How to incorporate The Ordinary’s new 100% L Ascorbic Acid Vitamin C Powder into your skincare regimen safely.

Vitamin C is one of the most useful skincare ingredients for a number of reasons. I’ve discussed the rest of The Ordinary Vitamin C range at length recently, so it makes sense to add the newest addition to the Vitamin C to my collection and see what it’s all about.

100% L Ascorbic, as a product, is certainly mysterious. The entry in The Ordinary website is startlingly brief at the moment. This is what we have been told-

• 100% Ascorbic Acid is cruelty free, water, silicone, oil, alcohol, but, gluten free and vegan.
• Is £4.90 for 20g from Deciem.com
• Comes with its own little spoon.
• Is meant to be mixed with other treatments in the hand and used in the morning or evening.
• Not meant to be mixed with EUK 134 or Niacinamide.
• Fine 325 mesh topical powder.

But what can we mix it with? And how much? The Ordinary website doesn’t give much information.

The Ordinary 100% L Ascorbic Acid Vitamin C Powder Review

The packaging is really nice for a £4.90 product. It comes in a little brown tub with a matte white lid. In the box is a little spoon, which I imagine holds about a quarter of a teaspoon. The powder is protected by a removable seal- remove this with great care, you don’t want to spill any.

The powder is extremely fine, fluffy and white. It looks like cocaine (or how I imagine cocaine would look). The “325 mesh” in the description refers to the fineness of the particles. A 325 mesh allows 44 micrometer particles through. This means that the bits of vitamin C are all really teensy and of a standard size. That way you don’t get random chunks of Vit C that doesn’t dissolve as quickly.

I tried the powder out first by mixing a little on the back of my hand with Resveratrol and I definitely used too much powder and it itched. I’ve used it a couple of times on my face and my skin was definitely brighter.

The Issues Surrounding Vitamin C Preparation

We already know that Vitamin C aka L Ascorbic Acid is a tricky customer. It only works at pHs below 3.5 and if the pH is too low the skin gets mega irritated. It degrades and oxidises in the presence of water, heat and light. Oxidised Vitamin C is no good for the skin and could do some damage.

Having a powder that you mix fresh is a sensible idea as it minimises the risk of oxidation in storage. A fresh mix each time will ensure the product’s effectiveness. It’s more of a faff but when you consider the benefits of vitamin C for the skin the extra effort makes sense. I’ve discussed it all in my previous post on the subject so I won’t go on. Suffice to say, it’s an ingredient proven to reverse aging, brighten pigmentation and improve general skin tone and firmness.

How To Use The Ordinary 100% L Ascorbic Acid Vitamin C Powder

You must know firstly that I’m not a dermatologist or a skincare chemist so I can’t take any responsibility for my advice. In absence of better guidance I’m going to put my best suggestion out there. 100% L Ascorbic Acid Powder is different to most skincare products that you can buy, in that you have to formulate it yourself. Skincare chemists have a lot of training to do before they put chemicals together.

You can’t just chuck things together willy nilly. There are important things to consider, like the pH at which the ingredients are active and how the product is going to last. The wrong percentage could cause irritation.

Some important points to consider when mixing your own Vitamin C serum-

• You have to be careful with storing the serum. Vitamin C oxidises easily and as we’re not chemists we don’t know how to keep it preserved. It should definitely be stored in something that doesn’t let bacteria in.
• The concentration has to be specific. At concentrations higher than 20% Ascorbic Acid can be very irritating to skin.
• You can’t just mix the Ascorbic powder with anything. The Ordinary doesn’t specify what to mix it with apart from to say not EUK 134 or Niacinamide. But I wouldn’t mix it with anything else with Vitamin C already in it either. Or something really acidic like an AHA or lemon juice. This would take your skin clean off.
• Everything you use to mix it should be clean. This should be a no brainer really. If you’re going to put your serum in a jar or vial, I would wash it with boiling water.
• Never use a Vitamin C product that has oxidised i.e. gone yellow or orange.

How To Make Up Your Own Ascorbic Acid Serum

I can see two ways to use The Ordinary 100% L Ascorbic Acid Powder, each with it’s own difficulties-

One would be to mix it fresh every time. So every time you use it you make just enough for that application. The problem I can see with this is, as well as being a bit of a faff, it’s difficult to measure the right amount. Short of getting a really accurate weighing scales, you’ve pretty much got to do it by eye. I would estimate that if you mix about half a droplet worth of powder to three drops of liquid you would get a good concentration.

I found the spoon that it comes with is just too big to make the right amount for one use. I took to using a clean end of a spoon.

The second way would be to make a small batch. This way is much easier to measure the concentration accurately. You would need a clean dish or small jar and something to store it in that is UV protected. (I used an old CAIS vial). You can use the scoop provided to measure out the amounts. I would mix one level spoonful with four level spoonfuls of mixer for a 20% concentration.

The second technique will make a small amount of Ascorbic serum that should only last a few days, so the product would still be fresh. And the concentration a bit more accurate. Ideally you would want to test your home serum with pH paper. It should be below 3.5. I made up a batch of one part Ascorbic Powder to four parts water and the pH was between 2 and 3, which is about right.

I made a little video explaining my home chemist antics-https://beautyblogwales.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img_4998.mov

Or watch it on YouTube if you prefer.

What To Mix 100% L Ascorbic Acid with.

Some ideas for you to try-

• Resveratrol and Ferulic serum– we know that Vitamin C works well with Resveratrol and Ferulic as we see them together in skincare quite a lot.
• Water– it’s in plentiful supply and Vitamin C is water soluble. You could add in some glycerin to give your serum some body and hydrating abilities.
• Hydrating toner or essence
• Serum– as with the Resveratrol, measuring out an appropriate amount of powder is easier if you can divide the mixer into droplets.
• Moisturiser
• Oil– as Ascorbic Acid is not oil soluble it seems to me that mixing with an oil will expose your skin to less of the active. This might be a good way for those with dry or sensitive skin to use the powder.
• A Face Mask– add to a hydrating mask for  improved brightness.

Adding a tiny bit of the powder will add antioxidant and brightening powers to your usual product.

I hope I haven’t confused you further. I just wanted to impress on the inexperienced user the issues you can get with Vitamin C. Hopefully with a bit of playing around you can make it work to your advantage. Check out The Ordinary Facebook group for more information and reviews.

The Ordinary 100% L Ascorbic Acid Powder is available from Deciem.com(links are affiliate, by clicking you are helping to support my blog. I bought the product with my own money)