1) Is the active ingredient listed "L-Ascorbic Acid"?

2) Was it bottled in a completely oxygen-free environment?

Serums containing "Ascorbyl Palmitate," "Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate," "Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate,"...etc. are all legally allowed to be called "Vitamin C serums," even though these derivative forms tend to have little-to-no actual Vitamin C antioxidant power. The ingredient you're looking for is "L-Ascorbic Acid," which is the pure, natural, full-potency form of Vitamin C you'd find in a freshly-picked orange, and the form that will show you the greatest visible benefits to your complexion. We include some of these derivatives, since your skin does have some capacity to store these forms for later conversion to L-Ascorbic Acid.

The second thing to note is that if your Vitamin C serum doesn't smell sweet and look like light yellow apple sauce, it's no longer Vitamin C. There's a lot of talk out there about "stabilized Vitamin C" created by adding water or Ferulic acid. These indeed increase the stability, but if the serum is bottled with oxygen exposure, every hour it sits on the shelf it will continue to oxidize, degrade and lose its effectiveness significantly. 

All Protocol serums are lab-made, using containment technology from the aerospace industry to protect our ingredients from oxygen and UV light.

Protocol bottles all serums in a 100% oxygen-free environment, ensuring our key ingredients are protected and preserved in their full potency, all the way to your skin. To make this possible we had to work with a company who builds containment technology for the aerospace industry and the US Navy.

The secret that brings it all together though, is what we call our little orange ingredient fortress: