While your skincare routine plays a part in your skin’s condition, a nutrient-packed diet works wonders to maintain healthy skin from the inside out. But what actually helps?
There’s half an alphabet’s worth of vitamins to get your head round, and it can be confusing to understand which will benefit you most.
Which vitamins are good for the skin?
Everyone’s skin is different, and we all have different skin goals. Thankfully, there are a wide range of vitamins and other nutrients that can help with most common skin complaints.
Vitamin A
A collective term for a group of fat-soluble nutrients, our bodies use vitamin A to reproduce and grow cells. This is particularly important for our skin, as it has a high cell turnover.
You can find vitamin A in foods like oily fish, eggs, spinach, carrots, and sweet potatoes. These are all good sources of beta-carotene, which our bodies convert into vitamin A.
Vitamin A is the key ingredient in retinol, widely thought to be a wonder product for youthful, smooth skin. This is because vitamin A accelerates skin cell turnover, helping shed dead skin cells and revealing fresh new skin underneath.7 The enhanced cell stimulation increases elastin and collagen production that can make skin look and feel plumper and more youthful.
Using vitamin A in your skincare routine could help to minimise the appearance of blemishes, fine lines, hyperpigmentation, and wrinkles.
However you shouldn’t use retinoids or any vitamin A derivative (or consume too much vitamin A in your food) if you’re pregnant, as an excess of vitamin A can harm an unborn baby.
Always check with your GP or dermatologist if you’re unsure about your diet or skincare routine while pregnant.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is essential for our normal collagen formation. Our bodies can’t make vitamin C, which is why it’s so important to include it in your diet.
What’s more, vitamin C is water soluble. This means that it’s easy to take and easy for our bodies to transport to our tissues, but it’s not stored very well. Excess vitamin C is excreted out through our urine, so it’s important we replenish those levels every day.
Without vitamin C, our bodies simply wouldn’t be able to make enough collagen, which is key for keeping our skin’s elasticity and plumpness. Deficiencies can lead to premature skin ageing like fine lines and wrinkles.
Luckily, this essential vitamin is found in a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including:
- orangesÂ
- strawberries
- broccoliÂ
- potatoesÂ
You might also want to use it in your topical skincare, in a moisturiser or serum, where it can help tackle blemishes and brown spots.10
Its antioxidant properties help disarm free radicals, harmful unstable atoms which can contribute to poor skin health and premature skin ageing.11
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins for our overall health. It helps to support our bones, brain, heart, muscles, immune system, and skin.
Its main skin benefits include:
- calming sensitive skin
- normalising skin cell turnoverÂ
- protecting the skin barrier (epidermis)
Vitamin D deficiency can impact your whole body, but on your skin it might increase your risk of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (AD).
Vitamin E
Vitamin E is an important fat-soluble antioxidant and has been used in dermatology for more than 50 years.14 It helps protect cells from oxidative stress caused by UV exposure, pollution, and our natural cell degeneration. Thanks to vitamin E, your skin cells stay better protected against premature ageing and wrinkles, and it may also help to improve the appearance of scars and blemishes.
Vitamin E comes from plants – so it can only be obtained through your diet or skincare. Some of the richest food sources are nuts, spinach, olive oil, and sunflower oils. You’ll also find vitamin E in skincare products such as serums, moisturisers, and body lotions. It’s most popular in healthy ageing skincare, but most of its skin benefits come from consuming it via your diet.
