u/Maniaring

I'm making this post cause I keep seeing videos of people explaining the benefits of using vitamin c in the morning and tretinoin at night. Emotionally I'm on the verge of being influenced, but logically I know it will just increase the chances of irritating my skin. Unfortunately, emotions are stronger than logic.

If you do use both of these ingredients, could you tell me why? The benefits of Vitamin C are:

• Brightens dull skin
• Helps fade post-acne marks and hyperpigmentation
• Supports collagen production

Tretinoin already does all this and it's much better at it.

People also like to parrot about how vitamin C "boosts" your sunscreen, which to me sounds so silly. Your sunscreen does not need to be "boosted". And even if you use Vitamin C and sunscreen together, you will still have to reapply your sunscreen every couple of hours, so it makes no difference.

And either way I'm of the belief that if you use Vitamin C it should be at night. If you go out in the sun the vitamin c may reduce some residual oxidative stress, but it will oxidize in the process and lose all its other properties; you know, the ones people actually care about.

So, is there a good reason to have both of these ingredients in your routine?