Ascorbic acid vs l-ascorbic acid in skin care - what’s the difference?Updated a year ago
Sometimes, l-ascorbic acid is listed on an ingredient list instead of ascorbic acid, but there’s actually no difference between the two!
Ascorbic acid can exist in two forms: l-ascorbic acid or d-ascorbic acid. L-ascorbic acid is the form that’s most plentiful in nature, and it’s the one with more researched benefits as far as consumption and skin application.
The second form of ascorbic acid, d-ascorbic acid, is predominantly synthesized in a lab, and it’s not really used in skincare. The only difference between the two types of ascorbic acid is their direction - they’re mirror-image chemicals that cannot be superimposed on one another, but likely behave in the same way.
For the average skincare enthusiast, this doesn’t matter - d-ascorbic acid isn’t used in skincare, so every time you encounter ascorbic acid on an ingredient list, it’s definitely l-ascorbic acid (assuming it’s well-packed and hasn’t degraded into nothing).
Stick to the OG
So that’s all there’s to it!
In your skincare routine, ascorbic acid is the only form of vitamin C that’s worth your energy. All of vitamin C’s clinically-proven skin benefits come from this potent, bioavailable form of it.
The reason why pretenders exist, however, is because it’s hard to formulate with ascorbic acid. Thankfully, at Protocol, we’re all about solving difficult problems. We made it our goal to develop formulas that maximize the effectiveness of high-powered but finicky actives like ascorbic acid.
That’s how our Vitamin C Superserum came to be. We created an orange ingredient fortress of a bottle with aerospace technology. This unusual system is truly oxygen-free, so it keeps our 10% ascorbic acid serum fresh, potent, and optimally effective.
So skip the mutants and pretenders, and stick to ascorbic acid - the OG skin superhero.