If there’s one ingredient category you should be adding to your morning routine this summer, it’s antioxidants. They work alongside your sunscreen to protect against the sun - and other environmental stressors. Let’s talk about why you should add this powerful tool to your skincare arsenal.

Oxidative Stress

Most of us have likely heard about free radicals and how exposure to environmental aggressors like the sun can increase their levels in our skin, resulting in free radical damage. Over time, they not only damage the structure of our skin but DNA within the cells - causing premature aging and increasing the risk of diseases like cancer.

The term “free radical” refers to a type of unstable molecule that is a by-product of cellular respiration. The unstable nature of free radicals is due to their chemical structure; they have an unpaired electron that makes them unstable and highly reactive. Most of the ones we find in the skin fall within the category of reactive oxygen species (ROS), oxygen containing radicals that can react with other molecules.

You may be surprised to learn that free radicals actually serve many important functions in the body. In our skin, they play a vital role in the skin’s immune response and in regulating repair. We need them but they’re “troublemakers” that need to be kept busy. Once they do their job, antioxidants come in and neutralize them so they can’t get into anything they shouldn’t. 

Our bodies are all about balance. Blood pressure, fluid balance, gas exchange, and pH level all come down to carefully maintaining the right balance and adjusting quickly to any shifts. This careful regulation is called homeostasis. Oxidative stress is an example of an imbalance between antioxidants and oxidants, resulting in oxidizing reactions that can then oxidize skin lipids and structural protein like collagen as well as DNA.

To learn more about how environmental factors age our skin, read our previous blog on the science of growing older.

Antioxidants at Work

The skin barrier is a region of the skin that behaves much like a defensive structure, protecting our body from anything in the environment that could cause us harm. These layers upon layers of defenses include a complex antioxidant system that is designed to handle the free radicals that result from cellular metabolism as well as environmental aggressors.

If free radicals are “troublemakers” then antioxidants are the tired, overworked babysitters of the skin. Cellular metabolism is constantly generating ROS as well as exposure to external triggers like the skin. Antioxidants neutralize them by donating electrons and this keeps them from bouncing around and oxidizing the proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates that make up our skin. 

Because reactive oxygen species are missing an electron, antioxidants donate one in a chemical reaction called a redox reaction. In this type of reaction, a reducing agent donates an electron and an oxidizing agent accepts one. Antioxidants don’t have an unlimited supply of electrons to give though and eventually they become oxidized. When this happens, our skin has a system in place to reduce them so they can get back to work.

It all comes back to balance. Under normal conditions, our skin can manage the influx of free radicals. But sometimes that balance is disrupted and the antioxidant system is depleted, resulting in oxidative stress.

Protecting your Skin

Summer presents a challenge to our skin. Many of us are outside more in the warmer months, whether it’s due to vacation or enjoying outside activities like swimming and hiking. While these are all wonderful, this means more time outside when the UV index is higher and the free radicals generated can exceed what our skin is capable of handling. Sun damage, hyper pigmentation, and oxidative stress are all more prevalent in the summer months.

You don’t need to stay inside all summer but you do want a sun protection strategy. Seeking shade in the middle of the day, using protective clothing like hats, and applying sunscreen liberally and often are all ways to protect your skin so you can still enjoy the outdoors. But no sunscreen offers 100% protection and UV filters only protect against UV radiation, not other environmental aggressors.

That’s where antioxidants can help. While never a replacement for sunscreen, adding topical antioxidants to help replenish our skin’s reserves and bolster skin defenses. And they work together with your sunscreen.

3 reasons to use antioxidants with sunscreen:

• they enhance photoprotection.
• antioxidants can be used to help stabilize UV filters in sunscreen formulations.
• they protect against more environmental aggressors than sun exposure alone

Stratia's C+C Serum

Antioxidants are divided into three types: fat soluble, water soluble, and enzymatic. Fat soluble antioxidants protect the cell membrane and lipoproteins, water soluble ones protect the fluid between and inside cells, and enzymatic antioxidants primarily make up the antioxidant network responsible for handling any free radicals produced by cell metabolism.

Antioxidants work synergistically together. This means that looking for an array of them will not only protect all of the skin but the amount of protection they offer is significantly increased as well. Many antioxidant products on the market only feature Vitamin C, failing to consider how antioxidants work and the formulation as a whole. For best results, we also want to replenish the skin’s own antioxidant defenses too.

Here’s why I love Stratia’s C+C

• A unique, water-free vehicle keeps the ascorbic acid stable while the use of volatile silicones delivers the ingredients into the skin while evaporating so it’s not heavy.

• Water soluble ascorbic acid replenishes Vitamin C levels in the skin and protects fluid inside and outside the cells,
•  The addition of a fat soluble Vitamin C ester may help penetration of the ascorbic acid and allows for an effective concentration overall with reduced irritation.
• Coenzyme Q10 is a fat soluble antioxidant that is naturally occurring in the body and both acts as an antioxidant itself while also supporting the antioxidant network.
• Vitamin E works synergistically with Vitamin C while also helping keep it stable.
• Bisabolol likely has its own antioxidant properties too but it’s also an anti-inflammatory agent, making it perfect for soothing the skin after you’ve been outside in the heat. 

Application Tip: apply first on clean, bare skin in the morning. Give it a few minutes to allow the silicones to evaporate and then you can proceed with any other morning skincare steps before finishing with your favorite sunscreen. 

References

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5551541/
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990475/
3. https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/58369
4. https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/58369

Mira is a skincare educator, blogger, and the content creator behind Skin Science by Mira and The Skincare Forum on Facebook. While skincare keeps her busy, she’s also pursuing her degree in Nursing and loves to spend her free time hiking.  As a content writer for Stratia Skin, Mira shares her evidence-based approach to skincare topics and a passion for making science accessible.