Today I want to finally review the Timeless 20% Vitamin C, E & Ferulic Acid Serum. This review is long over due but when it comes to testing out potent anti-aging products, my sensitive skin requires extra time for testing purposes. This is especially true for vitamin C (VC) products as my skin hasn't played well with other serums in the past. While L-Ascorbic Acid (L-AA) might be the best form of vitamin C in terms of collagen production, UV protection, fading scarring and hyper-pigmentation, it has been known to cause skin irritation and sensitivity. So as you can imagine with my sensitive skin, I started the process of adding Timeless VC into my routines very, very slowly.
I usually touch base on patch testing further into my product reviews but due to the nature of VC, I feel I need to write about how I incorporated this into my routine.
Patch Testing:
Every product I use goes through a very detailed patch testing period. I always patch test and I recommend patch testing to everyone. This is how I introduce new skin care products to my easily irritated skin. Patch testing can look different for everyone but for me, I test products in stages. For this VC serum, I applied it to the inside of my wrist, neck, chest and behind my ears. I applied this serum to those areas for a few weeks, yes weeks. I did see some irritation/sensitivity, redness, flushing but nothing too serious so I began adding a tiny drop to different parts of my face for many weeks. I saw the same flushing and slight irritation/sensitivity but again, nothing serious enough to stop the testing process. I began adding more and more product until eventually I was applying the serum to my entire face. I will say that during these many weeks of testing, I was traveling, I got sick, menstruation etc happened and I broke out, so I wasn't sure if the VC serum was exacerbating the situation so I would back off using this on areas where I wasn't having breakouts. I came to find that this wasn't causing breakouts but it was making my skin more sensitive. Was my skin more likely to break out from this increased skin sensitivity? I honestly don't think so. Regardless, I needed to take this crazy amount of time to really test this product because I have sensitive skin. Another challenge was the weather, which so wacky and I know this made testing out this serum more complicated. Lastly, I also had an IPL treatment and a microdermabrasion during the testing period, so you can see why it has taken me a long time to test this product.