Vitamin E
Tocopherol
Skin's own fat-soluble antioxidant. Nourishing on its own; better in company with vitamin C.
Tocopherol is the form of vitamin E your skin stores in its surface oils, where it does the antioxidant work of stopping those oils going rancid under light and air. Applied topically it does the same job: it protects the fats in the outer skin, softens the feel of the surface, and keeps the product itself stable.
It and vitamin C are a pair. Vitamin C works in the watery parts of the skin and vitamin E in the oily parts, and vitamin C regenerates vitamin E once it has done its work — which is why the two so often share a formula.
The best-known research on topical vitamin E measures how skin responds to a controlled UV exposure, because that is a clean way to test an antioxidant. That is research on the ingredient. None of our products is a sunscreen, and nothing in this library should be read as one.
The study
Laboratory studyIn a controlled skin model, 1% vitamin E alone reduced the redness and cell damage that follow UV exposure, and combined with 15% vitamin C the antioxidant protection was four times greater. A model study, not a trial on people.
Lin JY, Selim MA, Shea CR, et al. UV photoprotection by combination topical antioxidants vitamin C and vitamin E. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 2003;48(6):866–874. PubMed 12789176
Research on the ingredient, not a test of any FOUNDER product. Cosmetic benefits only, and skin varies. These are cosmetics, not medicine.
