Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
03:52 Minimalist Vitamin C
05:10 Plum Vitamin C
07:51 Deconstruct Vitamin C
15:02 Foxtale Vitamin C
19:51 Dermaco Vitamin C
26:33 Innisfree Vitamin C
27:50 Dr Vanita Rattan Antioxidant Power Serum
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Hello, I’m Dr. Venita Ratan, a medically qualified doctor and a cosmetic formulator specifically for skin of color. Today’s video is a highly requested one. It is the best and worst brightening vitamin C serums on Nika. It was a little bit oily on my arm and it smelled like hot dog water. This gives my skin such a nice refreshed glow and is super gentle but still super effective. This serum changed my skin in just 5 days. No filter, no joke. This vitamin C serum by Dr. key. I really like the vitamin C serum. I can’t live without. If you want to use this product, I’m happy for you to use it. So, for me, this is No, I would say this is definitely a Dr. Ve approved product, but Oh, no. Hold on. Oh, no, they didn’t. A mistake. This is not one I would use for my face or recommend to my global skin of color family. Kind of approved, but you can do better. So, if you’re new here, this is a non-sponsored channel. I don’t accept payment from anybody ever. I purchase all the products that we discuss on this channel. And it’s really important that you have an evidence-based information place to come to find out whether something’s worth your money or not. So, if you haven’t subscribed, make sure you subscribe and hit that notification bell because I’m in the comment section for 1 hour at the launch of every YouTube video. So, you can come and ask me your skincare questions. You can also come and follow me on Instagram to ask me your skincare questions there, too. 10% vitamin C. If this was 10% elos ascorbic acid, which is what I thought initially that’s what they done because that would be copy paste situation, then I would have said no straight out because lactic ac sorry eloscopic acid is not one that I recommend for skin of color because essentially it’s an acid. You are exfoliating and you certainly do not want to do that daily. Okay? You want the benefits of vitamin C but with eloscorbic acid treat it like an exfoliator that it is and you have use it once a week. So it’s a slightly different situation. So this is what it looks like. So it’s a pipette opaque. I like that it’s opaque cuz they’re trying to prevent light from destabilizing. That’s what it looks like. Show my hand. Very thin. Absorbs nicely into the skin. No smell and no burning sensation. Okay, let’s see what’s in here. It’s 3 ethyloscorbic acid, which is fine. So, it doesn’t irritate. It’s a derivative of eloscorbic acid. It’s got gluconolactone as well, which is interesting. So, that is your gentle PHA, your gentle exfoliator plus glycerin. So, I actually really love this for brightening. It says in there that you can use it A.M. and PM, but I would say if you’re going to use this, use this couple of nights a week as your PM, right? because of the gluconylactone. I would also say that I don’t like the fact that it’s in this packaging. As you know, vitamin C is an antioxidant. It oxidizes in oxygen. So, just imagine every time you open your bottle like how much oxygen is going around that product. You actually don’t know how effective the vitamin C is because it’s the packaging is not right. And this is also where it can go wrong. If you copy paste a brand that this is what it looks like, then you’re going to end up in the same mistakes, same problems as well. So I think that was a mistake that their serums really should have been in airless pumps. I think they would have done better just in terms of efficacy of product. So I would say if you want to use this product I’m happy for you to use it. I can’t vouch for how effective the vitamin C is going to be. But it is a navesafe product. I like the form of vitamin C that’s been used. I do like the fact they’ve used gluconolactone. But it means that you should not be using this in the mornings and certainly not daily either. So for that reason I am going to say it’s Dr. be kind of approved, but you can do better. Moving on to the vitamin C, vitamin E, ferylic acid, 16%. Very interesting formula. So, it’s actually very simple formula. It’s non-erritating. However, the directions are wrong on this product. The directions say you can use it AM and PM. That’s a mistake. Filic acid is an acid and uh it exfoliates the skin. So, you certainly do not want to be doing this morning and night. This is a P.M. M product because the feric acid only very light penetrates easily into the skin. No, it’s got the classic kind of chemically smell. You know, it’s cuz it’s a fragrance-free brand and I love it. I would say this is definitely a Dr. Free approved product, but Oh, no. Hold on. Oh, no. They didn’t. Oh, mistake. So vitamin C of course is your antioxidant and actually so is folic acid. So I actually really like the formula but I don’t like the packaging. Come on minimalist you know you know you have access to it packaging. So what are we doing here? Can we please get this reformulated I know you’re watching and if you’re not watching guys if you want to tag minimalist so then tell them to redo their packaging and I’ll make you a video and I will promote your product because it is a really good formula but I just don’t like the packaging. So, let’s get that fixed. Starting off with plum. Now, so many of you have asked me to review this product. It says mandarin and vitamin C 15% serum glow boost fragrance free. I like this. Well done. And this is 30 ms. Very interesting. Okay. Right. So, let’s have a quick look. I’ve not opened up actually any of these vitamin C’s. I want to do it on here with you so I can give you my first impressions. Okay. So mistake number one is we got a bit but they have tried with to prevent UV from hitting the product cuz don’t forget UV also breaks down vitamin C. So not only do you not want oxygen around the product, you don’t want light around the product either. So let’s have a quick look. Okay, so it’s coming out bit of a frosted color and it is very watery texture. So it’s a light watery texture. absorbs easily into the skin. Very very strong smell actually. It’s probably come from the mandarin. Okay. Right. So, let me go through the ingredients list for you. So, the first ingredient in here is obviously water which you can tell and most serums do start off with water as the first ingredient. This means that majority of the ingredients in here are going to be water soluble. It’s only when the color changes to a white color that you know an emulsion has happened and you’ve got fats soluble vitamin C’s in here. So in here you’ve got 15% ethaloscorbic acid which I like. Then they’ve put in propan dial which is the solvent. Then it’s betane which is a hctant holds water in the top layer of skin. Then it’s got isode neopentanate which is an emollient which again is why it’s making the skin feel a bit softer. But then they put in mandarin peel extract and this can actually be quite irritating the skin. I’d say there’s nothing else in this but I don’t like the packaging. On the plus side, it is nave safe, meaning there’s no denatured alcohol which dries the skin. There’s no fragrance which can lead to contact dermatitis and there’s no essential oils. And essential oils are also something I do not like for skin of color cuz it can sensitize the skin. This is why I haven’t done a video on forest essentials because basically the whole range is very fragranced, a lot of essential oils which can lead to contact dermatitis in 3 to 4% of the population. And even though that doesn’t sound like a lot, if you think about half a million people watch my videos every day, three to four percent of people getting reactions because of something I’m recommending means tens of thousands of people a day, which I, you know, I can’t do. So, I’m never going to recommend anything with essential oils in it. Uh, but this one is a naysafe product. I don’t think it’s an ideal product. I do like the price point, but there are better things on the market on Nikica. So, for me, this is no. Moving on to Deconstruct. So, I actually really I did a video the other day. I don’t know if you guys saw it on their on mineral sunscreens on Nika and I actually really liked Deconstructs tinted mineral sunscreen. That is not an easy formula to to create. So, I was really impressed with that actually. And when I I don’t know if you guys have been following my journey when I came to India uh to launch our range with the Dermacco, I actually Oh, interesting. I actually I did a lot of events when I was out there which is incredible and I saw a lot of our followers when I was out there and actually one of you did tell me that you love the deconstruct mineral sunscreen which is totally agreed with you is knife safe and go and watch that video if you are looking for good sunscreens in India right very interesting okay so this is a glass bottle it’s coming out as a pump so I’m just going to open this for you this way ah it’s a straw pump this means it’s not airless okay let’s see what this looks Okay, it’s coming out very liquidy again. So, water is going to be the first ingredient. It’s absorbing easily into the skin. The reason why I do tend to like lightweight serums is because it’s then easier to put moisturizer on top without feeling too heavy on the skin. And the thing with India is that it’s hot a lot of the year and you don’t really want to be sweating too much. The smell is strong. Oh, you’re not going to like this smell. Let’s go through the ingredients. So, this product’s got 30 ethaloscopic acid, which I love, love, love. It’s one of my favorite vitamin C’s. It’s got glycerin, which is a hctin. It’s also my favorite hctant because what it does holds water in the top layer of skin, a water magnet, without drying the dermis, cuz often if you use the wrong hctin, a magnet that’s too strong, it can actually pull water from the dermis into the epidermis and actually makes fine lines look worse and which you don’t want. So you have to almost get that water magnet right. You don’t want anything too strong, but you want it to be strong enough. So even with hctants, you can get it wrong. The next they put in propylene glycol, which is another hctant, another one that I like. And they put in ferylic acid, 0.5%, which I love, love, love. It’s an excellent ingredient. It’s great for hyperpigmentation. It’s one that I formulate with in my um skincare for Dr. V range and I don’t think we use it enough actually. So I love ferillic acid. I’d also say this is a naysay product. No DH alcohol, no fragrance, no essential oils. But for me, the packaging is wrong. So they have tried with the light again just as plum have done, but there is oxygen around this product. So even though it’s more stable than eloscorbic acid, 30 ethyloscorbic acid, you still don’t want oxygen around the product. So for me, this is it’s not great. And the smell is strong. Moving on to Co RX. This quite solid packaging. I like it. I am a packaging kind of girl. I do like beautiful packaging. This is solid. I feel like it’s a signaling marker as well. We do tend to look at packaging and then it gives gives us an impression as to the quality of the product inside. Again, they’ve double boarded this because of my brand. My you probably wouldn’t even have thought about double boarding, but double boarding what it does is it solidifies the outside. And because if you’re putting a a product into shipping, often, you know, products do get sort of battered, there little things you can do like put cellophane on the outside to try and protect it a little bit. The minim actually is quite strong packaging as well. But the other thing you do is double boarding in order to keep the outside firm. So that’s what they’ve done. There is actually a lot of packaging going on in here. Okay. Interesting one. Oh, they’ve put the pipets separately. Okay. Interesting. All right. So again, they’ve gone with glass. I struggle with gloss. So, we basically when we created our lip hyperpigmentation kit, the scrubs were in gloss and the balm was in a gloss and the smell. Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh. I can’t. Oh, I think you’re going to feel sick. I can’t. It’s a lot. My goodness. Wow. So, this is a downside of fragrance free. when you have uh when you cuz I love fragrance free right for skin of color but if the actual raw ingredients itself stink it’s um it’s not the best user experience. So let’s see what this looks like. Okay. Oh wow. It’s come out very yellow. There we go. Okay. It’s tingling a bit. Okay. M let’s go through the ingredients list. So this is 23% ascorbic acid pure. This is too high and too irritating for daily use. They put in sodium hyaluronate which is your hctant but there’s no other activives in this product. For me this is one to avoid for skin of color. As beautiful as the box is and how strong it is. This is not something that you should be wearing everyday, especially if you’ve got skin of color or Indian skin and you’re in India. This is this is not the one. Moving on to Claire’s. Claire’s is one that you guys have asked me for a lot. It’s a Korean brand. Can you also write down below which other Korean brands you want me to do? I think I’ve done I just did beauty of Josian which was a big video, huge video for every single product. Uh, also I think you guys wanted me to do a newer a n ua and nib zum. I think that’s how you say it. I’m not sure, but I’m going to buy all the products from there as well. If there’s any other Korean ones, let me know. Okay, they do have really cute packaging, I have to say. They’ve not really paid attention though to UV light hitting the product, so that’s a problem. Again, with the pipette, so no Ellis pump here. Pure vitamin C sentella and hybrid stabilization technology. Okay, let’s have a look again. very liquidy. Smells not terrible. It’s also a little bit warm on the skin actually. What’s in this? Look at the ingredients list. So, it’s got water. It’s got propyline glycol which is your moisturizer. It’s got ascorbic acid. So, pure ascorbic acid. That’s why it’s probably feeling a little bit warm and a bit tingly on the skin. It’s got sentella. So, they’re trying to calm the skin. That’s anti-inflammatory. But they put in here grapefruit extract, orange oil, lingula oil, and lemonine. And the reason they’ve done that is cuz obviously vitamin C pure stinks. So they’re trying to sort of cover the smell. But now imagine you’ve put pure ascorbic acid on the skin, right? Which is essentially an exfoliator. And now you’ve put put in fragrance as well, the irritant. So you combine those two things together. If you put that for skin of color and then you go out into the sun, this is a disaster for us, especially under the harsh UV rays. Plus, you got pollution you’re dealing with and dust. This is not the product for you. This is not one that I would use or one that I would recommend. Moving on to Foxtail. Right. So, they have been very clever with this to try and protect the the actual box itself. Boost glow, helps with pigmentation. Couple of pumps on the skin. PH3 to 3.5. That’s quite low. Uh that’s why it’s water and then ascorbic acid. All right, let’s have a quick look what’s inside. Very good, Foxtail. They did well with their packaging. We have an Ellis pump. I’m very happy. Okay. Okay. Nice. Oh. Oh. Okay. Let’s give it a second. It does this. Hold on. Let’s just need to skip. There we go. Just need to catch. Give it a second. Two hours later. Two hours later. I’m sure it’s going to work backstage. Don’t worry. I’ve got you. This is going to happen. This happens sometimes. It’s so annoying. 10 minutes later. 10 minutes later. Oh my god. This is actually crazy. Oh, okay. We’ve got it. It caught. It caught. Yes. It’s coming out. There we go. So, that’s what it looks like. So, it’s coming out as an emulsion. That means there’s fats in here. Absorbs quite nicely into the skin. Interesting smell. Right. So, for me, the positive here is of course the packaging. However, I’m not happy with a lot of this product. is 15% pure L ascorbic acid. So like they’ve said is it got a low pH. This is going to be too irritating to use everyday and plus they added fragrance. So those are two you never combine. You never combine pure eloscorbic acid with fragrance. This is a recipe for disaster especially in a hot country. So foxtail even though you did very very well with your packaging pump and it’s beautiful and I think it’s very Instagrammable. You’re going to see this everywhere and that’s probably one of the reasons it’s done so well. But the actual formula itself, I think you can definitely do a better job. Moving on to dot and key. Okay, so we have our security label. Interesting. Ah, here we go again with a pipette. Oh gosh. Okay, I do actually like this. This is very nice. I like the heaviness. It does feel good quality, but even the pipette’s very nice, actually. It’s just the wrong formula for a pipette. Oh, there we go. Very clear liquid. Okay. That’s what it looks like. Smells not too bad, actually. So, that’s one positive. But let’s have a look what else is in here. So first of all it’s got water then it’s got ethaloscorbic acid which I like. Then they put in nyinamide which I like again and then glycerin. They have used alpha arbutin but a tiny fraction of a percent. So it’s not you’re not really going to get much benefit from that. A problem with this is they put in blood orange fruit extract which is an irritant. Plus the packaging is also not ideal cuz it’s not airless packaging. There are a few tweaks you guys could make. Doing key if you just change your packaging and you just get rid of the blood fruit extract which is an irritant. I think you’re going to be on to a fantastic formula. So, just a couple of things that I would throw out there. And I know this sounds like a really harsh video, but what I found is a lot of the formulators from the big brands watch this channel. They are actually excellent in terms of they will see where maybe things can be improved and they tend to just go back to the drawing board and they go and make better products. And so videos like this even though they’re very critical ultimately they are great for the population because then you get better offerings and actually once you do something like this and you just critique everything side by side. India is probably one of the most entrepreneurial countries I’ve ever been to and I have investigated brands from every country pretty much. Um but the one thing about India is the speed of innovation is you just can’t compete with it. It’s just people are hungry to do well, including the formulators, including the brand owners, and they are all, you know, ready to improve. No one’s got these big egos where they, you know, they sit on their high horses and get upset with videos like this. It’s actually quite good. So, even though it sounds like I’m being really harsh, I do hope I would give it 6 months from releasing this video to suddenly seeing improvements in all these formulas. I will then do another video for you Nika and India to on vitamin C’s that will be available for you in 6 to 9 months and I promise you it’s going to be better than what what we what we’ve got available right now. Moving on to the Dermaco. So as you guys know I have never reviewed the Dermaco and the reason is is that I collaborated with the Dermaco to create our Renew range and I feel like there’s a conflict of interest because I love the Dermaco family. They have given me an incredible opportunity to formulate for my skin of color family in India. And if it weren’t for them and weren’t for them, you know, working with me for a year and a half to create this range, I would never have been able to serve my family in India. It’s very hard because I love these guys. It’s very hard for me to give, you know, independent critical feedback. But I’m going to do my absolute best. The reason is that thousands of you have said, “Dr. V, we know you work with Dermaco, but can you please just review the product anyway for us and do your best?” So, I am doing this for you guys, but I don’t really ever want to review these guys because I love them so much. But I’m going to do my best for you now. So, I’m going to be very impartial as if I don’t love them. I do my best. So, right, starting off with the packaging. So, it is a pipette. Good luck with everyone else, but uh I do think that this should be in an Ella’s pump. But, let’s go through the formula and see what else is in here. Let me show you what it looks like. See what it smells like. It’s the same smell as everything else. All the vitamin C’s are smelling the same and it is a very strong smell and it’s cuz the raw acid is smell the raw ingredients are quite stinky actually. They don’t have any fragrance to mask it. Okay, so let’s go through it. Starting off with water, of course, as the first ingredient. Then it’s got propendial, which is a solvent. So that’s basically what helps to absorb and allow everything else to dissolve into the formula. Then they put in 10% 30 ethyloscopic acid. That is my favorite, one of my favorite forms of vitamin C. In fact, it’s the vitamin C that I wanted to put into our retinol retinaldahhide serum. They put in 5% nyinomide, which I love. And that’s the correct percentage. You want to look at nyinomide between 2 to 5%. When you’re seeing 10%, you know that kind of was just sort of everyone copying The Ordinary’s bestseller, but actually clinical studies are done from 2 to 5%. More than that can lead to irritation. This, by the way, also includes when you’re layering products. When you’re layering, say for example, you got face wash, which you’re, you know, washing off, that’s fine. Then you put on a toner with nyinomide that say that’s 1%. Then you put in your moisturizer which has got say 2%. You’re adding that on. And then you have, say, a sunscreen with 2%, you’re adding that. You now have 5% nyinomide on the skin. And so also add up cuz it’s cumulative how you’re layering to make sure you keep it within that 2 to 5% range. They also put in ferilic acid at a fraction of a percent which is what we tend to recommend. Again I love ferilic acid. This is a nave safe product. There’s no DH alcohol, no fragrance, no essential oils but again I’m not a fan of pipets. So for me if this became an airless pump I would say this would become one of the best formulas for vitamin C in India. So if we were to reformulate this, I would keep the same formula actually, but I would put it in airless packaging, but make sure so UV light is not hitting the formula either. Our star product from the whole range is our peptide retinol serum. It’s still the only serum in the whole of India that contains retinol, retinaldahhide, vitamin C, and peptides. Now retinaldahhide works 10 times faster than retinol. So it comes out beautiful and yellow. There’s no irritation with this because don’t forget retinaldahhide even though it’s more expensive than retinol causes zero irritation. And why does it work 10 times faster than retinol? It’s because it’s closer to retinoic acid. And so it’s only one step removed from retinoic acid rather than two steps removed, which is what retinol is. Moving on to quench. So let’s see what’s in here. Interesting. So the bottle is the box is coming a bit bent because again there’s no double cardboarding inside. Don’t forget you don’t need double cardboard. That’s expensive. Plus however thick the box is that also adds to the price. You have to think about this. I’m the manufacturer of my own brand. So I know the cost of everything and you really do take everything into consideration when you are producing the product. So okay. So they’ve done this to try and protect the bottle itself by putting plastic around it. That’s one way to do this. It also is a security um helps with security as well to make sure that your product’s not been tampered with. Okay, let’s see what it looks like. Okay, interesting. So, they’re coming in as an emulsion. Ah, that’s because it’s vitamin C plus vitamin E. So, they’re fats in this. So, that’s why it’s not clear. It’s white. Oh, let’s see what it looks like. This is the only downside with straw pumps. Hold on. Is this a straw? Yeah, it’s a straw. So, when it’s a straw, it means it’s not airless. And it also, and this is a problem that I had with our body exfoliator, is when you we start off as a straw and it’s so annoying trying to pump out a very thick product out of a straw. This is where airless pumps are better, but airless pumps are more expensive. So, we had to move to an airless pump for the same reason. You can see it coming out. So, it does actually look lovely when it comes out. Quite light on the skin. It’s going to penetrate very easily. very strong smell. You’re not going to like it. It’s like it’s a very sharp smell. I think it’s going to attract the bees, this one. And this product starts off with water, of course. Then they’ve put in butane glycol. So that’s your hctant. They put in glycerin, another hctant. Nyinomide 2%, which I love actually. Nyinomide is your best friend when it comes to anyone with large pores that want to be reduced. If you’ve got oily skin, you want to control sebum production. If you’ve got dry, red, inflamed skin, it helps. It’s an anti-inflammatory. So, actually nyinomide is excellent. It says vitamin C and vitamin E on the label, but there is no vitamin C in the inky list in the ingredients list. So, if they’re saying it comes from the avocado oil, then this is the 21st ingredient on the ingredients list, and it’s just too low down for it to be in the therapeutic index. So, this is an example of false advertising because what they’ve done is they said, “Hey, this is a brightening serum with vitamin C and vitamin E.” There’s no vitamin C in the ingredients list. There’s avocado oil, and they’re hoping that maybe in there there’s a little bit of vitamin C. There’s nothing in here in the therapeutic index other than the nycinomide. I love this as a nycinomide serum. The smell is not great and actually they’re better nyinomide serums for you on Nika. So for me, you’re really not going to get this intense brightening from these ingredients at such low percentages. So it’s another no. Moving on to the next one. This is the green tea enzyme vitamin C brightening serum. Okay, so I love this at the top. Um, it just gives you an idea what type of serum it is. So, this red one is black tea. That’s the black tea with retinol. The blue one gives you is also retinol actually, but moisture recovery serum. Don’t worry, I’ll go through those in a second. Okay, so starting off with this one again. Ooh, slightly less actually. So, I’ve gone for 30 ms in this one, but again, beautiful packaging. So, you can hear that’s glass. Ah, big mistake. They have gone for pipet which is a problem because look I’m doing this. Look how much oxygen is now surrounding the vitamin C. Yeah. Now don’t forget vitamin C is an antioxidant. It oxidizes in oxygen and becomes ineffective. If I do this a couple of times, how effective do you think the serum is now going to be? And this is why you always choose a vitamin C that’s in an airless pump. So I’m going to show you what an airless pump looks like. It basically looks like this with a pump and there usually is a little hole at the bottom. The reason is that when you’re pumping the serum out like this. This is our basically retinol, retinaldahhide, vitamin C serum. When you pump this out, this sucks the bottom higher and no oxygen actually gets to the product itself. That’s how you know that the product is stable. Otherwise, there’s no way for you to know whether your vitamin C is effective or not. So this is our antioxidant power serum which is 0.1% retinol 0.1% retinaldahhide plus vitamin C and co-enzyme Q10 with zero irritation. Having said this, let’s have a look at the formula. So in here they it’s n safe. There’s no den alcohol, no fragrance and no essential oils. So that’s fantastic. It’s got water, then propendial and then glycerin which is fine. Then they’ve used uh the solvent hexendale which is fine as well. Then they’ve gone in for 30 ethaloscopic acid. Beautiful vitamin C and it’s a fifth ingredient. So you’re looking at a good 2 to 3%. It’s in the therapeutic index. Again, great percentage. I would say I love this formula, but I hate the packaging. And if it’s free, put this into an airless pump. I would recommend it for you. But as it is, as it stands, as beautiful as the packaging is, this is not one I would use for my face or recommend to my global skin of color family.
