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Skincare smoothies? Serum injections? From Hailey Bieber’s Strawberry Glazed Skin Smoothie at LA grocery store Erewhon to every pill, patch, and gummy available on the market, it seems we’re all looking to improve our skin with food. Edible beauty is all the rage these days, with ingestible Vitamin C being the latest to gain traction. And it makes us wonder: how far can we trust these beauty claims?
We spoke to experts to find out more about how vitamin C works for the skin and whether it’s effective when taken orally. Read on to find out what dermatologists think about the benefits of this edible beauty ingredient.
Featured Experts
- Daniel Schlessinger, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist based in Omaha, Nebraska.
- Janine Downey, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist based in Montclair, New Jersey.
Edible beauty products are becoming more popular
Multivitamins used to be lame, and if you’ve ever had a Flintstones gummy bear you know what we mean.
But more recently, with exponential advances in beauty technology and innovation, and social media bringing the buying experience into our personal spaces, supplements have taken on a new lease of life. New clinical studies, new ingredients, and new formulations are flooding the market with more claims than ever before.
According to Verified Research Market, the beauty supplement market has grown by $1 billion since 2018 and is expected to continue to grow, and according to Nutritional Outlook, 91% of Americans increased their VMS (vitamins, minerals, and supplements) intake during the pandemic.
With more sophisticated formulations, more research backing up their claims, and even innovations in how they’re taken, beauty supplements are likely here to stay — but are they all created equal?
Is Vitamin C a Good Beauty Supplement?
The real question is, does oral vitamin C actually benefit the skin?
“There’s no good data to show that vitamin C that you swallow actually reaches your skin,” says Daniel Schlessinger, M.D., a dermatologist in Omaha, Neb. “It’s true that when you do something like drink water, that water travels to all parts of your body and eventually reaches your skin. It’s a clear connection. With vitamin C, there’s no such data.”
However, this does not mean that taking vitamin C orally has no effect on the body.
When taken orally, vitamin C is required for the regeneration of all tissues. It is an essential element in the wound healing process and in the repair and maintenance of bones and teeth. Severe vitamin C deficiency, also known as scurvy, can cause bleeding gums, easy bruising, and fatigue. We get vitamin C from fruits and vegetables, and although deficiency is rare, many people could use more vitamin C in their diet, according to Mount Sinai.
So vitamin C is an important vitamin, and it’s part of our diets that plays a series of important roles—but its skin-care promises seem unlikely to come to fruition. “It’s true that taking vitamin C orally for skin care is not all that beneficial,” agrees Janine Downey, MD, a dermatologist in Montclair, New Jersey.
Is edible beauty really true?
“In general, I think beauty supplements are mediocre, with the exception of Nutrafol, which is actually very effective,” says Dr. Downey. “Beauty supplements need clinical trials to prove their effectiveness.”
Nutrafol has a number of clinical and published studies to back up its formulas. New Beauty And an expert favorite.
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When it comes to supplements that promise anti-aging benefits, one stood out to Dr. Schlessinger.
“One that comes to mind is Heliocare ($31), which has been studied and peer reviewed,” he says. “You should definitely see the peer-reviewed data before you believe these claims.”
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