Top 10 Best Vitamin C Serum for Face In 2017There is one beauty product every beauty editor uses, and it’s SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic, a magical blend of vitamins C and E and ferulic acid, all of which come together to create one of the most potent anti-aging cocktails on the market. It stimulates collagen production, and when worn under sunscreen, it boosts the SPF factor fourfold. (I also happen to think it imparts a nice dewy glow.) The formula is so exceptional it’s patented. We could sing the praises of this miracle serum all day long, but there is one caveat: The price isn’t exactly easy on the wallet. The patent hasn’t stopped other brands from trying to replicate the magic of C E Ferulic. And you may find the combination of 15% vitamin C, 1% vitamin E, and 0.5% ferulic acid in these less expensive alternatives; however, there will be two main differences between the imitators and the original. First, SkinCeuticals uses vitamin C as L-ascorbic acid, the only form of vitamin C that prevents transepidermal water loss, meaning it keeps moisture in your skin.
Other formulas may use different, more irritating forms of vitamin C, like tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate and magnesium ascorbyl palmitate. Even if they do use L-ascorbic acid, the pH of the SkinCeuticals is patented, so no other product on the market has a pH between 2.5 and 3.0. Both of these aspects affect effectiveness, but some copycats do come close. Scroll through for the breakdown on all the CE ferulic acid serums!Whenever anyone asks me what they should be using on their skin, I have a stock answer: serum. As far as I am concerned this category of skincare product is the one that delivers the punch for whatever ails you. Really, any cleanser and or moisturiser will do - which is why dermatologists recommend simple brands such as Cetaphil and Ego, which retail for under $25. But to ''get results'' for ''specific skincare concerns'' (excuse the Beautyspeak) a serum ''will deliver''.Which is all very well but which serum? I'm not going to begin to diagnose or prescribe products - you have enough reservations about a professional beauty therapist doing this - but what I have done is ask a selection of cosmetic companies to send in their finest and, over the course of the past three months and with a little help from some friends, I've tried them.
Below are the ones that rated. There were a half dozen that didn't make the grade, mainly because too much product was needed to get coverage for any kind of result. Or they didn't feel nice. Note, they were the cheapies. A serum should be precious droplets of fine and powerful concentrated ingredients, used sparingly. These ones that follow were. None of them come cheap. But then neither do we. Tried and tested ... Intraceuticals Rejuvenate daily serum. An instant fix (lift and tone) is gained from Intraceuticals Rejuvenate Daily Serum ($189). If ''ageing'' is a concern, good choices include Jurlique Purely Age-Defying Facial Serum ($89), Restylane Night Serum ($95) and O Cosmedics Pure Age Defiance Serum ($89), which I've found hydrating and soothing on my reactive chest. Dermalogica Age Smart Multivitamin Power Concentrate ($87) comes in single-use capsules whcih for some reason make me more inclined to use them. Enlarged pores would benefit from Clinique's Pore Refining Solutions Correcting Serum, which was launched in May for $68.
Laura Mercier Flawless Skin Repair Serum ($135) is a good all-rounder and a delight to use. Honourable mentions go to Giorgio Armani Regenessence Concentrate and Shu Uemura Depsa Hydrability Essence. And who hasn't used Estee Lauder's Advanced Night Repair at some point? But the big gun at the moment, beloved by Hollywood, is the Rodial Snake Serum ($195) - venom free, by the way and tackier packaging than the rrp might suggest.Which serum do you use? What is it about it that you like? Do you feel, as I do, that some real skincare benefits are obtainable from serums? Or is it an unnecessary step? Anyone else love serums?"I dropped out of Yale after two years. I thought I would major in economics and get a job in corporate world and make lots of money and be rich, even though I wasn't interested in that stuff at all. I was flunking, but kind of glad about it. And people thought I was crazy to leave, but I just wasn't happy. I had to bust my ass financially to be there and I didn’t know why I was doing it.
It was a bit of a risk. It's funny—my husband's a stunt man, so we take risks in different ways... I drop out of Yale, he jumps off of a building. We just launched our clothing brand Basic Terrain together, too, which we worked on for a long time. I guess we can do anything. And I was lucky, because I was scouted at a party in New York right before final exams my sophomore year. I booked a shoot for Seventeen, and when exams were over, I was like, 'OK, I'm out.' When I started modeling, I was terribly insecure because I wasn't a girly-girl—I wore my hair in a ponytail every day and never had a beauty regimen. I'm still not really a makeup person. But as a model of color, I had to do my own makeup sometimes, because the makeup artists wouldn't have shades for every skin tone. I remember using a Bobbi Brown Foundation Stick—my shade was between 5 and 6, with Clinique Pressed Powder. In many ways things are getting better. But the beauty standard of the day is still a bit Eurocentric.
Until that changes, we're still going to keep having these discussions and fighting for inclusion. If I need to wear makeup now, I usually just dust on Nars Pressed Powder in Heat. I like the Armani Luminous Silk Foundation 9 for work, with some Edward Bess Blush in Moroccan Rose [ed note: discontinued, but Bed of Roses is pretty close] and a little Guerlain Terracotta. And I love the Nars Multiples, Malibu especially. For me, the most important thing is a curled lash. I don’t really wear mascara because I don’t like how I do it, but I love when other people do it on me. Terrell Mullin, the makeup artist who I worked with on Rosewood, turned me on to Burt's Bees lip products, and now I wear Burt’s Bees Lip Crayon 100% Natural in Napa Vineyard. It stays on for a bit, and it kind of looks like my natural color. But I collect red lipstick—I'm still searching for the perfect red, but I love MAC Ruby Woo. I also like Laura Mercier's Mulberry Lip Stain [ed note: no longer available], it kind of just punches up my natural lip color and then I’ll do a gloss over it.
One of the guys from KISS actually gave me a good Nyx red lip color recently. I wash my face with Epicuren Gellé Cleanser and a Clarisonic. It’s really clean and no frills but good as hell, and a little goes a long way. Once a week I’ll use the Epicuren Micro Derm Ultra-Refining Scrub. The Volcanic Ash Mask is also good, but Peter Thomas Roth makes these blemish pads that really work. Even if I have a huge zit, I'll just put one of those on overnight and it helps. For a moisturizer, I either use Epicuren Aloe Vera Calming Gel—or I'll just make my own with pure aloe. Then a little Eve Hansen Rosehip Oil, and a spritz of either rosewater or Epicuren's Aloe Cucumber Mist. Aloe is really healing. I try to use it as much as possible. Sometimes I'll put some retinol around my eyes. Peter Thomas Roth used to make an incredible heavy cream with retinol and rosehip, but they discontinued it. Instead, for a heavy moisturizer, I'll use Decleor Ylang Ylang Balm—I'll use that when we're skiing.
My husband and I have a house in Utah in the mountains, and when we go there, I'll switch up my products. During the night I'll use Decleor, but during the day, I like the Jurlique Calendula Redness Rescue Cream and also the Jurlique Skin Balancing Facial Oil. I'm trying to incorporate a little Eve Hansen Vitamin C Serum into my routine. Since I’ve been on this regimen, my skin has been the best it’s ever been. For most of my career, I've kept my weave in. My friend Amoy Pitters used to do them. I still wear hair—I have on a clip-on ponytail today—but I haven't worn a weave in awhile. I get my hair washed and dried, once a week or once every other week. My hairstylist in LA presses it once and then I’ll use an old-school pomade wax, Tancho High Grade Lavender Pomade, on the edges. I tie it down at night to keep it smooth. When I started modeling, my hair was always relaxed and processed, but I haven't put any relaxers in it for...maybe six or seven years? I've been through a lot of those stages of beauty, and I'm really glad.