Welcome to Ask a Derm, a sequence from SELF through which board-certified dermatologists reply your urgent questions on pores and skin, hair, and nail well being. For this installment, we tapped Shasa Hu, MD, the director of the beauty division on the College of Miami Dr. Phillip Frost Division of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgical procedure. Her specialties embrace pores and skin most cancers detection and remedy, issues of getting old and ethnic pores and skin, and pores and skin rejuvenation.
With some skincare substances, timing is all the pieces: Tretinoin is best at evening, for instance, since gentle publicity could cause it to degrade. And it’s best to purpose to use sunscreen no less than quarter-hour earlier than you head out the door so it will possibly totally take in (and hold you totally protected).
One other timing tip we’ve heard from derm after derm: Slather on vitamin C serum within the morning, since, as a topical antioxidant, it will possibly assist defend your pores and skin from environmental aggressors like UV rays and air air pollution. So once we began seeing a bunch of individuals on SkinTok breaking this golden rule and utilizing vitamin C of their night skincare routines, we had been slightly judgy at first—Uh, they’re doing it incorrect. However then we bought curious: Is there any profit to utilizing the all-star antioxidant at evening? We requested Shasa Hu, MD, board-certified dermatologist and affiliate professor on the College of Miami Miller Faculty of Medication, to weigh in.
Seems, it’s not a completely pointless transfer. In case you apply vitamin C at evening, you’ll nonetheless reap a few of its rewards, Dr. Hu tells SELF—specifically, its potential to assist scale back hyperpigmentation and improve the manufacturing of collagen, a protein that retains pores and skin agency and minimizes wrinkles. However utilizing it within the night isn’t the neatest transfer, both.
Again to these antioxidant perks we talked about above: A well-formulated vitamin C serum basically neutralizes free radicals—unstable molecules your physique creates in response to environmental hazards like air pollution (together with cigarette smoke) and UV radiation from the solar—which may harm your pores and skin and hinder its potential to restore itself. Consequently, utilizing a vitamin C serum within the morning will help forestall sunburn (significantly if it additionally consists of vitamin E, one other standout antioxidant) and curb DNA harm from UV publicity, Dr. Hu says. It’s not an alternative to SPF by any means, she provides, however “making use of vitamin C underneath sunscreen is like including a booster to provide your pores and skin additional, all-day safety towards UV harm.”
Daytime-specific advantages apart, there are additionally a few good causes you would possibly wish to skip vitamin C earlier than mattress. For one, in case you use different potent actives in your night routine, including one other sturdy antioxidant to the combination might be irritating, Dr. Hu says. Making use of vitamin C concurrently retinol or an AHA like glycolic acid, for instance, could also be too intense and result in reactions like redness, stinging, dryness, and peeling—particularly in case you have delicate pores and skin.
Plus, whatever the different substances in your routine, in case you use vitamin C within the morning and at evening this double dose can equally harm your pores and skin barrier and make your face freak out, she provides. (On that word: If you wish to err on the light aspect, Dr. Hu says tetrahecyldecyl ascorbate is a much less irritating sort of vitamin C in comparison with L-ascorbic acid, the purest however strongest type.)
To sum up Dr. Hu’s recommendation, whereas there’s nothing inherently incorrect with making use of vitamin C at evening, it makes far more sense within the morning. And since we subscribe to the WWDD (what would dermatologists do?) philosophy round right here, we’re going to comply with her lead: “I personally use vitamin C within the morning solely as a result of I discover skincare is extra of a marathon than a dash—sluggish and regular over time provides the very best ends in the long term!”
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