The Ordinary Buffet, Glycolic Toner, and Drunk Elephant Vitamin C Serum- Can I use these together? How often?

[AlyLarocca]

Hi there! I’ve been using the drunk elephant vitamin c serum every morning before my moisturizer and I haven’t really noticed a difference but it’s so pricey I want to finish the bottle. I recently bought the ordinary buffet and glycolic toner. Can these be used with the vitamin c serum as well? I am not sure what the order should be in my skincare routine and how often to use each product? Any advice would be great! 🙂

[PalestShade]

It's typically safest to stick to 1 active per routine so that you don't oversensitize your skin. There's this dermatologist YouTuber (channel name Dr Dray) who has a video all about what you can and can't combine with vitamin c, so if you want some extra skincare advice, her videos are great. Here's what I know. The Buffet shouldn't be mixed with vitamin c. Glycolic acid can be used with vitamin c, but it's safer not to since it could irritate your skin. I don't know how The Buffet and the glycolic acid would interact.

[ather]

@AlyLarocca  I use the ordinary buffet and I use DE C-firma and recently I saw on the ordinary website that they don’t recommend using vitamin c with the buffet. I used it for a while before I saw this. And I stopped after. I know other BIC members use it. But I have not yet seen my derm to ask. @WinglessOne  I know we have had this conversation. Any thoughts?? 

[WinglessOne]

@ather  @AlyLarocca  Interestingly, The Ordinary didn’t used to list their Buffet serum and any vitamin C as a conflict—at least not that I remember. I suspect the conflict is more about their formulation of Buffet possibly breaking apart than vitamin C actually cancelling out Buffet’s peptides. But I keep forgetting to ask my derm about this, and I haven’t dug nearly as deep into the “can peptides be used with vitamin C” research topic as I’d like because I might need to learn about each peptide’s role first. 

Normally I’d say “to use Buffet, the 7% AHA toner, and DE vitamin C, use the toner first (after cleanser), then vitamin C, and then Buffet.” But since The Ordinary lists these conflicts, I’ll suggest something different (note that AHA is a direct acid): 

To be on the safe side, try alternating days and/or time of day for all 3 products. For instance, each morning you could use the DE vit C serum but not the 2 TO products. Then alternate between the 2 TO products each night: use the AHA toner one night but not Buffet, then Buffet the next night but not the AHA toner.

If you’ve never used an AHA before, you shouldn’t use this toner each night and/or day anyway; it’s better to slowly introduce it to your skin, using it once or twice a week for a few weeks and then ramping up usage as your skin tolerates it. Some folks can exfoliate daily, but be warned that you can break your skin barrier that way: exfoliants remove dead skin cells, but stripping ALL those dead cells from your skin daily will deplete your skin barrier, which contains—you guessed it—dead skin cells. And you do not want a broken barrier. That’s not good times. 

I’ve used Buffet and AHA (FAB’s 10% AHA exfoliant) on the same night, and Buffet with a vitamin C serum (YTTP’s vit C) on the same morning. Neither scenario caused any skin irritation, and my skin’s quite finicky. That doesn’t mean your skin wouldn’t get irritated, though. I still use the FAB AHA 1-3 times a week. I use a different vit C serum (Farmacy’s) each morning. I occasionally use Buffet at night now. I really like using Buffet after my retinol serum (The Inkey List); retinol and peptides compliment each other, plus Buffet’s hyaluronic acid helps hydrate my skin. 

I hope some of this was helpful! 

[WinglessOne]

@ather  @AlyLarocca  Posting again about the peptides vs. vitamin C topic because duh, I just remembered my Farmacy Very Cherry Bright 15% Clean Vitamin C Serum with Acerola Cherry 1.0 oz/ 30 mL contains peptides. 😄 So did my previous vitamin C serum, Youth To The People Superfood Firm and Brighten Vitamin C Serum 1 oz/ 30 mL . 

I still haven’t researched any conflicts between the specific peptides in The Ordinary Buffet and vitamin C. But if there are any conflicts, I really think The Ordinary lists a blanket conflict statement to cover their butts, rather than list each individual peptide conflict. And even then, it could just be that Buffet’s formulation might break when layered with a vitamin C serum, rather than vit C and Buffet’s peptides somehow cancelling one another out. @AlyLarocca  you could ask The Ordinary about it... or you could try asking Drunk Elephant if their vitamin C serum is compatible with peptides; I’m sure they’d say “sure, you can use C-Firma with Protini,” for instance. 

[ather]

@WinglessOne  I totally agree. I know all the Drunk Elephant line is intended to be mixed. I have gone on the ordinary website and it says specific ones so I am now thinking that it’s fine. But it’s still a good question. And next time I see my derm I will definitely ask that question.