PRODUCT REVIEW: GOOP BEAUTY GOOPGLOW 20% VITAMIN C AND HYALURONIC GLOW SERUM - BEST VITAMIN C SERUM, BEST FRESH ACTIVATED VITAMIN C SERUM
GOOP BEAUTY | GOOPGLOW 20% VITAMIN C AND HYALURONIC GLOW SERUM
This product review was originally part of my blog article titled, My Top Vitamin C Picks FW21: New Vitamin C Serums I’m Crushing on from Algenist, Naturium, Goop Glow and More. You can catch the full piece here.
__
There are two ingredients that I wish everyone on Earth who’s serious about their skin health would incorporate into their own skincare routines — Vitamin C and Vitamin B3, or Niacinamide. Both are indispensable antioxidants — and much, much more. In the case of a good Vitamin C treatment, it can be one of the best anti-aging serums in your arsenal.
Yes, like sunscreen, antioxidants are anti-aging. And you can’t get enough of them in your skincare and in your skin.
Back in my time working at Kiehl’s as the company’s first-ever copywriter, the marketers didn’t understand the value of antioxidants. In fact, no one really did. Antioxidants like Vitamin C were considered “preventable”; that is, they prevented signs of aging. They were marketed to young women in their 20s. As if everyone at every age isn’t interested in preventing signs of aging. We all know it can get worse!
What Are Antioxidants and What Do Antioxidants Do for Skin?
Antioxidants possess numerous benefits for the skin, including preventing skin damage and multiple signs of aging. There’s an excellent article from the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team titled, How Antioxidants Fight the Signs of Aging that you can catch here. This is what I found most insightful:
Antioxidants for Skin Benefits
Antioxidants play a unique role when it comes to diminishing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Years of environmental damage (including unprotected sun exposure—one more reason to apply that broad-spectrum sunscreen!) slowly chip away at skin’s natural ability to look and feel healthy. As this damage builds up, skin gradually loses its ability to recover and bounce back as it once did. It’s not an exaggeration to say that after years of damage, skin becomes overwhelmed, and its “look young systems” begin to slow down.
Antioxidants in skin care step in to help shield skin’s surface from further deterioration by calming stressed skin and defending against the visible effects of pollution —something all of us encounter on a daily basis.
What happens as a result of applying antioxidants to your face is truly impressive: Skin’s appearance begins to turn around! It regains a firmer feel and more even skin tone—and those wrinkles you’re probably not fond of will visibly soften.
The Best Vitamin C Serums and Face Creams
Until very recently, Vitamin C was perhaps the most under-appreciated of all skincare ingredients. Mainly because it seemed to be old news. And marketers don’t push what’s old; they spend their marketing dollars on what’s new, fresh, sexy and innovative — whether it works or not. Their job is to make you believe what they’re pushing does.
Not so long ago, antioxidant Vitamin C was really tough to formulate with. It’s been nearly impossible to keep high levels of Vitamin C stable in a skincare formula. The truly effective levels weren’t possible. Until you get to ten percent or more, you don’t really get the power-brightening, collagen-building benefits that Vitamin C has to offer.
Right at the start of summer, I published my first article of the year on my favorite Vitamin C serums of 2021 in a piece titled, Collab with Antonio Jefferson Studio: New Vitamin C Serums I’m Crushing on from Wander Beauty, Glossier, Kat Burki and More – which you can catch here. It was a collection of the latest and greatest Vitamin C serums, brightening face oils, anti-aging lotions and I’d say, the best dark spot treatments out there.
COLLAB WITH ANTONIO JEFFERSON STUDIO: NEW VITAMIN C SERUMS I’M CRUSHING ON FROM WANDER BEAUTY, GLOSSIER, KAT BURKI & MORE
Among my top picks were some of my favorite brightening Vitamin C serums to this day, the turmeric-infused Beautycounter Counter+ All Bright C Serum, the Wander Beauty Sight C-er Vitamin C Concentrate and Glossier Super Glow Vitamin C + Magnesium Serum — one of the best Vitamin C serums for oily skin.
Also in the mix were the Kat Burki Retin-C Treatment Complex and Algenist Blue Algae Vitamin C Dark Spot Correcting Peel — a really wonderful brightening peel that’s perfect for reinvigorating your complexion on #selfcaresunday.
What Does Vitamin C Do for Skin?
There’s an excellent article on the remarkable benefits of Vitamin C for the skin from the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team titled, What is Vitamin C and How Does it Benefit Skin?
Vitamin C is one of the most exciting, research-proven ingredients you can apply to skin. This water-soluble antioxidant is a natural component of healthy skin. When we’re young, vitamin C levels in skin’s outermost two layers (epidermis and dermis) are abundant, but as we age, these levels naturally deplete. Unprotected sun exposure (UV damage) and pollution can accelerate this decline, leading to skin looking and feeling dull, uneven, and less firm than it once was.
Luckily, there are topical skin care solutions that can help mitigate this damage, so skin looks and feels healthier and younger longer.
Vitamin C Benefits for Skin
Vitamin C’s benefits for skin are vast, including its ability to even out skin tone and diminish the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. While this powerhouse ingredient is well-known for its skin-brightening benefits, research also shows it can shield skin from the visible impacts of environmental stressors, including free radical damage. This synergy of mitigating problems both before and after they occur makes vitamin C a force to be reckoned with.
When and How to Use Vitamin C in Your Skin Care Routine
All forms of vitamin C mix well and layer with other skin care ingredients, including exfoliating acids and other vitamins and antioxidants, such as retinol and niacinamide (11, 12).
Vitamin C can be used twice daily, both morning and night. After cleansing, toning and exfoliating, apply the rest of your products in order from thinnest to thickest texture (commonly: serum, moisturizer, treatments). During the day, always finish with a moisturizer with broad-spectrum SPF 30 or greater.
WATCH MY VIDEO REVIEW
MY 2021 VITAMIN C PICKS + THE BEST VITAMIN C SERUMS TO BRIGHTEN UP THE COMPLEXION!
ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE
With the understanding that Vitamin C can be a real game changer for your skin health (and your complexion!), let’s take a look at five of the best Vitamin C serums that I’ve been crushing on over the last several months.
Meet one of my top picks of Vitamin C serums for FW21…
goop beauty | GOOPGLOW 20% Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Glow Serum
I’ve been admiring actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop beauty from afar since its introduction on the Sephora website several years ago. There are very few celebrity skincare and beauty brands that I think are done well. Most of them are nonsensical gimmicks and simple ego boosters for their famous founders.
Among the ones that I think miss the mark are Kylie’s Jenner’s Kylie Skin, the makeup-heavy brand Haus Labs by Lady Gaga and JLo’s dated-on-launch JLo Beauty. What makes her skincare special? JLo’s formulas are infused with a wildly innovative olive oil complex. Seriously. Olive oil. That’s the reason for being.
But they’re not all ridiculous. A handful, and I mean a handful, are actually really well done. Not only do I consider Pharrell Williams’ Humanrace a well-done celeb skincare brand, but it’s really good skincare if you pull Pharrell’s celebrity out of the mix. The formulas are top notch. In fact, I reviewed the brand and its tight, three-product regimen on the blog in an article titled, Brands I Love: Humanrace - Pharrell Williams’ Surprisingly Clean, Sustainable & Refillable Skincare. You can catch it here.
BRANDS I LOVE: HUMANRACE - PHARRELL WILLIAMS' SURPRISINGLY CLEAN, SUSTAINABLE & REFILLABLE SKINCARE
Another celeb brand that I believe is well done — and this one could just be the best celebrity skincare brand to date — is, in fact, Gwyneth’s goop beauty. There are now about two dozen products available, most of them well-formulated and several of them innovative.
Among the most noteworthy are the antioxidant nutritional supplement, GOOPGLOW Morning Skin Superpowder, the GOOPGLOW Microderm Instant Glow Exfoliator and the GOOPGLOW 20% Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Glow Serum, which is such a well done Vitamin C treatment that it earned its place in my top picks of Vitamin C products of the year.
Goop beauty describes their innovative treatment as “a daily glow serum that combines two powerhouses, 20 percent L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and hyaluronic acid, leaving skin firmer, brighter, and smoother.” With its fresh activation, it’s reminiscent of what I consider to be one of the best anti-aging serums on the market, the Clinique Fresh Pressed Daily Booster with Pure Vitamin C 10%.
PRODUCT REVIEW: CLINIQUE FRESH PRESSED DAILY BOOSTER WITH PURE VITAMIN C 10% – BEST BRIGHTENING SERUM
Vitamin C is notoriously unstable, sensitive to light, air and water. Fresh activation assures that you’re getting a maximally effective treatment from day one.
As the name implies, the GOOPGLOW 20% Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Glow Serum blends two anti-aging heavy hitters: Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Acid. Both of these are skin health essentials and must-haves in a daily skincare regimen.
With 20% L-Ascorbic Acid, the purest form of antioxidant Vitamin C, it doesn’t get any better than this. At such a high concentration, not only will your skin benefit from the antioxidant power of Vitamin C, but you will see a near-instant brightening effect, especially overnight. You’re sure to see a difference in the reflectivity of your complexion by morning. I know I do!
Additionally, over time, a sustained concentration of 20% Vitamin C will help stimulate collagen production in the skin to plump from within and smooth the appearance of lines and wrinkles on the surface. So you get antioxidant defense against signs of aging and a corrective benefit, too.
Like the Clinique Fresh Pressed Daily Booster, the GOOPGLOW 20% Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Glow Serum contains much more than just Vitamin C. Both are antioxidant powerhouse treatments with additional antioxidants beyond the Vitamin C itself.
Each formula also contains Hyaluronic Acid in the form of Sodium Hyaluronate which is more skin-compatible. This gives them a solid humectant benefit that keeps skin hydrated, something that is essential to skin health.
What Is Hyaluronic Acid and What Does Hyaluronic Acid Do for the Skin?
I love this article on Hyaluronic Acid on the Healthline website titled, Why Science Says Hyaluronic Acid Is the Holy Grail to Wrinkle-Free, Youthful Hydration. It’s wonky and full of insights. Check this part out:
“The benefits of hyaluronic acid on the skin has to do with its molecular weight and concentration. In this case, size matters! The molecular weight refers to its mass, or how big the HA molecule is. This is measured in something called unified atomic mass units — daltons, or kDa for short.
HA between 50 to 1,000 kDa is the most beneficial for skin, with about 130 kDa being the best, according to the most recent human studies. Anything higher won't make too much of a difference. Anything lower might cause inflammation. How did we get this number? When you look at studies, you'll see a pattern, but one of the most thorough studies looked at HA with different molecular weights, including 50, 130, 300, 800, and 2,000 kDa.
After one month, they found that treatment with 130 kDa HA was the most effective, increasing skin elasticity by 20 percent. Both the 50 and 130 kDa groups had significant improvement in wrinkle-depth and skin roughness after 60 days. All the other molecular weights still improved elasticity and skin hydration, just less so. You can read more about this molecular weight analysis from the original breakdown here.”
While it’s on the high end in terms of price, the goop beauty GOOPGLOW 20% Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Glow Serum is superbly pro-skin health. Which is not something I can say about La Mer’s over-priced and under-formulated Crème de la Mer Moisturizing Cream. With goop beauty, you get what you pay for: a really good anti-aging serum.
What I like about it: I love anything freshly activated, but especially a Vitamin C serum. The goop beauty GOOPGLOW 20% Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Glow Serum packs a punch with its high concentration of Vitamin C and its pro-skin health formulation.
What I don’t like about it: At $125, it’s priced out of the range of most people looking for a reliably effective (and stable!) Vitamin C serum. That’s just too high a price to pay.
Who it’s for: All skin types.
SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the goop beauty GOOPGLOW 20% Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Glow Serum for $125 here.
MY FAVORITE HUMECTANT SERUMS FROM PAULA'S CHOICE, THE INKEY LIST AND MORE - BEST HYALURONIC ACID SERUMS
WATCH MY VIDEO REVIEW
THE YEAR’S BEST VITAMIN C SERUMS WITH PAULA'S CHOICE, SUNDAY RILEY, THE INKEY LIST AND MORE!
ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE
WATCH MY VIDEO REVIEW OF
A SELFCARE SUNDAY NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART – WITH THE PAULA’S CHOICE 25% AHA PEEL!
ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE
WATCH MY VIDEO REVIEW
COOL CLEAN FACIAL SUNSCREENS TO KEEP US SAFE AND SMILING IN THE SUN!
ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE
WATCH MY VIDEO REVIEW
THE BEST HYALURONIC ACID SERUMS FROM PAULA'S CHOICE, THE INKEY LIST, GHOST DEMOCRACY & MORE
ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE
WATCH MY VIDEO REVIEW
MY 2021 VITAMIN C PICKS + THE BEST VITAMIN C SERUMS TO BRIGHTEN UP THE COMPLEXION!
ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE
The Ingredient List of the Algenist Blue Algae Vitamin C Skinclarity Brightening Serum:
sii|h 0 0, Butylene Glycol h|solv|vc 0 1, Ascorbic Acid aox|sb|buff, Triheptanoin emo, Pseudoalteromonas Ferment Extract 
so|h, C13-15 Alkane solv|emo, Parachlorella Beijerinckii Exopolysaccharides, Biosaccharide Gum-1 so|h, Bakuchiol cci|aox|amic, Beta Vulgaris Root Extract aox|h, Hydrolyzed Corn Starch h|vc, Sodium Hyaluronate sii|h 0 0, Melia Azadirachta Leaf Extract, Melia Azadirachta Flower Extract, Corallina Officinalis Extract, Coccinia Indica Fruit Extract, Solanum Melongena Fruit Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Flower Extract emo, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil emo 0 0-2, Curcuma Longa Root Extract aox|so|sb|perf, Ocimum Basilicum Flower/Leaf Extract, Ocimum Sanctum Leaf Extract, Salicylic Acid exf|aacne|so|pres, Tocopherol aox 0-3 0-3, Sodium Polyacryloyldimethyl Taurate vc, Sodium Citrate chel|buff, Phycocyanin aox, Lavandula Angustifolia Oil 
amic|perf, Tanacetum Vulgare Extract, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate chel, Potassium Sorbate pres, Caprylyl Glycol h|emo, Ethylhexylglycerin pres, Phenoxyethanol pres, Sodium Salicylate pres, Linalool perf, Limonene perf|solvThe Ingredient List of the Naturium Vitamin C Complex Serum:
sii|h 0 0, Propanediol solv|h, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate aox|aacne, Ascorbic Acid aox|sb|buff, Glutathione, Ananas Sativus (Pineapple) Fruit Extract so|h, Carica Papaya (Papaya) Fruit Extract, Mangifera Indica (Mango) Fruit Extract, Terminalia Ferdinandiana Fruit Extract aox|sb, Pleiogynium Timoriense Fruit Extract, Podocarpus Elatus Fruit Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice so|h, Sodium Hyaluronate sii|h 0 0, Carbomer vc 0 1, Tocopheryl Acetate aox 0 0, Phenoxyethanol pres, Caprylyl Glycol h|emo, Citric Acid buff, Hydroxyethylcellulose vc, Sodium Hydroxide buff, Beta-Glucan so|h, Potassium Sorbate pres, Hexylene Glycol solv|emu|perf|surf 0-1 0-2, Sorbitol h 0 0, Xanthan Gum vc, Algin vc 4 4, Benzoic Acid pres, Sorbic Acid pres, 1,2-Hexanediol solv, Sodium Benzoate pres, Disodium Phosphate buff, Gold col, Polysorbate 60 emu|surf, Sodium Phosphate buffThe Ingredient List of the goop beauty GOOPGLOW 20% Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Glow Serum:
aox|sb|buff, Glycerin sii|h 0 0, Dimethyl Isosorbide solv|vc, Pentylene Glycol solv|h, Propanediol solv|h, Terminalia Ferdinandiana Fruit Extract aox|sb, Sodium Hyaluronate sii|h 0 0, Ferulic Acid aox|amic, Olea Europaea (Olive) Leaf Extract perf, Ziziphus Jujuba Seed Extract, Levan, Decyl Glucoside surf, Galactoarabinan aox, Sodium Citrate chel|buff, Xylitol h, Caprylic Acid surf|emu|perf 3 1, Sodium Hydroxide buff, Citric Acid buff, Phenethyl Alcohol, Ethylhexylglycerin pres, Potassium Sorbate pres, Caprylyl Glycol h|emoThe Ingredient List of the Replenix Vitamin C Pro Collagen Serum:
aox|sb, Cyclopentasiloxane emo|solv, Trimethylsiloxysilicate emo, Ascorbyl Glucoside aox|sb, Ascorbic Acid aox|sb|buff, Alpha-Arbutin aox|sb, Phyllanthus Emblica Fruit Extract h, Ascorbic Acid/Orange/Citrus Limon/Citrus Aurantifolia Polypeptides, Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi (Bearberry) Leaf Extract aox|sb, Ascorbyl Palmitate aox 0 2, Purified Water solv, Orange Terpenes, Phospholipids sii|emo, Tocopheryl Acetate aox 0 0, Retinyl Palmitate cci 1-3 1-3, Superoxide Dismutase aox, Ubiquinone (Coq-10) aox, Phenoxyethanol presThe Ingredient List of the ALPHA-H Vitamin C With Grape Seed Serum:
h, Ethyl Ascorbic Acid aox|sb, Vitis Vinifera Seed Extract aox|amic, Sodium Hyaluronate sii|h 0 0, Sodium Citrate chel|buff, Citric Acid buff, Phenoxyethanol pres, Polyacrylate Crosspolymer-6 vc, Caprylyl Glycol h|emo, Glycyrrhiza Glabra Root Extract so|sb, Sodium Bisulfite aox|pres
