Vitamin C Serum and Yellow Nails

Hello,

I understand you are concerned about your nails turning yellow after using a homemade Vitamin C serum (L-ascorbic acid). Based on the information provided by the staff, here is a summary of the answers to your questions:

1. Why do nails turn yellow, and do commercial Vitamin C serums cause the same issue?

   • The yellowing on your nails is caused by Vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) undergoing oxidation and turning yellow when it comes into contact with something left on your nails, such as water residue, mineral deposits from tap water, or residue from other products. Even though the serum in the bottle remains clear, indicating your formula is stable, the oxidation reaction occurs locally where the Vitamin C contacts external substances on the nail.
   • Regarding commercial serums, if they use the same type of Vitamin C, L-ascorbic acid, they are likely to cause the same nail yellowing issue.

2. Are there any ingredients that can be added to prevent nail yellowing?

   • Based on the information, this issue stems from a reaction on the nail surface when Vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) comes into contact with external substances, not from the overall instability of the serum. Therefore, adding certain ingredients directly to the serum may not prevent the yellowing on the nails.
   • The solution is to either avoid contact between the Vitamin C and residues on your nails or choose a different Vitamin C derivative that is more stable than L-ascorbic acid and less prone to color change upon contact with external substances.

Additional Recommendations:

• If you wish to avoid the nail yellowing issue, it is recommended to consider using Vitamin C derivatives with higher stability than L-ascorbic acid, such as Perfect-C (Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate), Natural-C Glycol (Stabilized Vitamin C Glycol), or Ethyl Ascorbic acid. These derivatives are much less likely to undergo color-changing reactions.
• For existing yellow stains on your nails, you can clean them by mixing Hydrogen Peroxide with Baking Soda in water at a concentration of 5-10% and soaking your nails for about 3 minutes.

Hope this information is helpful.