20% Vitamin C Serum safety rating

20% Vitamin C Serum safety rating | Greenlens

Raters split

Ingredient safety

A 20-point gap between the two loudest voices.

80ANSES Endocrine DisruptorsGovernment

100Greenlens Precautionary ScreenIndependent

050100

See why, ingredient by ingredient

All 1532 cleaner options, safest first We show the best 12, including the strongest on each axis.

Every rater, every axis

Ingredient safety

20 pts apart

A government authority. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
Independent — not funded by the brands it rates. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
A government authority. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
Independent — not funded by the brands it rates. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
Independent — not funded by the brands it rates. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →

Also screened, nothing found: California Proposition 65 · ECHA SVHC Candidate List · US NTP Report on Carcinogens · Health Canada Ingredient Hotlist · IARC Monographs

Recognized on a safer-ingredients list: US EPA Safer Choice recognizes 55% of ingredients as safer choices — a marker, never a score.

Environmental

Also screened, nothing found: EU Microplastics Restriction

Coverage & match quality

5 ratings · 1 of 4 axes

Some ratings rest on an automatic match that has not been human-reviewed.
Fewer raters reach smaller-brand products, so a missing rating is not a clean bill of health, only a gap.

Weighted by what you care about

Tune your weights

composite recomputes live

Ingredient safety1.0×

Environmentalno rating

No rater covers this axis for this product, so its weight can't move the score.

Laborno rating

No rater covers this axis for this product, so its weight can't move the score.

Packagingno rating

No rater covers this axis for this product, so its weight can't move the score.

0 means ignored. Higher = more weight in your composite.

Ingredients, decoded

Data availability

Robust11 of 11 characterized

Our sources have reference data on all 11 listed ingredients.

Worth a look (3)

L-ASCORBIC ACIDraters disagree
ANSES endocrine candidateflagged by 1 of 9 lists →
BENZYLALCOHOLpreservative · perfuming · solventraters disagree

No flags in our sources (8)

What these ingredient tags mean (3)

These describe what an ingredient is, not whether it is a problem. The stance marks above are the ratings; these are not.

common irritantPROPYLENE GLYCOL
- PROPYLENE GLYCOL: A solvent that shows up in patch-test clinics, more often as irritation than as allergy. American Contact Dermatitis Society, Allergen of the Year 2018 (Jacob SE, Scheman A, McGowan MA, Dermatitis 2018;29(1):3-5).
humectantPANTHENOL, SODIUM HYALURONATE
- PANTHENOL: A provitamin B5 humectant used in products aimed at irritated and healing skin. On the humectant half: Ferreira VTP, Silva GC, Martin AA, Maia Campos PMBG, "Topical dexpanthenol effects on physiological parameters of the stratum corneum by Confocal Raman Microspectroscopy", Skin Res Technol 2023;29(9):e13317, DOI 10.1111/srt.13317, PMID 37753694, PMCID PMC10504581, open access, Introduction: "As a humectant, it has been shown to retain water more efficiently than other humectants during the last stages of dehydration..." On the soothing half, which that paper does NOT support: Cho YS, Kim HO, Woo SM, Lee DH, "Use of Dexpanthenol for Atopic Dermatitis—Benefits and Recommendations Based on Current Evidence", J Clin Med 2022;11(14):3943, DOI 10.3390/jcm11143943, PMID 35887707, open access, section 3.5: "To facilitate wound healing, dexpanthenol reduces inflammation, and promotes cell proliferation and epithelial remodeling."
- SODIUM HYALURONATE: A humectant that holds a large amount of water at the skin surface. Chylińska N, Maciejczyk M, "Hyaluronic Acid and Skin: Its Role in Aging and Wound-Healing Processes", Gels 2025;11(4):281, DOI 10.3390/gels11040281, PMID 40277717, open access: hyaluronic acid's "high osmotic activity and anionic structure enable it to bind large amounts of water", and "sodium and potassium hyaluronate are widely used in moisturizing products". The same review notes that high-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid does not penetrate the deeper layers.
soothingPANTHENOL