Vitamin C Vitamin C is critical for your body and plays an important role in maintaining healthy, resilient skin. While young skin is full of vitamin C, aging skin naturally loses this nutrient over time. Other factors like exposure to UV light, pollutants and cigarette smoke compound the decline of vitamin C, contributing to signs of aging. The good news is that you can fight back by replenishing your skin’s vitamin C levels to help to combat and even reverse time’s effect on your face. Wrinkles One of the most powerful functions of vitamin C is its role in the production of collagen, a protein that gives your skin its elasticity. As you age, collagen breaks down and wrinkles begin to form. Stabilizing your skin’s levels of vitamin C can help to counteract wrinkle formation by increasing collagen production. Age Spots When it comes to treating age spots, you don’t need chemical peels and lasers – it turns out that vitamin C can have almost the same results! Age spots are essentially sun damage, and vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant, shown to reduce the number of sunburned cells as well as reverse age-related damage to skin. While it’s not a replacement for sunscreen, vitamin C protects against and may repair UV damage like discoloration and fine lines. Your Anti-Aging Rx Taking vitamin C through a supplement or food is beneficial to your health, but to specifically target signs of aging on your face, topical vitamin C is best. In fact, applying vitamin C to the skin can be 20 times more effective than taking it orally.