Skincare routines are usually tailored to personal experience since everyone has different dermatological traits. Many people have specific issues with their skin that require specific compounds to correct. As a result, most people have created a special routine using a small arsenal of products specifically for skincare.
If you have ever created a skincare routine for yourself, you likely already know how many products are involved and possibly understand how layering impacts the process. While your previous experience does affect how well you can execute your routine, certain details are overlooked. Even people with routines they have been using for years might not realize the full gravity of some of their products. One product that might not get enough attention is vitamin A.
Vitamin A has always been important to our health, but many do not know that it also plays a role in skincare. Vitamin A's beneficial role in skincare is often overlooked because of more popular options like collagen and vitamin C. Nevertheless, vitamin A is an extremely important and effective resource for our bodies.
That said, there is skepticism concerning vitamin A's benefits for skincare since countless products are marketed as skincare tools. As a result, many skincare enthusiasts are wondering how essential vitamin A really is for their routine. While this is understandable, you might be surprised to learn that this doubt is not entirely unfounded.
What is Vitamin A?
Our bodies need several essential nutrients and vitamins to function and develop properly. Most of these vitamins are categorized by letter and number designations, with several having subtypes with varying effects. Vitamin A is one of these essential nutrients and is fairly complex despite bearing the first letter of the alphabet.
Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that consists of several closely related compounds. Several varieties of vitamin A can be cultivated from various foods, with one of the most famous types being found in carrots.
However, vitamin A can be divided into 2 distinct categories that make it easier to determine which is which:
- Retinoids: A type of vitamin A that is found in animal-based foods. Retinoids either manifest as retinol or are found in fatty acids and become retinyl esters.
- Carotenoids: A type of vitamin A found in plants like carrots. Carotenoids manifest as alpha-carotene, β-carotene, gamma-carotene, and beta-cryptoxanthin.
While these different types of vitamin A have different sources, they are all part of the same general family. That said, each variant affects our bodies differently, with some benefiting one aspect of our biology while another affects something completely different. This has turned most vitamin A variants into specialized supplements for specific issues that the other types cannot help with.
While vitamin A and its variants are primarily associated with traditional healthcare (for good reasons), its effects extend past physical health and reach into cosmetics. Many people are unaware that vitamin A can play a role in skincare and help us manage our appearance. As a result, few people actively employ vitamin A in their skincare routine. While this might seem like a mistake, learning what vitamin A does for skincare might be more pressing before rushing to add it to your regimen.
Benefits of Vitamin A in Skincare
Vitamin A is more closely associated with skincare than most people realize, especially if you are not well-versed in skincare. Several skincare benefits offered by vitamin A have made it a common addition to certain regimens. These benefits are often overlooked by those who have never taken an interest in skincare or are just starting. Nevertheless, vitamin A's benefits are worthy of review since they can help enhance your standard routine.
One of the main benefits of vitamin A is the presence of topical retinoids (vitamin A from animal matter) that can stimulate a core mechanic of our body's skincare abilities. Our skin was created thanks to a special protein found in all animals called collagen. Without collagen, we would be walking around with our internal organs and skeletal structure exposed to the elements. Once the skin is complete, our collagen production is dedicated to repairing our skin when it gets damaged.
Vitamin A has been tentatively linked to reduced signs of age typically associated with collagen depletion. In fact, vitamin A's impact on our skin's appearance is due to the retinoids stimulating our body's natural collagen production. As a result, our bodies can continue repairing our skin even as our collagen levels dwindle due to age or environmental factors.
That said, stimulating collagen production will be ineffective if your body already has a reliable supply. Most studies agree that collagen supplementation or stimulation is only effective when we have a collagen deficiency or our ability to produce it is reduced by aging. Nevertheless, vitamin A can provide the stimulation our bodies need to restore limited collagen production.
In addition to stimulating the body's collagen production, retinoids can improve skin elasticity and reduce sagging by affecting certain aspects of our biology. Retinoids can remove elastin fibers and promote angiogenesis (the production of blood vessels). These effects reinforce the health of our skin and restore functionality that usually diminishes with age. Retinoids, for all their benefits, are only one kind of vitamin A and far from the only one capable of providing skincare enhancements.
Other skincare issues affect our appearance and, in some cases, our health should they progress too far. One of the biggest concerns in modern skincare is hyperpigmentation, which discolors the skin by oversaturating parts of our complexion with excess melanin.
Hyperpigmentation can occasionally indicate a major health concern (specifically cancer if ultraviolet radiation is responsible), but it is just another blemish on the skin for most people. Unfortunately, hyperpigmentation can be challenging to resolve since it triggers a bodily response essential to our ability to withstand sunlight. Fortunately, carotenoids (vitamin A from plant matter) appear to address this issue in a limited capacity.
Beta carotene, one of the most well-known carotenoids, can prevent cell damage and reduce skin aging and diseases. Furthermore, carotenoids offer photoprotection, limiting the impact of ultraviolet radiation on the skin. Retinoids can also support our skin against hyperpigmentation by promoting skin cell turnover. This means damaged cells are repaired, and the ones saturated with melanin are eliminated. This effect has been used to combat hyperpigmentation, age spots, and sunspots.
Ultimately, vitamin A is a highly effective tool against skin blemishes, making it a seemingly essential component for your skincare routine. This stance is understandable, considering all the information we have uncovered about vitamin A. Unfortunately, vitamin A has limitations to its abilities, making it less viable as a skincare tool than other equally prevalent nutrients.
Weaknesses of Vitamin A
Despite being a natural nutrient that our bodies need, vitamin A does not have the power to provide a permanent solution for skincare issues. While many skincare products cannot permanently fix your skin unless you commit to a consistent regimen, vitamin A has a particularly short effect. Vitamin A's benefits only persist if you constantly apply it to your skin since the effects diminish once you suspend use.
The biggest problem is that vitamin A's benefits are not always effective for everyone, and some people do not experience any skincare improvements. The reality is that vitamin A's effect on the skin varies from person to person, which could technically be true of any skincare product. However, vitamin A's inconsistency has made it less viable to many individuals who want a more reliable option.
In addition to the inconsistent results seen with vitamin A, there have been multiple reports of excess vitamin A supplementation yielding unpleasant side effects. Specifically, using vitamin A has been connected to skin irritation, swelling, stinging, and burning. While these side effects are not necessarily dangerous, they are unpleasant and typically unwanted.
At the end of the day, vitamin A is an effective supplement for anyone trying to bolster their physical health. Insofar as skincare is concerned, vitamin A is neither essential nor recommended as a long-term tool. Fortunately, there are alternatives that have a better track record for results and safety that make vitamin A almost irrelevant to skincare.
Consider Vitamin C
Vitamin C is similar to vitamin A because it is a natural nutrient our bodies need to develop and function properly. Unlike vitamin A, vitamin C has a deeper connection to skincare and is the core compound in several serums and skincare products.
Virtually every benefit associated with vitamin A can be attained with vitamin C instead, with the latter being considered safer and better proven. For example, vitamin C has been directly linked to treating hyperpigmentation through a more direct approach than vitamin A. Vitamin C inhibits melanin production, the main compound that triggers hyperpigmentation symptoms. Melanin darkens the skin in response to ultraviolet radiation to try and prevent solar damage.
When hyperpigmentation causes our melanin production to go into overdrive, it leads to patches of dark skin that clash with our complexion. Vitamin C reduces tyrosinase activity, which in turn reduces melanin production. Tyrosinase is an enzyme that triggers melanin production and contributes to its integration in the body. This makes vitamin C an excellent tool for combatting hyperpigmentation compared to vitamin A's unreliable effects.
Vitamin C is also known for promoting our body's collagen production more than vitamin A ever was. Vitamin C's notoriety for collagen production is because it is a key ingredient our bodies use to make it. Without vitamin C, collagen synthesis cannot happen, so we need to maintain a healthy supply to ensure our bodies have what they need to keep our collagen levels up. This is because vitamin C is a cofactor for the 2 enzymes our bodies need to synthesize collagen:
- Prolyl hydroxylase stabilizes the collagen molecule.
- Lysyl hydroxylase provides the collagen molecule's structural strength.
Both these enzymes are essential to producing healthy collagen molecules and cannot do so unless there is enough vitamin C. When our collagen levels deplete beyond a healthy threshold, adding vitamin C to our skincare routine can provide our bodies with what it needs to resupply themselves.
Vitamin C provides several skincare benefits and outperforms vitamin A in almost every respect. Furthermore, the risks associated with vitamin C as a skincare tool are minimal and seldom produce major side effects. Vitamin C is so popular that it is already used in several skincare products. As a result, getting a vitamin C product to enhance your skin seems easy since we are spoilt for choice.
Unfortunately, vitamin C for skincare usually needs to be part of a specialized serum rather than a generic supplement like those found in grocery stores. This can make finding the ideal product more difficult than initially thought. Fortunately, some products meet the standard for introducing vitamin C to your skin. The trick is knowing where to get them.
Finding the Right Blend
Vitamin A is an important nutrient that our bodies need, though its uses beyond proper development are fairly limited. Vitamin A's use in skincare can benefit certain people, especially if they only need a short-term supplement. Unfortunately, it pales compared to vitamin C since it is already part of our body's skincare response.
Without vitamin C, we would lack an essential protein critical to our skin's health and development. Retinol can still be used alongside vitamin C serums in skincare routines, but you must know when to apply it to your other products. The real challenge is finding a reliable vitamin C skincare serum from a trustworthy vendor.
We at Teami believe that natural compounds offer the best cosmetic appearance and health support. This belief led us to create a catalog of several natural products designed to enhance your appearance and improve your health. We are especially committed to promoting improved skincare so you can enjoy the healthy complexion you deserve. Among our products is our Hibiscus Infused Vitamin C Serum, specifically designed to promote healthier, better-looking skin. We encourage you to visit our website and try our product directly. After all, finding the right blend is a Teami effort.