VI Aesthetics

Vi Derm Vitamin C Brightening Concentrate

Will promote a brighter, even skin tone while diminishing the appearance of dark spots. Infused with the most advanced form of Vitamin C, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate, helps alleviate free radical damage and discoloration. Unlike most Vitamin C formulas produced from L-Ascorbic Acid, our Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate formulation allows for better penetration for optimal results to soften, smooth, and brighten skin for a more radiant, even-toned complexion.

Uploaded by: sashakazi on 08/17/2020

Ingredients overview

Cyclopentasiloxane, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (Vitamin C), Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Cyclopentasiloxane

Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate: enhances collagen production and antioxidant protection to help reduce UV damage and prevent further pigmentation while leaving skin with a brighter complexion. Cyclopentasiloxane: provides soft feel and acts and fills in lines and wrinkles for a temporary plumping appearance.

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Highlights

Key Ingredients

Antioxidant: Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (Vitamin C)

Skin brightening: Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (Vitamin C)

Other Ingredients

Emollient: Cyclopentasiloxane

Solvent: Cyclopentasiloxane

Viscosity controlling: Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer

Skim through

Ingredient name	what-it-does	ID-Rating
Cyclopentasiloxane	emollient, solvent
Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (Vitamin C)	antioxidant, skin brightening	goodie
Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer	viscosity controlling
Cyclopentasiloxane	emollient, solvent

VI Aesthetics Vi Derm Vitamin C Brightening Concentrate
Ingredients explained

Cyclopentasiloxane

What-it-does: emollient, solvent

A super commonly used 5 unit long, cyclic structured silicone that is water-thin and does not stay on the skin but evaporates from it (called volatile silicone). Similar to other silicones, it gives skin and hair a silky, smooth feel.

It's often combined with the non-volatile (i.e. stays on the skin) dimethicone as the two together form a water-resistant, breathable protective barrier on the skin without a negative tacky feel.

Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (Vitamin C) - goodie

Also-called: Form of Vitamin C, THDA | What-it-does: antioxidant, skin brightening

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 of the skin to give antioxidant benefits, while THDA penetrates more rapidly and deeply and gives some wrinkle-reducing benefits. The study was a small (10 patients), double-blind experiment, and the formula did show some measurable anti-aging results. However, it is hard to know how much pure vitamin C or THDA can be thanked.

Bottom line: a really promising, but not well-proven vitamin C derivative that can be worth a try especially if you like experimenting (but if you like the tried and true, pure vitamin C will be your best bet).

Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer

What-it-does: viscosity controlling

A white, elastomeric silicone powder that gives a nice silky and powdery feel to the products. It also has some oil and sebum absorption capabilities.