Product and ingredient reference
Paula's Choice 25% Vitamin C + Glutathione Clinical Serum
Paula's Choice 25% Vitamin C + Glutathione Clinical Serum Paula's Choice 25% Vitamin C + Glutathione Clinical Serum ingredients explained: Aqua, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate, Dimethicone, Glycerin, C9-12 Alkane, Ascorbyl Glucoside, Silica, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fru
Paula's Choice 25% Vitamin C + Glutathione Clinical Serum Paula's Choice 25% Vitamin C + Glutathione Clinical Serum ingredients explained: Aqua, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate, Dimethicone, Glycerin, C9-12 Alkane, Ascorbyl Glucoside, Silica, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Polyglyceryl-6 Polyricinoleate, Mannitol, Sodium Hydroxide, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Xanthan Gum, Glutathione, Ergothioneine, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Extract, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Cetyl Alcohol, Caprylyl Glycol, Lysine Carboxymethyl Cysteinate, Coco-Caprylate/Caprate, Tocopherol, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Phytate, Hexylene Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Extract, Urea, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Sodium PCA, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Polysorbate 60, Sorbitan Isostearate, Trehalose, Ascorbic Acid, Glucose, Vanilla Planifolia Fruit Extract, Polyquaternium-51, Triacetin, Sodium Hyaluronate, Phenoxyethanol Show all ingredients by function Aqua solvent Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate antioxidant, skin brightening goodie Dimethicone emollient 0, 1 Glycerin skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant 0, 0 superstar C9-12 Alkane Ascorbyl Glucoside Silica viscosity controlling Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract moisturizer/humectant Hydrogenated Lecithin emollient, emulsifying Polyglyceryl-6 Polyricinoleate emulsifying Mannitol Sodium Hydroxide buffering Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer Xanthan Gum Glutathione Ergothioneine antioxidant Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Extract Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer Cetyl Alcohol emollient, viscosity controlling 2, 2 Caprylyl Glycol moisturizer/humectant, emollient Lysine Carboxymethyl Cysteinate Coco-Caprylate/Caprate Tocopherol 0-3, 0-3 Sodium Citrate chelating, buffering Sodium Phytate chelating Hexylene Glycol solvent, emulsifying, perfuming, surfactant/cleansing 0-1, 0-2 Ethylhexylglycerin preservative Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Extract soothing, emollient Urea Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride Sodium PCA Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract antioxidant, soothing, antimicrobial/antibacterial Polysorbate 60 emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing Sorbitan Isostearate 0, 1-2 Trehalose Ascorbic Acid antioxidant, skin brightening, buffering Glucose Vanilla Planifolia Fruit Extract Polyquaternium-51 Triacetin antimicrobial/antibacterial, solvent Sodium Hyaluronate Phenoxyethanol 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. Expand to read more 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. Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate is a stable, oil-soluble form of skincare big shot Vitamin C. If you do not know, why Vitamin C is such a big deal in skincare, click here and read all about it. We are massive vitamin C fans and have written about it in excruciating detail. So now, you know that Vitamin C is great and all, but it's really unstable and gives cosmetics companies many headaches. To solve this problem they came up with vitamin C derivatives, and one of them is Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (let's call it THDA in short). It's a really promising candidate (see below), but while reading all the goodness about it in a minute, do not forget that derivatives not only have to be absorbed into the skin but also have to be converted to pure vitamin C (ascorbic acid or AA) and the efficacy of the conversion is often unknown. In addition, vitamin C's three magic properties (antioxidant, collagen booster, skin brightener) are all properly proven in-vivo (on real people), but for the derivatives, it's mostly in-vitro studies or in the case of THDA, it's in-vitro and done by an ingredient supplier. With this context in mind let's see what THDA might be able to do. First, it is stable (if pH < 5), easy to formulate, and a joy to work with for a cosmetic chemist. Second, because it's oil-soluble, its skin penetration abilities seem to be great. So great in fact, that it surpasses the penetration of pure vitamin C threefold at the same concentration and it penetrates successfully into the deeper layers of the skin (that is usually important to do some anti-aging work). There is also in-vitro data showing that it converts to AA in the skin. Third, THDA seems to have all three magic abilities of pure vitamin C: it gives antioxidant protection from both UVB and UVA rays, it increases collagen synthesis (even more than AA) and it has a skin brightening effect by reducing melanogenesis by more than 80% in human melanoma cell cultures. So this all sounds really great, but these are only in-vitro results at this point. We could find Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate mentioned only in one published in-vivo study that examined the anti-aging properties of a silicone formula containing 10% AA and 7% THDA. The authors theorized that the 10% AA is released slowly from the silicon delivery system and probably stays in the upper layer what‑it‑does antioxidant | skin brightening irritancy, com. skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant moisturizer/humectant emollient | emulsifying emollient | viscosity controlling moisturizer/humectant | emollient chelating | buffering solvent | emulsifying | perfuming | surfactant/cleansing soothing | emollient antioxidant | soothing | antimicrobial/antibacterial emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing antioxidant | skin brightening | buffering antimicrobial/antibacterial | solvent