin issues, using hyaluronic acid serum and vitamin C serum together is a perfect route to take.
By providing your skin with moisture and keeping your skin hydrated all day long, hyaluronic acid makes the perfect addition to your anti-aging skincare routine. When your skin is dried out, wrinkles, lines, and other signs of aging can start to become more visible. When you want to maintain a youthful appearance, hydration and moisture is key.
Vitamin C is highly beneficial for aging skin because of its natural brightening effect on your complexion. If your skin is looking dull, something that many people experience as they age, daily use of vitamin C serum is a perfect addition to your skincare routine.
Using vitamin C serum every day can also help to reduce signs of long-term sun damage, which can make you look older.
Using Vitamin C serum and hyaluronic acid serum together can be highly effective in keeping your skin moisturized and brightening it over time. Through consistent use of these serums, you can start to see major improvements in the look and feel of your skin over time.
After You Put Serums On...
After you use a serum, or multiple serums, on your skin, there are still a few more steps to take before your skincare routine is complete.
After you apply serums, you are finished with putting on the lighter products in your skincare routine, and that means it’s time to move on to the heavier stuff.
Heavier products that you might be including in your skincare regimen include any lotions, gels, creams, or sunscreen. These products should come last in your beauty routine so that they do not inhibit your skin’s absorption of more lightweight products.
Using a moisturizing cream that includes vitamin C after you put on your serums makes a great addition to your anti-aging beauty plan. A heavier moisturizer is easy to spread on your skin, and leaves your face feeling refreshed. Including vitamin C in your moisturizer allows you to reap the skin-brightening benefits of the antioxidant even more.
In addition to using a moisturizer that includes vitamin C, it’s always a smart move to wrap up your morning skincare routine with a high-quality, mineral-based sunscreen. Mineral-based sunscreen protects your skin from the sun’s UV rays without the use of artificial chemicals that may be harmful to your skin.
Anytime you want to take the best possible care of your skin, using sunscreen is a must.
Hyaluronic acid and vitamin C are both excellent additions to an anti-aging skincare routine. These natural ingredients can be highly effective for keeping your skin hydrated and moisturized while brightening your complexion over time!
Sources:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.4161/derm.21923
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1524-4725.2001.00234.x
