Vogue Verified: This SkinCeuticals Serum Is the Gold Standard Vitamin-C Product

Ask your trusted skin-care expert for the best vitamin-C serum and it’s likely they’ll mention SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic. In fact, when we tapped dermatologists for the best in the market, Dr. Corey L. Hartman dubbed it “the gold standard.”

Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Vicki Rapaport had the same assertion. “The C E Ferulic has become the gold standard antioxidant product that dermatologists and other skin-care professionals recommend be used every morning like a prescription to achieve healthy skin,” she says. “It is substantially more than a vitamin-C serum, containing the three most utilitarian antioxidants available in skin care today.”

But for those not familiar with skin-care-speak, we explore what this really means—and why you might swap your current vitamin C product for this one. In this installment of Vogue Verified, let’s unveil what makes this serum so great.

SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic

• What is it: A patented vitamin-C serum powered by l-ascorbic acid, vitamin E, and ferulic acid to protect against environmental stressors and combat fine lines, wrinkles, and discoloration.

What Are the Key Ingredients?

Experts recommend incorporating vitamin C into your routine to address hyperpigmentation, skin dullness, dark marks, and sagging skin. Think of it as the product everyone should have in their routine to promote a youthful-looking complexion thanks to its antioxidant properties that can decrease free-radical damage. Rapaport explains it like this—making it clear why its usage is vital to healthy skin: “Free radicals are unstable atoms that can damage cells, including damaging the cell wall and your DNA. This is in turn linked to aging. So antioxidants are antiaging. Free radicals occur after sun exposure, pollution, or smoke exposure, all normal things we get exposed to on a daily basis.” This protection is furthered by the serum’s infused antioxidant-rich vitamin E as well.

Then there’s ferulic acid, which Rapaport calls a “quintessential plant-based wonder” that complements the antioxidant benefits of the aforementioned vitamins. “These megawatt hero ingredients play together synergistically to scavenge all the free radicals that build up in your skin daily to give you the most even, plump skin possible with a serum,” she says. “These ingredients in C E Ferulic work together to decrease the damage to the cells to slow down this aging process and decrease fine lines and wrinkles.”

Can Anyone Use SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic?

In short, the answer is yes: Rapaport says anyone can use this acclaimed serum, continuing that “[she] gives it to [her] dry, combo, oily, and super-sensitive skinned patients without hesitation.”

For example, in my personal trial of the serum, I was surprised by the lightweight, silky texture that, to me, felt almost like an oil. I felt a slight tingling sensation across my normal-to-oily skin, but had no issues with dryness or irritation on its own or paired with other products in my routine. Then there’s actor Sydney Sweeney, who relies on it to treat her sensitive combination skin. In her installment of Vogue’s Beauty Secrets, she remembers trying to tackle bouts of cystic acne, though she now shares the serum as part of her regime to keep her skin calm. 

Dermatologist Dr. Chris Tomaissan, who has combination skin prone to redness and rosacea, reveals it’s part of his routine as a means to “boost collagen to fight fine lines/wrinkles, and also help fade any hyperpigmentation I might have from a breakout.” Even Vogue’s international editor at large, Hamish Bowles, is a fan of this formula—discovering it through his dermatologist, Dr. Antoni Calmon.