Vitamin C Serum - Do It Yourself

Anyone who knows me, will know that I'm crazy about skin care products.  I like skin care products, like moisturizer, serum, mask and sunblock, to keep my skin healthy, clear and young.  Start at the root and prevent aging before it happens.  Ahem, dear makeup - I do NEED you sadly...to cover up my under eye circles from sleep-deprived nights.  

I hopped onto the vitamin C serum band wagon in March this year, after spotting several sun spots on both sides of my cheeks.  The one I bought costs $30 for 60ml which lasts me 1.5 months.  Not bad, but I want to know exactly what I'm putting on my face so I looked into DIY serums.  I decided to give it a go and bought all the different ingredients:

- L-ascorbic acid powder (RESURRECTIONbeauty)

- hyaluronic acid powder, 50kDa (Bulkactives)

- ferulic acid powder (Bulkactives)

- distilled water

- aloe vera

- sweet almond oil

- vodka

- dark glass bottle

Directions for 16% vitamin C serum:

1)  Measure out all ingredients (in brackets).

2)  In a shot glass, pour in (3.5 tsp) distilled water and microwave for 12 seconds.  Add (1 tsp) L-ascorbic acid powder and stir until dissolved.

3) In a 2nd shot glass, measure out (0.15 gram) ferulic acid and add (1/4 tsp) vodka.  Stir until dissolved (supposed to go from cloudy white to clear, pale yellow but it stays cloudy for me).

4)  Add (1 tsp) aloe vera until combined.

5)  Add (1/4 tsp) sweet almond oil until combined.

6)  Combine both liquids together and stir well.  

7) Sprinkle (0.3 grams, 1/8 tsp) hyaluronic acid on top and cover with plastic wrap. Shake, shake shake.

8) Transfer liquid into dark bottle.

The above pic is my first try at dissolving these acids - FAILURE!  Left - measured hyaluronic acid powder.  Middle - undissolved ferulic acid.  Right - undissolved ascorbic acid.  

Let me tell you, I spent 2.5 hours trying to make the darned ascorbic acid to dissolve but it just would not!  I thought I did it wrong so threw out the first batch and tried it again.  The 2nd one didn't dissolve either.  So I tried a 3rd batch.  This time, I microwaved the water for 12 seconds so it's hot but not too hot.  And this time, everything dissolved.  I read that vitamin C starts to denature at 80 deg C, so as long as it is under that temperature, it should be ok.  

The next challenge was to get the ferulic acid to dissolve.  And it would not!  I'm not sure if there wasn't enough alcohol or the vodka needs to be heated up or what.  It never turned pale yellow.  I gave up and just used it cloudy white.  

The next thing that didn't work out is the hyaluronic acid.  Um, it turned the entire thing into a thick gel.  I could not even mix it.  So I salvaged whatever liquid portion of it is left and threw out the gel portion.  I then made a 3rd batch with a reduced amount of HA and this is what it looked like:

I smother my face with this serum each morning.  It feels gel-like, smooth, not grainy and my face tingled a little bit the first couple of days.  Doesn't tingle anymore.  I will do another batch when it's all gone will try a different variation of the above recipe to see if it works better.