Vitamin C is often regarded as a wrinkle fighter or an anti-aging agent. The main objective of "Vitamin C skin care", in scientific terms, is to increase the synthesis of collagen (a structural protein that is found in skin). The additional benefit of vitamins is related to its capability of countering free radicals which cause damage to the skin.

This skin care, however, faces a major challenge today. This is related to the oxidation tendency of this skin care products. On coming in contact with any oxidising agent (e.g. air), the vitamins in the Vitamin C skin care products, gets oxidised; thus making the this skin care product useless (in fact counter-effective). The oxidised product imparts a yellowish-brown colour to the this skin care product. This is something that you need to check before buying these skin care products. Even after you buy a Vitamin C skin care product, you need to store it properly and keep checking that it's still good to use (i.e. it hasn't attained a yellowish-brown texture).

The manufacturers of these skin care products have tried to deal with this (oxidation) problem in multiple ways (and research on these care products is on the top of their list). One such method of retaining effectiveness of these products for a long term is to keep a high concentration (say 10%) of Vitamin C. However, this makes these products even more expensive. The these skin care products are already pretty inexpensive and making them even more expensive will throw the product manufacturers out of business. The other way is to use Vitamin C derivatives (like ascorbyl palmitate and magnesium ascorbyl phosphate). These are not only more stable but also inexpensive. Even though the derivatives based products are not as effective as the Vitamin C skin care products, their stability against oxidation is a very desirable feature that makes them very attractive. Moreover, these are known to be less irritating too.

Talking of effectiveness of Vitamin C skin care products, it's important to mention that not everyone responds to these treatments. So it's not a magic potion in any way. If you don't see a noticeable difference in your skin, it might be because of your skin not responding to this treatment (and the these skin care products might not be at fault, at all).

As more research goes on, one can only keep our fingers crossed and wait for a complete solution to the challenges faced by Vitamin C skin care today.