Antioxidants Vitamin C

What's difference between AA2G® (ascorbic acid 2-glucoside) and L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C)?

October 28, 2016

L-ascorbic acid, known to most of us as Vitamin C, is an antioxidant which provides physiological benefits to the skin such as sun damage correction, and stimulation of collagen production. However, when exposed to water (commonly in serums and moisturizers), Vitamin C becomes oxidized, and loses its antioxidant properties. This causes the substance to turn orange, the colour often associated with products containing vitamin C, so don’t be fooled! Vitamin C in its pure form should be clear not orange. More importantly, the colour of the Vitamin C product that you are using should not change over time as this is an indicator of lost effectiveness.

One way to avoid this loss of efficacy due to oxidation is to formulate a product that is anhydrous (without water) like our High Performance Vitamin C + Matrixyl 3000 Concentrate.

Another way to combat the loss of efficacy is by using AA2G®, a derivative of Vitamin C, used in several of our products including our Restorative Age Defying Concentrate AM/PM. With a glucose molecule added, oxidation reactions are prevented.

The addition of the glucose molecule provides greater stability, and is only converted to the active antioxidant once it reaches skin cells, where the enzyme α-g AA2G at the skin cell lucosidase is present (photo for a visual). Once AA2G® reaches this enzyme the glucose molecule is removed from Vitamin C, and then Vitamin C can work as the powerful antioxidant we benefit from. This ingredient ensures that the efficacy of vitamin C is not lost overtime, so you can enjoy the antioxidant benefits until there’s nothing left in the bottle!