OST Original Pure Vitamin C20 Serum Review
I have been hearing about the famous C20 Vitamin C serum (for a comparison between C20 and C21.5 see here) formerly know as OST for months now. After a friend personally raved to me about this serum I decided to give it a try.
I found a particularly good sale online and promptly decided to take the opportunity and bought it.
I was quite excited for this trial and thought I should make a little bit of an experiment to see if it is as good as it claims.
I stopped using all kinds of acid for a week before staring the trial.
I also had a bottle of It’s Skin Vitamin C serum in the house which broke Johnny Clyde out.
I thought if I use the It’s Skin serum on one side of my face and the C20 one on the other, I could track any improvement better.
The things I expected from the serum is that it would give me a light exfoliation, even out my skin tone (my forehead is darker than the rest of my face since I ran around with my face down all summer and my forehead got all the sun) and diminish my PIH I had left from the Benton incident.
I know that Vitamin C is also supposed to diminish fine lines by supporting the skins collagen production but that is suppose to only happens after around 6 months of usage.
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Only little is needed since it spreads very easily. I used around 2 drops for half my face and 3 4 drops was enough for Johnnys entire face.
It smells slightly metallic and citrusy, a smell that is relatively faint and disappears quickly.
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| The serum is a very light yellowish color |
I believe it might be due to using too much product at one time.
I didn’t experience any stinging at the beginning but my skin is already used to acids.
Johnny has had random light stinging when he had sensitive skin or open wounds.
It didn’t happen often and it was very mild.
One thing I have observed is that if I don’t wash my hands after applying the serum, sometimes a little bit gets stuck on the side of my left ring finger and it turns brownish after about a week. When I wash my hands after the application that doesn’t happen. It is definitely an accumulative stain as well.
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| This is the color when the serum oxidizes. If your serum is this color stop using it. This is my serum after 3 months and this was the last drop I saved |
Spoilers, I didn’t!
I also started using acids again half way through the trial period.
First, I only used the serum during the day and the acids during the night. I also tried to use acid and serum day and night for a week.
All the applications worked fine for me. The acids I use are mild enough to mix and the one time I did a stronger peeling I skipped the serum for a day and resumed afterwards without any issues.
It is so lightweight and fast absorbing that it played really well with all of my skincare.
Now onto the effectiveness!
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| It is very watery. Note the color of the fresh serum |
There is definitely some visible fading. I didn’t have dramatic PIH to begin with but the left overs I had practically disappeared during the two months of usage. I had a bad stint of spots last week which I am still recovering from. Hopefully my new serum will arrive soon so I can track the fading better this time.
My face is definitely more even and my forehead is a little lighter. It is still darker then the rest of my face but I think I need to use the serum for longer to see better results. The color difference is probably only visible to me so I am happy with it so far.
The It’s Skin side didn’t have much to fade but I didn’t see any significant changes.
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| C20 side |
As mentioned before It’s Skins serum doesn’t have the right PH to exfoliate. While using it I noticed that my right side of the face was much rougher than the left.
This is how I noticed that the C20 Serum actually exfoliates the skin. I still need to use a physical scrub every once in a while but this product performs really well for my daily exfoliation needs.
Spot prevention/reduction:
I didn’t have any spots at the time I used this serum at all. Johnny had periods with and without.
I think it definitely helped to reduce the spots but it was no miracle treatment for him. The serum didn’t give him any more spots or disturb the ones he had. He didn’t break out or get any irritation from it either unlike the It’s Skin serum. Even with his sensitive skin it worked very well.
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| This was about 3 weeks after starting the serum. My skin looked very nice and glowy already! |
I have wrinkles on my forehead.
I don’t know how long they have been there since I didn’t notice them until recently. Mother says they have been there for years (how did I not notice them?) and I accept her perceptive powers.
They are partly there due to my dehydrated skin (since they plump up quite a lot when my skin is well hydrated) and due to facial expressions.
One can not do much against those kinds of wrinkles besides taping them still or botox.
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| Mother has been doing this for a couple of years and it works! |
I remember scheming for a few months on how to diminish these pesky lines with skincare.
I was already making a list on what serums and essences to test out and see if their anti aging claims are true. One day I looked in the mirror and realized that my lines were almost gone!
I couldn’t believe it and asked Johnny is he saw it too. He did indeed.
I was so happy that I cracked the puzzle already. At that time I wasn't sure which product in my routine was the culprit so I proceeded to test it out. I found out that having really hydrated skin is very important and that hydration does indeed plump up fine lines.
Not having dehydrated skin is unfortunately not the answer since I still had some wrinkles left.
I suspected it might be the Vitamin C serum after I noticed that I my wrinkles were less pronounced on the left side of my face. I went on a holiday for a week and left the serum at home.
I remember waking up on day 3 or 4 of my holiday and noticing how much worse the forehead wrinkles looked. That was when I knew the serum was the reason why my lines were so much less pronounced.
After a couple of days of re introducing the serum, when I came back home, my fine lines started diminishing again and that pretty much confirmed everything for me.
I honestly don’t know with what kind of voodoo magic this serum reduced the lines but I am very happy about it.
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| You can see that the lines on the left above are deeper than the ones of the right above. |
Update: After not using this for a month and reintroducing it sans Hyaluronic acid I have noticed the same effects. Having well hydrated skin does indeed diminish fine lines to a degree but not as much as the Vitamin C serum
Maybe it fast tracked the collagen production or maybe it was something else.
Whichever way this serum has become a staple in my ever changing routine and I already recommended it to every one that listened.
I think this serum is worth every cent and coupled with some incredible ingredients together with my own experience, it is something I think anyone should try that has issues with fine lines or pigmentation.
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| Saw this test on Wishtrend and wanted to recreate it at home. Will this serum keep me as fresh as the apple? |
Vitamin Cs effectiveness is PH dependent which means that if the PH is raised a certain amount the product is ineffective anymore. To get the most out of your C20 serum use it directly after cleansing or toning and wait 20 to 30 minutes before proceeding with your routine. This will give the serum enough time to work its magic. If you have never used an effective Vitamin C or acid product before, slowly introduce this to your routine. Once every other day is plenty to make sure your skin likes it. You can add it more and more often until you feel comfortable with its usage. I used it once a day for two weeks and twice a day for the remainder of the time. Remember that this serum will eventually oxidize, as shown in the swatch above. Keep the bottle in the fridge until you use it and it should be fine until you finish it. Mine started oxidizing after 3 months of opening, but thankfully I had already finished 99% of it. If it does oxidize it is not harmful to use but not effective anymore. Some people like to keep it in the fridge at all times but I kept it in my bedroom at a comfy 23 degrees and it was fine. Wishtrend actually always has the freshest serums and you can see on their listings when it was produced. This way you can get the most usage out of your bottle.
PH: 2.5
Ingredients: Here
Rating: 1.Blegh 2. Pff 3. Meh 4. Oohh 5. Awwyeah 6. Wooha
Purchased at Wishtrend
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