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Vitamin C and polyvinyl alcohol

Vitamin C and polyvinyl alcohol: keep them apart

Keep them apart

Apply them at different times of day, using vitamin C in the morning and polyvinyl alcohol at night, because alcohol makes vitamin C less effective. High levels of alcohol dry out the skin and cause the vitamin C to break down too fast before it can brighten the face. You can switch to a low-alcohol or alcohol-free base, or wait a few minutes between applying them.

Questions and answers

Can you use vitamin C and polyvinyl alcohol together?

Keep vitamin C and polyvinyl alcohol apart in your routine because combining them may cause skin dryness and speed up vitamin C oxidation when high alcohol or solvent systems are present.

Which goes first, vitamin C or polyvinyl alcohol?

Keep vitamin C and polyvinyl alcohol apart in your routine, as high alcohol or solvent systems may accelerate oxidation and cause skin dryness.

Are vitamin C and polyvinyl alcohol good for sensitive skin?

Keep vitamin C and polyvinyl alcohol apart in your routine because high-alcohol formulas may accelerate vitamin C oxidation and cause skin dryness, making them less ideal for sensitive skin.

Research on vitamin C and polyvinyl alcohol

Behind this pairing advice

Lovi checks every pairing with brand-independent rules our dermatologists and cosmetic chemists build and review, and personalizes every pick with AI trained on the real results of millions of users. Lovi trains its fit score models on a proprietary dataset built from more than 10,000 expert-labeled products and more than 100,000 simulated examples, following an internally consistent methodology presented at Cosmoprof, AMWC, and Skin of Color Update.

How does it fit your skin?

Scan your face, then any product: Lovi shows how well it fits you and what fits even better.