Vitamin C meets silymarin: a breakthrough for oily, blemish-prone skin?

Upgrading or starting a skincare routine can feel overwhelming, especially for those of us with complex skin needs. There are seemingly infinite options, all claiming to hold the secret to achieving your very best skin. There’s a huge range of environmental aggressors that affect the skin, too – UV damage, cigarette smoke, pollution, central heating and air conditioning can all leave the skin looking dull, with signs of premature ageing such as fine lines and wrinkles. And that’s before we even consider what’s going on inside our bodies – hormonal fluctuations, stress, anxiety and lack of sleep can also wreak havoc on our skin.

As a woman in her 40s with combination skin, finding potent antioxidant skincare to combat environmental damage that also offers anti-ageing benefits and supports healthy skin texture – while not feeling too heavy on the skin – can be challenging.

Enter SkinCeuticals Silymarin CF. The super-lightweight serum feels great on the skin, absorbs quickly and doesn’t feel heavy or greasy, which I love. Dermatologist Dr Emma Craythorne agrees: “A lot of vitamin E oil-based serums can feel too thick on blemish-prone skin as these skin types prefer water-based products. I’m really excited about this product – it’s been cleverly formulated for people with oily and blemish-prone skin.”

SkinCeuticals Silymarin CF helps tackle the signs of ageing and helps with oil oxidation – it has been clinically proven to help reduce oil oxidation by up to 76%*. “It’s taken six years to develop the potent triple-antioxidant formula with 15% pure vitamin C, 0.5% ferulic acid, 0.5% silymarin, and 0.5% salicylic acid,” says Craythorne. “What’s really great about the serum is that the ferulic acid, when combined with vitamin C, helps to enhance the power of the vitamin C.”

Related: From free radicals to antioxidants: the science behind caring for oily skin

Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant. With 15% L-ascorbic acid (a pure form of vitamin C), the serum helps to neutralise free radical damage, which can result in skin blemishes, hyperpigmentation, fine lines, loss of firmness and wrinkles. Ferulic acid helps protect against oxidative stress, while salicylic acid – a natural and gentle exfoliator – helps reduce the appearance of blemishes and refine pores. Silymarin helps to prevent against lipid peroxidation, the process in which free radicals “steal” electrons from the lipids in cell membranes.

It’s great to see such an innovative triple-antioxidant serum on the market that’s formulated especially for mature and oily, blemish-prone skin types. If you’re in need of an extra layer of protection for your skin, which can be used in your morning skincare routine to help neutralise free radical damage, target signs of premature ageing, hyperpigmentation, and oil oxidation to help reduce the appearance of blemishes, then be sure to give SkinCeuticals Silymarin CF a try.

Revitalise your skincare routine with SkinCeuticals Silymarin CF, sold at lookfantastic.com

_{* Clinical study, 35 subjects (China 2020)}