How fresh is your vitamin C serum?

If a vitamin C serum isn’t part of your daily morning skincare regimen, it should be. But before you go patting yourself on the back for having one in your vanity, are you sure it’s still effective? It’s a fact that L-ascorbic acid (the technical name for pure vitamin C) is an unstable skincare ingredient, and that exposure to air and light can decrease its potency. Selecting products with airless packaging or a dark opaque bottle is one way to maintain its freshness (and ability to brighten your complexion, fight free radicals and give your skin an anti-aging boost).

Yet there’s another way to ensure your vitamin C will get the job done, since you never know how long your product has been sitting in a warehouse or on a store shelf before you make it your own. Keeping the L-ascorbic acid separate so it can be mixed at the time of your very first use is a sure-fire way to maximize your serum’s effectiveness, and that’s exactly what Drunk Elephant’s recently revamped C-Firma Fresh does.

Kind of like a grown-up anti-aging chemistry set, once you mix the powder with the actual serum you have a powerful skincare treatment that features 15% L-ascorbic acid, 0.5% ferulic acid, 1% vitamin E, pumpkin ferment extract (for gentle enzyme-based exfoliation) and hydrating sodium hyaluronate (a powerful form of hyaluronic acid).

Just what your skin needs to look brighter and more even while feeling firmer, this is a fabulous new way to literally mix up your skincare routine.