Easy (5 Minute) DIY Vitamin C Serum | Lab Muffin Beauty Science

00:08:44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JXu3_WHM08

Summary

TLDRMichelle from Lab Muffin Beauty Science presents a DIY vitamin C serum recipe, highlighting the benefits of vitamin C for skin health, particularly its role as an antioxidant and in fading hyperpigmentation. She discusses the instability of L-ascorbic acid and how to create a stable serum using simple ingredients like distilled water and baking soda. The process is quick, cost-effective, and allows for customization, making it a practical choice for skincare enthusiasts.

Takeaways

  • 🧪 DIY vitamin C serum is easy to make!
  • 💧 Use L-ascorbic acid powder as the main ingredient.
  • ⏳ Serum lasts about one week before yellowing.
  • ⚖️ Adjust pH with baking soda for skin compatibility.
  • 📦 Use a clean, airtight container for storage.
  • 🌞 Protect serum from light with aluminum foil.
  • 💰 Cost-effective compared to store-bought products.
  • 🔬 Customize vitamin C concentration to your needs.
  • 🕒 Takes about five minutes to prepare.
  • 🌍 Ingredients are easily accessible.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:08:44

    Michelle, a scientist and beauty science enthusiast, discusses the importance of wearing a lab coat to gain trust in her field. She introduces her DIY vitamin C serum, explaining its benefits as an anti-aging ingredient and its role as an antioxidant. Michelle highlights the instability of L-ascorbic acid, the main form of vitamin C, and the challenges of creating a stable serum. She suggests that a simple DIY approach can be effective, allowing for fresh ingredients and customization. Michelle provides a detailed recipe for making the serum, including necessary ingredients and steps, emphasizing the ease and cost-effectiveness of the process. She concludes by encouraging viewers to engage with her content and follow her for more beauty science insights.

Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • What is the main ingredient for the DIY vitamin C serum?

    L-ascorbic acid powder.

  • How long does the DIY vitamin C serum last?

    About one week before it starts to turn yellow.

  • What is the ideal pH for the vitamin C serum?

    Between 3 and 4.

  • Can you use tap water for the serum?

    Yes, but it's better to use distilled or deionized water.

  • What do you need to adjust the pH of the serum?

    Baking soda.

  • How long does it take to make the serum?

    About five minutes.

  • What should you do to protect the serum from light?

    Wrap the container in aluminum foil.

  • Is it necessary to sterilize the container?

    No, but it should be clean.

  • Can you customize the vitamin C concentration?

    Yes, you can adjust the amount of L-ascorbic acid.

  • Where can you find L-ascorbic acid powder?

    At most supplement stores or online.

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  • 00:00:01
    Manager: Just wear it. Michelle: But why? Manager: You're a scientist. Try to look like one.
  • 00:00:08
    Michelle: It's really hot! And not all scientists wear lab coats anyway.
  • 00:00:11
    Manager: How do you expect people to trust you if you're not wearing a lab coat?
  • 00:00:14
    Michelle: Well people can listen to what I'm saying and use their critical thinking skills to work out whether or
  • 00:00:18
    not what I'm saying makes sense...
  • 00:00:27
    Michelle: OK fine. [whining noises]
  • 00:00:36
    It's Michelle from Lab Muffin Beauty Science here, chemistry PhD and hyperpigmentation prone skin care nerd
  • 00:00:41
    Today I'm going to be talking about how to make your own DIY vitamin C serum
  • 00:00:45
    that will actually work if you like this sort of video give it a thumbs up
  • 00:00:49
    subscribe to my channel and click the notification bell so you don't miss
  • 00:00:52
    any videos What does vitamin C do? I've talked about vitamin C before in my
  • 00:00:57
    video on hyperpigmentation. Vitamin C is a superstar anti-aging ingredient
  • 00:01:01
    vitamin C acts as an antioxidant which means that it soaks up free radical
  • 00:01:05
    damage this can happen as a result of UV exposure, pollution or just natural aging
  • 00:01:11
    I have a video that talks a bit more about how antioxidants work it also
  • 00:01:15
    fades hyperpigmentation such as the brown spots that you might sometimes get
  • 00:01:18
    on your skin after acne as well as sun spots but the big problem with vitamin C
  • 00:01:24
    is that it tends to be really unstable this is especially the case with
  • 00:01:28
    L-ascorbic acid the main type of vitamin C that's been shown to work in anti
  • 00:01:33
    aging products when L-ascorbic acid is in a water-based product it tends to
  • 00:01:37
    decompose really easily it turns into yellow dehydroascorbic acid DHAA or DHA
  • 00:01:42
    and other products really quickly at 25 degrees in pH 3.5 in amber glass which
  • 00:01:48
    is light protective about 50% is gone in a week DHA can convert back into
  • 00:01:53
    l-ascorbic acid on your skin and there's no good evidence that it's bad for your
  • 00:01:57
    skin but there's not really much evidence that it's good for your skin
  • 00:02:01
    either and it can turn it to other products too you can stabilize
  • 00:02:05
    L-ascorbic acid by combining it with some other ingredients a lot of products
  • 00:02:08
    take this approach they usually combine it with vitamin E
  • 00:02:11
    and ferulic acid this is done in a lot of popular vitamin C serums such as
  • 00:02:15
    the ones from skinceuticals Paula's Choice timeless and drunk elephant but
  • 00:02:19
    if you want to DIY this combo then it's a bit more of a hassle you'll have to buy
  • 00:02:23
    extra vitamin E and ferulic plus vitamin E doesn't dissolve well in water
  • 00:02:28
    that means that you'll have to use an emulsifier so that will sit well with
  • 00:02:32
    your water-based vitamin C if you've gone to this trouble then on top of that
  • 00:02:36
    you'll probably also want to use a preservative so that you can keep the
  • 00:02:39
    serum for a longer time the price of all these ingredients can add up quickly and
  • 00:02:43
    if you've ever done any DIY before you'll probably know that you end up
  • 00:02:47
    accumulating lots of ingredients that you never quite use up if you do want to
  • 00:02:51
    go down this more complicated route then holy snails has a nice recipe which I'll
  • 00:02:55
    link to in the description you can also stabilize L-ascorbic acid by changing
  • 00:02:59
    its structure so turning it into a derivative some examples of these
  • 00:03:03
    derivatives are magnesium ascorbyl phosphate ascorbyl tetraisopalmitate
  • 00:03:07
    or ATIP and tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate or THDA however these tend to
  • 00:03:14
    be quite expensive compared to plain L-ascorbic acid plus it's not well
  • 00:03:18
    established how well these convert back into L-ascorbic acid in your skin so
  • 00:03:22
    that's why I think a simple DIY vitamin C serum that you remake every week or so
  • 00:03:27
    is a nice solution to some of these problems I generally find DIY a bit of a
  • 00:03:32
    pain you have to buy all these ingredients you have to mix them
  • 00:03:34
    together you have to play around with the formula and there's all this washing
  • 00:03:38
    up that you generally have to do afterwards but this DIY serum doesn't
  • 00:03:42
    have a lot of these drawbacks all the ingredients are quite easy to get and
  • 00:03:45
    inexpensive it only takes about five minutes to make it once you get the
  • 00:03:49
    hang of it you also have a better idea of how fresh it is compared to a
  • 00:03:52
    store-bought product you don't have to think about how long it's been sitting
  • 00:03:55
    on the shelf how long the delivery is whether it's
  • 00:03:58
    gone through any massive temperature fluctuations while it's sitting in water
  • 00:04:01
    you can also easily adjust the amount of vitamin C in your serum you can just add
  • 00:04:05
    a bit more or a bit less L-ascorbic acid if you want more effectiveness or less
  • 00:04:10
    irritation it's also cheap enough that I can use it on other parts of my body
  • 00:04:13
    without feeling bad about using an expensive product to make a vitamin C
  • 00:04:18
    serum which matches what's been used in studies that have found positive effects
  • 00:04:22
    you want something that's generally between 5 and 20 percent at a pH of
  • 00:04:26
    about 3.5 so here's what you need for this DIY vitamin C serum first you need
  • 00:04:32
    L-ascorbic acid powder as a dry solid L-ascorbic acid is reasonably stable and
  • 00:04:37
    cheap you can find this at most supplement stores or you can order it
  • 00:04:41
    off iHerb like I did there are also lots of options on Amazon you also want
  • 00:04:45
    some distilled or deionized water metal ions in your water can speed up how
  • 00:04:50
    quickly L-ascorbic acid decomposes you can also use tap water and just make
  • 00:04:54
    sure you remake your serum more frequently you'll also need some baking
  • 00:04:58
    soda the pH of L-ascorbic acid by itself in water is going to be a bit too low
  • 00:05:03
    it's a bit too acidic which means that it will cause unnecessary irritation
  • 00:05:07
    baking soda is alkaline which is the opposite of this and so we can use it to
  • 00:05:12
    adjust the pH back up closer to skin pH you'll also need some pH strips it
  • 00:05:17
    doesn't need to be really really precise so any indicator strips should work I
  • 00:05:22
    generally prefer four-square indicator strips so I don't have to second-guess my
  • 00:05:26
    color matching abilities you'll also want a quarter teaspoon measuring spoon
  • 00:05:30
    a quarter teaspoon translates to about one and a half grams
  • 00:05:34
    of ascorbic acid but it does depend on your particular powder ideally if you
  • 00:05:39
    weigh it out it's a bit more accurate but because there's so much leeway in
  • 00:05:43
    the percentage of vitamin C that we can use in this serum then it isn't a
  • 00:05:47
    massive issue for this specific recipe of course you'll also need a suitable
  • 00:05:52
    container to store your vitamin C serum you want an airtight ish clean container
  • 00:05:57
    it doesn't have to be truly airtight because you'll be remaking this quite
  • 00:06:00
    frequently if you have an old container you can clean and reuse that you can
  • 00:06:04
    also use some aluminium foil to protect your vitamin C serum from light so
  • 00:06:08
    here's how you make your DIY serum your first step is to work out your recipe
  • 00:06:14
    start by working out how much serum you can fit into your container in
  • 00:06:17
    milliliters you should be able to find this out from the place you bought the
  • 00:06:21
    bottle from or from the packaging if it's a reused container if you can't
  • 00:06:25
    work it out you can use a teaspoon and measure how many teaspoons you can fit
  • 00:06:29
    into your container next you need to calculate how much L-ascorbic acid you
  • 00:06:33
    need you divide the percentage you want by a hundred then multiply it by the
  • 00:06:38
    volume of the container and that will give you the mass of L-ascorbic acid you
  • 00:06:42
    need in grams for example if I'm making 20 mL of a 10% L-ascorbic acid I'm
  • 00:06:47
    going to need two grams next you need to clean your container
  • 00:06:51
    I recommend washing it out thoroughly with soap and water then rinsing it with
  • 00:06:54
    alcohol a few times then rinsing it with distilled water and letting it dry it
  • 00:06:59
    doesn't have to be completely sterile because again we're going to be remaking
  • 00:07:03
    this quite frequently plus it's a quite a low pH which microbes will have a hard
  • 00:07:08
    time surviving in then you put your L-ascorbic acid into your container
  • 00:07:14
    add about half of the distilled water that you're going to use into the
  • 00:07:17
    container and shake it until it dissolves we're only using half of the
  • 00:07:22
    water at this stage because it's a lot easier to shake a container that's not
  • 00:07:25
    completely full then you add the rest of the water and turn it upside down a few
  • 00:07:29
    times to make sure it's thoroughly mixed next we need to adjust the pH put a drop
  • 00:07:34
    of the serum on to your pH strip and look at what the pH is
  • 00:07:37
    then add a tiny bit of baking soda recheck the pH and keep doing this until
  • 00:07:42
    you get it through somewhere between three and four
  • 00:07:45
    finally you can wrap your container up in foil to protect it from light this
  • 00:07:48
    is the easiest and cheapest way of protecting something from light and so
  • 00:07:53
    this will slow down how quickly your vitamin C serum decomposes with light
  • 00:07:58
    protection I found that this DIY serum lasts about one week before going a
  • 00:08:02
    little bit yellow and then two weeks before it goes really yellow the pH is
  • 00:08:06
    low enough that microbial growth shouldn't be a big issue and you're not
  • 00:08:09
    keeping up for very long once you're used to this process
  • 00:08:12
    it probably takes less than five minutes to remake so even someone who's pretty
  • 00:08:16
    lazy like me can remake up quite frequently I hope you enjoyed this video
  • 00:08:20
    and found it useful if you do click the like button and subscribe to my channel
  • 00:08:23
    you can also follow me on Instagram at lab muffin beauty science and check
  • 00:08:27
    out my blog for more nerdy beauty science see you next time
  • 00:08:31
    Manager: Are you a scientist or a scientisn't? Michelle: I am SO SWEATY
Tags
  • DIY
  • Vitamin C
  • Skincare
  • L-ascorbic acid
  • Beauty Science
  • Hyperpigmentation
  • Antioxidant
  • Serum
  • Cosmetics
  • Home Remedies