The Best Vitamin C Serums (2025)

SkinCeuticals launched its first vitamin C serum in 1997, so it can take a lot of credit for the explosion of the entire antioxidant skin-care category. The late Sheldon Pinnell, the dermatologist behind the serum, published a watershed study in 2001, in the journal Dermatologic Surgery, proving the effective absorption of a low-pH, L-ascorbic acid serum. And SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic launched in 2005. In label-concealed testing, our panelists truly favored its simple elegance.

The serum is born from extensive scientific research. Pinnell was the chief of dermatology at Duke University Medical School when he founded SkinCeuticals, based on his research on antioxidants. Specifically, he studied the effective penetration of 15% vitamin C derivative L-ascorbic acid, alongside vitamin E and ferulic acid at a sub-3.5 pH. (Other brands have wisely piggybacked off of this knowledge; 18 of the products we tried contained ferulic acid, and 26 contained vitamin E.)

It contains a particularly effective vitamin C derivative. L-ascorbic acid is the active ingredient here, and it’s especially good at absorbing into skin. Other options—like the 3-O-ethyl ascorbic acid in the Olay Vitamin C + Peptide 24 Brightening Serum—have to react with the skin before penetrating. (Think of it as L-ascorbic flying direct and other derivatives making connecting flights.)

Skin feels noticeably firmer. It’s rare when a skin-care product delivers immediately noticeable improvement. One benefit of vitamin C is that it can help skin feel firmer, and our testers clocked that right away. “It made my skin feel tighter, which gave me the vibe that it was really working,” one of them said. (Still, at least one panelist said the SkinCeuticals serum made her skin feel a little too tight.)

The liquid has a nice viscosity. Many other serums were too dribbly, and they ran right off of our testers’ faces. The SkinCeuticals serum, however, “is liquid but still has movement to it,” one panelist said. “That gives it a self-care angle,” versus feeling like you’re just sloshing water on your face.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• At $182 per ounce, SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic is by far the priciest vitamin C serum we recommend. Ounce for ounce, it costs $97 more than our next-priciest pick. And the Timeless Skin Care 20% C + E Ferulic Acid Serum boasts a similar ingredients panel, but it costs less than $30.
• Several testers commented on the formula’s initial—yet fleeting—stickiness. It also had mixed results throughout the day, leaving a few testers with an oily sheen.
• The fragrance is a turnoff. The SkinCeuticals serum’s scent defies exact pinpointing—different testers detected notes of shredded wheat, soy sauce, or hotdogs. No one noted the scent as a positive.

With water and glycerin as its first two ingredients, the Naturium Vitamin C Complex Serum glides on like a liquid, nourishes like a gel—and makes skin feel smooth and not at all sticky. It earned rave reviews from multiple testers—including several with very sensitive skin—who preferred it to many products that were five times more expensive. If you’ve never used a vitamin C product before, this is a great one to try.

The mellow drops go easy on your complexion. Here, the primary vitamin C derivative is sodium ascorbyl phosphate; this is known for being milder than L-ascorbic acid (which is in the SkinCeuticals serum). Accordingly, our testers noted how gentle the Naturium serum felt on the skin, with none of the tingling or stinging that some other water-based options triggered.

It absorbs quickly and sits well under makeup. Although it’s not as dewy and rich as La Roche-Posay’s 10% Pure Vitamin C Serum, the Naturium serum still has a lush heft that many water-based blends lack. Testers appreciated how quickly it absorbed and dried without any stickiness, and they also liked that it could be worn under makeup.

It delivered all-day benefits. Several testers noted that the Naturium serum minimized redness and neutralized surface grease. “It made my oily skin look like normal skin,” one tester said. “My skin looked and felt smooth, even at the end of the day.” That makes sense, given the formula’s inclusion of standby moisturizers, including hyaluronic acid, as well as calming botanical additives, like aloe and papaya extract.

There is no discernible scent. Testers loved what it lacked: This fragrance-free serum had virtually no aroma, whereas other contenders, like the Dr. Brenner C Serum and the Prequel Lucent-C Brightening Vitamin C Serum, were notably unpleasant.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• The Naturium Vitamin C Complex Serum’s bottle garnered mixed reviews. Compared with droppers, the airtight pump seemed cleaner and less wasteful, though it did occasionally sputter and emit foamy drops. Testers were also split on the portability and handiness of the tall, slim tube (some found it perfectly packable, while others deemed it too tall to tuck in a travel case).

Dry skin is thirsty for moisture, and the Sunday Riley C.E.O. 15% Vitamin C Brightening Serum comes through with a luscious formula powered by THD ascorbate, a form of vitamin C that stays stable in creamy suspensions. Our only lotion-like pick, this one glides over skin in a sheer layer, but it takes a few minutes to fully sink in. Once the slight tackiness dissipates, other skin-care products and cosmetics go on smoothly.

The creamy formula nourishes skin. With squalane, jojoba, and glycerin in the mix, this serum contains some of the key ingredients we looked for in contenders for our guide to the best moisturizers. But it also has the active derivative tetrahexyldecyl (THD) ascorbate, which maintains its effectiveness even in a creamy suspension. (L-ascorbic acid is more potent, but it wouldn’t stay stable in a lush formula like this.) “There was no tingling or redness, and I loved the creamy texture—not too heavy, but hydrating,” one dry-skinned tester said.

It dries down quickly and sits well under other skin-care products. Some vitamin C creams we tried were too heavy or greasy under moisturizer or makeup. (Testers liked the thin, creamy Drunk Elephant C-Luma Hydrabright Serum, but they found it was too slick or pilly under other products.) This emollient formula, however, left an almost matte finish, and it created a fine base for subsequent skin-care steps.

It has a zippy, faintly citrusy fragrance. Vitamin C serums tend to have either an indescribable musty funk (like the SkinCeuticals serum) or a cloying orange-soda essence. The C.E.O. serum strikes the perfect balance, with one tester noting its “subtle, enjoyable scent.” In fact, this is the only serum we recommend with both tangerine- and orange-peel extracts.

The bottle feels luxe. Some other lotion formulas we tried came in less-impressive packaging. The $20 Vanicream Vitamin C Serum’s pump felt flimsy, as did the $68 Drunk Elephant’s. Testers appreciated the substantial feel of the Sunday Riley glass bottle, as well as the fluid mechanism of its pump.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• At $85 per ounce, the Sunday Riley C.E.O. 15% Vitamin C Brightening Serum isn’t cheap. Essentially, you pay a lot for a less-efficient vitamin C derivative: THD ascorbate doesn’t have the proven-research wind power of the also-pricy SkinCeuticals serum. For dry skin, however, the creamy formula may be worth the trade-off.

Timeless Skin Care’s 20% C + E Ferulic Acid Serum shares most of its ingredients with old-school classic SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic, but this serum costs 85% less. The watery formula is a bit too runny, yet the product does absorb quickly and feels zesty on the skin.

It contains effective ingredients at an affordable price. The Timeless Skin Care serum has 11 ingredients, while the SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic serum contains 12—and eight of the ingredients overlap. In keeping with the science, both products contain an effective mixture of L-ascorbic acid, vitamin E, and ferulic acid. What’s more, the Timeless Skin Care serum has a 20% concentration of L-ascorbic acid, compared with 15% in the SkinCeuticals serum. Though that 5% boost was a selling point for some of our testers, it is the upper limit of concentrations that dermatologists recommended to us. And some users—especially those with sensitive skin—may find it irritating.

It smells almost nice. Like the Sunday Riley serum, the Timeless Skin Care serum was remarkably not malodorous. Unlike the fragrance-free—though musty—SkinCeuticals serum, this one contains a perfuming agent, benzyl alcohol, that imparts a vaguely sweet smell.

Skin looks brighter and smoother. Antioxidants even out skin tone and improve texture, and our testers noticed benefits very quickly. One tester reported an “immediate brightening effect” upon application. Another perceived her complexion to be smoother and more evenly toned within just one day.

It comes in an opaque bottle with an airtight pump, so it doesn’t require kid-glove treatment. Knowing how finicky L-ascorbic acid can be—it degrades with exposure to light and air—it doesn’t make a lot of sense that so many brands package their serums in glass bottles with dropper delivery systems. The Timeless Skin Care serum comes in an opaque bottle, and it has an airtight pump, which makes this serum easier to apply overall (though, of course, it’s still very runny). Compared with the Naturium serum’s taller packaging, this squat yellow bottle was preferred by some testers for packing in a small travel bag.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• The Timeless Skin Care 20% C + E Ferulic Acid Serum is very runny. The similarly formulated SkinCeuticals serum has glycerin, which likely gives the drops a little more body. Timeless Skin Care’s serum, by contrast, is watery; some testers said they felt like they were wasting product as it dribbled off of their hands and faces.
• As this serum absorbs, some people have found that it tingles (a reaction several of our testers noted while trying vitamin C products). At least one of our testers noticed that the Timeless Skin Care serum’s zestiness lasted for about five minutes—but she actually enjoyed the feeling. “It was like when I use Listerine, and the sensation means it’s working,” she said.

With the notable exception of its plastic packaging—which is truly horrible—there’s a lot to recommend the Olay Vitamin C + Peptide 24 Brightening Serum. The plump, pearlescent formula left skin soft and smooth, with a hint of fresh fragrance.

It has a rich texture. Unprompted and entirely coincidentally, several of our testers used the word luxurious to describe this serum. And the formula packs in a lot of high-achiever ingredients—the 3-O-ethyl ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is rounded out with gently smoothing additions, such as niacinamide and lactic acid. “It’s a little thick out of the dropper, but then feels liquid while massaging into my skin,” one tester said. “Applying this is a treat. It feels luxurious.”

The silky finish sets it apart. Unlike many of the other plush, viscous contenders in this category, the Olay serum absorbed quickly and left a sheer, smooth finish. Meanwhile, the RoC Multi Correxion Revive + Glow Daily Serum we tested required upwards of 10 minutes to sink in and dry down—not ideal when you’re waiting to start the next step in a skin-care routine.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• As is true of many of these serums, the Olay Vitamin C + Peptide 24 Brightening Serum’s fragrance was polarizing. One tester said the subtle fruit scent was a positive, while another panelist (who generally preferred the unscented options) bemoaned the fact that “the tangerine smell doesn’t fade.”
• The bottle feels cheap. Of all of our picks, the Olay serum is the only one that comes in a clacky plastic bottle.

With a unique texture, La Roche-Posay’s 10% Pure Vitamin C Serumseemingly melts into skin to leave a sheer, touchable finish. The orange-tinted drops are juiced up with skin-care all-stars, including glycerin, hyaluronic acid, and salicylic acid. Testers loved how the formula perked up their complexions, though they were less keen on the baby powder–meets–medicinal scent.

The plush serum is packed with complexion-friendly ingredients. In this viscous formula, the vitamin C derivative ascorbic acid (a twin to L-ascorbic) is at a 10% concentration, and it’s second only to water on the ingredients list. While this serum has a fairly long list of ingredients (with 29; among our picks, only the Naturium serum had more, with 35), it does contain key moisturizers, such as glycerin and hyaluronic acid. One tester pointed out that the serum made her skin look noticeably less ragged after just a few days. Another minimalist panelist copped to using La Roche-Posay’s serum in lieu of her usual face cream for a few days. (However, the emollient formula gums up the dropper and gloms onto the bottle, making the experience untidy.)

It has a unique texture and superior absorption. This is our only pick with salicylic acid—which is beloved for its ability to combat skin’s surface oils—and it can have a mattifying effect. Indeed, while the Olay serum is silky on the skin, La Roche-Posay’s serum feels plush—similar to the difference between satin and velvet. “It melted into my skin and felt super soft, with a powder finish,” one tester said. (By contrast, the Mad Hippie Vitamin C Serum, which has a similar texture, tended to dry out skin. And the Buttah Vitamin C Serum we tested made one tester’s skin look more oily.)

For a drugstore brand, this one has some decent bells and whistles. La Roche-Posay’s serum shares shelf space with the Olay serum. But the former’s packaging and presentation both register as a significant upgrade, with a glass bottle that’s more in line with the pricey SkinCeuticals serum. The powdery fragrance also feels a bit fancy, though some of our scent-averse testers deemed it unacceptable—to such a degree that they didn’t want to put the serum near their faces. Others found the scent inoffensive, “but not delicious, which is what I hope for if I’m spending the extra time to use a serum.”

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• As for its price, La Roche-Posay’s 10% Pure Vitamin C Serum is on the high end among drugstore contenders. At $45 a bottle, it costs more than double the similar Vanicream Vitamin C Serum we tried. And it’s also slightly pricier than another drugstore formula we recommend from Olay.
• The white dropper got dirty. Beyond its tendency to get gummy, the dropper didn’t always deliver a precise portion. Also, the white rubber tip became discolored and dingy, and that doesn’t scream “self-care.”

I have been reporting stories about skin care and beauty for more than 25 years. While working for several lifestyle magazines, I’ve written many best-of-beauty roundups that reflected the real-life needs and feedback of readers. I’ve interviewed dozens of dermatologists and dug into hundreds of academic articles about skin care, ingredients, and efficacy.

Although I wish I had the energy to mimic my 15-year-old’s hour-long skin-care routine, my own regimen is streamlined and simple. I wear moisturizer both day and night, and I slather my lips with balm at all hours. And (child of the ’70s, teen of the ’80s here) I am a rueful and belated adopter of sunscreen. When I add a step or a product to my minimalist routine, I want it to be easy, enjoyable, and effective. I consider myself an excellent judge of products and the experiences they offer.

Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.

Sunshine, air pollution, smoke, and just getting older, day after day—all of it leads to the formation of free radicals that can harm your skin, making it look lined, slack, discolored, and otherwise damaged. Because free radicals are oxygen molecules with unstable unpaired electrons, applying an antioxidant like vitamin C can neutralize and stabilize the molecule.

Generally, your skin does not benefit from the vitamin C that you get from your diet or oral supplements. Topical vitamin C, on the other hand, can help improve skin tone, soften the appearance of lines, renew collagen production, and treat hyperpigmentation—though definitive studies are limited, and stable versions of even reliable vitamin C derivatives are elusive. As much as Krupa Koestline, the cosmetic chemist we interviewed for this story, likes vitamin C formulations, she still considers vitamin C to be among the most overrated skin-care ingredients. And she agreed with other experts we spoke to who said vitamin C is best used as a tool of prevention, not repair or reversal, in a skin-care routine.

Anecdotally, however, we know that plenty of people (lots of Wirecutter staffers among them!) swear by this step in their skin-care and self-care routines.

As with many skin-care products, with vitamin C serums, the options can seem both overwhelming and duplicative—with price tags that range from about $10 to more than $200.

For this guide, we polled colleagues (from beauty newbies to the skin-care–obsessed) to discover the products they swear by, those with results they love, or ones they’ve rejected for myriad offenses (like sticky textures and cloying fragrances). We dipped into skin-care sub-Reddits. We visited popular beauty retailers in person and online, to suss out newcomers and old favorites.

We also interviewed dermatologists and a cosmetic chemist to get their insights. And we read health articles and academic studies about vitamin C and its effects on skin.

Through that reporting, we arrived at some metrics for the ideal formula:

• a vitamin C concentration of 5% to 20%
• an ideal pH for each specific type of vitamin C derivative we tried
• reliably effective derivatives of vitamin C

Ultimately, we picked products that contained the following derivatives or modified versions of the chemical compound:

L-ascorbic acid (sometimes labeled as “ascorbic acid”) is considered the gold standard for absorption, and it is especially effective when paired with additional ingredients like vitamin E and ferulic acid.

Sodium ascorbyl phosphate is more stable, but not as potent. Your skin needs to enzymatically convert it to L-ascorbic acid.

3-O-ethyl ascorbic acid is stable and effective in different formulations—it can be in a creamy serum for dry skin or a watery one for oily skin.

Tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate is found in oil-based formulas, and it penetrates the skin nicely.

Ascorbyl glucoside is a milder product, in that it doesn’t have as much power in neutralizing free radicals.

Lastly, we kept in mind that dermatologists generally recommend products with fewer components. So we dropped serums containing more than 35 ingredients.

We used those parameters to winnow an initial list of 60 considerations down to a test set of 30.

I personally tested 34 products over the course of three months. And by testing each formula against our ideal criteria, I arrived at a tighter list to send to eight Wirecutter panel testers, who were grouped by skin type and included people in a range of ages and with diverse skin tones.

Our panel testers evaluated the vitamin C serums across four categories: overall experience and perceived benefits, texture, absorption, packaging and fragrance.

• Experience and perceived benefits. Each final pick earned high praise for how skin felt and looked after application, as well as for how long the temporary benefits lasted.
• Texture. Formulations for vitamin C serums vary between creamy lotions, dewy drops, and watery liquids. Our testers compared products within those categories, and they chose the ones that felt the best both in their hands and on their faces.
• Absorption. Lots of the serums we tested seemed to just form a tight film on top of the skin, or they left a long-lasting stickiness. Several also caused unpleasant tingling sensations. The best contenders were granted some initial tackiness but then sank in elegantly, with just a little tingling and minimal sensitivity.
• Packaging and fragrance. To warrant a spot in a daily skin-care routine, a product should at the very least have user-friendly packaging and an inoffensive fragrance. Testers gravitated toward brands that offered upgraded experiences, like a chic dropper, a handy air-tight pump, or fresh, zesty scents.

For combination skin (dewy serums)

We liked the cool, fresh feel of Clarins Bright Plus Face Brightening Dark Spot Serum, but we were turned off by the floral fragrance and the fussy dropper.

Although we were intrigued by Dr. Althea Gentle Vitamin C Serum’s gentle formula, it felt tight on our skin after it dried.

With both the L’Oréal Paris Revitalift Derm Intensives12% Vitamin C + E + Salicylic Acid Serum and the Olay Super Serum, we loved how emollient the drops felt. But they were edged out by the Olay and La Roche-Posay serums, which also have other exfoliants (like salicylic or lactic acid).

While the Melano CC Essence has longtime fans on our staff, we were frustrated by the fact that it took almost a month for our order to arrive.

The Mad Hippie Vitamin C Serum and the RoC Multi Correxion Revive + Glow Daily Serum both had nice, plump consistencies, but we didn’t love how sticky they felt as they dried. The TruSkin Vitamin C Facial Serum, on the other hand, looked unappealing—one tester likened it to snot—and it remained tacky on the skin.

For oily skin (liquid serums)

In this category, we wanted to tamp down shine, not enhance it, but that’s exactly what the Buttah Vitamin C Serum, the Dr. Brenner C Serum, and the all ended up doing: They made our skin feel greasy.

We loved how affordable was, but it left a lasting stickiness on our skin. Similarly, Maelove The Glow Maker was also just edged out due to its tacky texture, as well as its medicinal smell.

We loved how quickly Obagi Professional-C Serum absorbed—but on the flip side, liquid dribbled all over the place, wasting (a pricey!) product. Testers were deeply split over the odor: Some found it to be fine, but others didn’t want it anywhere near their faces.

Multiple testers said the Paula’s Choice C15 Super Booster made them look shiny, yet it also felt sticky. And the Prequel Lucent-C Brightening Vitamin C Serum had a thin, adhesive feel and a musty–meets–chem-lab aroma that was deeply unpleasant.

SkinCeuticals Phloretin CF has a cult following and over a decade of great online reviews, but we preferred the brand’s CE Ferulic formula. (Plus, we broke two fingernails trying to remove the stubborn shrink-wrapped plastic over its dropper.)

Nothing extraordinary stood out to recommend either The Ordinary Ascorbyl Glucoside Solution 12% or The Inkey List 15% Vitamin C And EGF Serum. Both felt sticky, and The Ordinary’s serum even seemed to accentuate redness and pimples, as opposed to minimizing them.

The formula for the Vichy Liftactiv 16% Vitamin C Brightening Serum seemed fine, if a little greasy. And it really lost points due to its fussy bottle and odd detachable plastic nozzle.

YonKa Serum C20 was a hands-down favorite for fragrance, with a fresh, subtle smell. Testers liked the self-care aspect of the emollient serum, but they ultimately deemed it a bit too greasy for daytime wear.

For dry skin (sheer lotion serums)

Biossance Squalane and Vitamin C Dark Spot Serum rubbed in easily, but it left behind a greasy film.

While its creamy texture felt hydrating at first, the CeraVe Skin Renewing Vitamin C Serum triggered a mild tingling sensation and a little redness.

The Derma-E Vitamin C with Hyaluronic Acid had an artificial scent, like old-school baby aspirin. While testers appreciated that the Drunk Elephant C-Luma Hydrabright Serum had virtually no fragrance, they disliked that the smooth formula never seemed to fully absorb into skin, and it pilled under moisturizer. Kiehl’s Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate also felt too heavy on skin.

A close runner-up to the Sunday Riley C.E.O. serum, the Peter Thomas Roth Potent-C Power Serum has a sheer consistency that sinks into skin easily. For all of its refinement, though, it smells like a pile of rotting leaves.

The only overwhelming positive for the Vanicream Vitamin C Serum was its lack of fragrance. Otherwise, testers appreciated how it made skin look glowy, but they didn’t love the tube-pump combo packaging.

This article was edited by Hannah Morrill and Jennifer Hunter.

1. Esther Williams, MD, dermatologist, email interview, September 23, 2024

2. Arielle Nagler, MD, dermatologist, phone interview, September 23, 2024

3. Neelam Vashi, MD, dermatologist, video and email interviews, September and October, 2024

4. Krupa Koestline, cosmetic chemist, video interview, October 1, 2024