A well-researched sodium salt of vitamin C. It has antioxidant, collagen-boosting, and pigment-improving properties. It degrades very easily when exposed to air and needs careful packaging.
Antioxidant
Antioxidant
Antioxidants reduce the oxidative stress caused by free radicals and prevent accelerated skin aging.
Antioxidant
Antioxidants reduce the oxidative stress caused by free radicals and prevent accelerated skin aging.
Other functions
Anti-Wrinkle
Anti-Wrinkle
Anti-wrinkle ingredients prevent the formation or reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
Anti-Wrinkle
Anti-Wrinkle
Anti-wrinkle ingredients prevent the formation or reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
Origin
Botanical,
Botanical
Ingredients derived from plants, mosses, and lichens: extracts, oils, powders, juices and other types of processed plant materials.
Botanical,
Botanical
Ingredients derived from plants, mosses, and lichens: extracts, oils, powders, juices and other types of processed plant materials.
Synthetic
Synthetic
All kinds of ingredients formulated or produced by a chemical process, or those that have a chemical modification in their structure.
Synthetic
Synthetic
All kinds of ingredients formulated or produced by a chemical process, or those that have a chemical modification in their structure.
Sodium ascorbate is a derivative of ascorbic acid, or vitamin C.
The sodium salt is created by putting ascorbic acid into a neutral or alkaline solution containing sodium ions. This simply changes the pH of the ingredient, and not the structure or the function of the ascorbic acid molecule. Therefore, sodium ascorbate and ascorbic acid can be used in exactly the same way.
You can read a more detailed article about ascorbic acid here, and most of what can be said about ascorbic acid can be applied to sodium ascorbate as well.
It is a powerful, skin-identical antioxidant with the ability to increase the formation of new collagen in the skin, and so it acts as an anti-aging and anti-wrinkle ingredient in skincare products.
Unfortunately, sodium ascorbate suffers from the same issues with stability as the regular ascorbic acid; unless carefully packaged without exposure to air or water or incorporated into liposomes, sodium ascorbate quickly degrades and turns the skincare product yellowish or brown.
The products containing sodium ascorbate won't be as acidic as those with regular ascorbic acid, but in more sensitive individuals it can still be slightly irritating.
There is not much difference between sodium ascorbate and calcium ascorbate – both are a neutralized form of ascorbic acid with similar properties, differing only in the mineral ion.
Science
1
Hinek, A., Kim, H. J., Wang, Y., Wang, A., & Mitts, T. F. (2014). Sodium L-ascorbate enhances elastic fibers deposition by fibroblasts from normal and pathologic human skin. Journal of dermatological science, 75(3), 173–182.
2
Takehara, K., Grotendorst, G. R., Trojanowska, M., & Leroy, E. C. (1987). Ascorbate effects on type I procollagen synthesis by human adult skin fibroblasts: different migration positions of type I procollagen chains on SDS polyacrylamide gel after incubation with ascorbate. Collagen and related research, 6(6), 455–466.
3
Elmore A. R. (2005). Final report of the safety assessment of L-Ascorbic Acid, Calcium Ascorbate, Magnesium Ascorbate, Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Sodium Ascorbate, and Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate as used in cosmetics. International journal of toxicology, 24 Suppl 2, 51–111.
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