PRODUCT REVIEW: COCOKIND VITAMIN C SERUM WITH SEA GRAPE CAVIAR - BEST VITAMIN C SERUM FOR OILY SKIN, BEST VITAMIN C SERUM FOR SENSITIVE SKIN
COCOKIND | VITAMIN C SERUM WITH SEA GRAPE CAVIAR
This product review was originally part of my blog article titled, Brands I'm Into: Cocokind - Cool, Clean, Sustainable Skincare - Best Mineral Sunscreen, Best Vitamin C Serum for Oily Skin. You can catch the full piece here.
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Several months ago, I had the great fortune of discovering this cool, clean skincare brand from San Francisco, California, called Cocokind. With some of the best clean face serums, face creams, and facial sunscreen products available, the brand has consistently delighted me in surprising ways. Cocokind has been one of my favorite brand discoveries of the past year.
While I’ve been super intrigued by their safe, toxin-free, and effective skincare formulas, it’s their firm commitment to sustainability that sets them apart. As I’ve shared in every Cocokind product review and blog article since the summer, the brand offers the most in-depth, product-specific information on a web page that I’ve ever seen. The level of information is rivaled only by Paula’s Choice. And even my favorite skincare brand focuses solely on ingredient and formula specifics.
(Yes, Paula’s Choice is my favorite skincare brand and the Paula’s Choice 10% Niacinamide Booster is my favorite skincare product!)
Be sure to check out cocokind.com and the in-depth product recyclability and sustainability details for yourself. It’s cool stuff that no one else is doing!
Cocokind’s commitment to transparency goes beyond their web messaging. The brand’s product cartons are packed with formula and sustainability facts. Again, like no other. As a skincare copywriter who’s written hundreds of product cartons, I can attest to the fact that’s it’s no small feat to make space for information on a carton beyond what’s required. How they pull that off is nothing short of extraordinary.
From the brand:
“New to our packaging are our sustainability facts, which break down the carbon footprint for a product’s life cycle. Not only will measuring this information allow us to make future commitments to reduce our carbon footprint, but sharing it can help you learn what your impact is on the environment when you consume cocokind!”
And their products are surprisingly affordable, too!
In the early fall, I was super into the brand’s $19 Revitalizing Eye Cream. It’s a great formula with a dense, silky texture that makes it ideal for a seasonal drop in temperatures. It’s just thin enough to dispense from a tube. (I prefer well-formulated eye creams that aren’t in jars!) And Revitalizing Eye Cream has one of those cooling metal applicator tips. It’s a real pleasure to use.
Cocokind’s $18 Oil to Milk Cleanser is a similarly pleasurable formula. If you’re not a fan of cleansing balms because they can be too rich and heavy on the skin, this one is super lightweight and has a light, milky texture when emulsified with warm water, making it surprisingly easy to wash off. I believe it to be most ideal for oily skin — something you rarely find in a cleansing balm. You can catch my review of the Cocokind Oil to Milk Cleanser on the blog here.
PRODUCT REVIEW: COCOKIND OIL TO MILK CLEANSER - BEST CLEANSING BALM FOR OILY SKIN
Perhaps my favorite of the brand’s products is the Cocokind Daily SPF Facial Sunscreen Lotion — one of three sunscreens I took with me on a trip to Cabo, Mexico, in January. A 100% mineral sunscreen, it’s become one of my favorites and a go-to in my morning skincare routine.
Formulated with 21% Zinc Oxide, Daily SPF is relatively lightweight, with that bright white texture common to a mineral sunscreen made with Zinc Oxide. It blends right in. And, as with Cocokind’s Revitalizing Eye Cream and Oil to Milk Cleanser, it’s ridiculously affordable at just $25. Read more about Daily SPF just below.
I’m excited to share my newest discovery — the Cocokind Vitamin C Serum with Sea Grape Caviar, one of the best Vitamin C serums for oily skin and sensitive skin…
Cocokind | Vitamin C Serum with Sea Grape Caviar
Perhaps nothing excites me more than a new Vitamin C serum. Okay, a new NIacinamide serum does, too. Oh and a new sunscreen! And of course, since I’d already fallen head over heals in love with several Cocokind products, including the brand’s Daily SPF Mineral Sunscreen, I was really anticipating the experience of Cocokind’s Vitamin C Serum with Sea Grape Caviar.
My most recent deep dive into some of the best Vitamin C serums for brightening the complexion was at the start of the new year. I published an article titled The Best Fresh Activated Vitamin C Serums To Get Your Complexion Lit In The New Year. In the blog, I reviewed an upgrade of one of my favorite brightening facial serums with Vitamin C — the Drunk Elephant C-Firma Fresh Day Serum.
THE BEST FRESH ACTIVATED VITAMIN C SERUMS TO GET YOUR COMPLEXION LIT IN THE NEW YEAR
The Drunk Elephant C-Firma Fresh Day Serum is a surprising improvement on what I believed to already be a near-perfect C-Firma formula (I’ll leave perfection to Mother Nature). The new, freshly activated serum is powered by a 15% concentration of pure Ascorbic Acid, combined with Vitamin C’s two favorite stabilizers, Ferulic Acid and Vitamin E.
Like the goop beauty GOOPGLOW 20% Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Glow Serum which I also reviewed in my recent blog article, the C-Firma Fresh Day Serum comes packaged with two separate components — one a liquid, one a powder. You simply pour the liquid into the powder and give it a brisk shake. It’s an excellent treatment.
But not everyone is in the market for a $78 Vitamin C serum. At just $20, Cocokind’s Vitamin C Serum with Sea Grape Caviar is more accessible to more skincare enthusiasts. With about a 3% concentration of Vitamin C in the form of Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, it’s more of a nourishing, gentle brightening serum ideal for all skin types — even oily and acne-prone.
The inclusion of Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate is an intriguing choice to me. It’s relatively uncommon, yet has unique benefits for the skin, as many of the Vitamin C variants do.
Which Vitamin C Is Good for Oily Skin and Is Vitamin C Safe for Oily Skin?
All skin types can benefit from antioxidant Vitamin C. If a Vitamin C serum is light and water-based like the Cocokind Vitamin C Serum with Sea Grape Caviar, it’s more easily layered into any skincare routine.
There are numerous forms of Vitamin C that deliver varying benefits to the skin. Among the most common are the purest form, Ascorbic Acid, and Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (THD), a stable, oil-soluble form of Vitamin C that is considered to be as affective as L-ascorbic acid itself. Cocokind’s Vitamin C Serum is formulated with a less common form of Vitamin C called Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate. It’s considered one of the most beneficial for oily and acne-prone skin.
There’s an excellent, thoroughly sourced breakdown of the unique benefits Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate from the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team that you can catch on the brand’s website here. This is what I found most insightful:
Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate Description
Sodium ascorbyl phosphate (SAP, for short) is a stable, water-soluble form of vitamin C made from combining ascorbic acid with a phosphate and a salt, compounds which work with enzymes in skin to cleave (split) the ingredient and release pure ascorbic acid, which is the most researched form of vitamin C.
Just like pure vitamin C, sodium ascorbyl phosphate functions as an antioxidant on and within skin. When used in higher amounts, it can be effective for brightening a dull skin tone, smoothing wrinkles, visibly firming skin, and reducing discolorations.
The usual concentration of sodium ascorbyl phosphate in skin care ranges from 0.2-3%, an effective range to help improve skin’s environmental defenses and target lines and wrinkles, especially when paired with oil-soluble vitamin E for antioxidant synergy that improves the stability of both ingredients.
A 5% concentration of sodium ascorbyl phosphate was shown in a comparative study with the same amount of ascorbic acid to have equivalent wrinkle-smoothing and elasticity-increasing benefit to skin around the eyes.
Amounts above 3% are considered necessary to target discolorations, similar to the range research has shown ascorbic acid works within to target this concern.
There is also research showing amounts of 1% and 5% concentrations of sodium ascorbyl phosphate can influence factors linked to breakouts, likely due to its skin soothing effect. Thus, this form of vitamin C may be an effective adjunct to anti-acne products that contain benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid.
Along with other forms of vitamin C, it is considered safe as used in skin care products. This versatile form of vitamin C works in both water- and oil-based formulas without breaking down, but despite this impressive stability, packaging is still important. This is because such stability isn’t impenetrable, meaning ongoing exposure to light and air can still weaken its efficacy, although certainly not as quickly as occurs with pure vitamin C (ascorbic acid).
Cocokind’s Vitamin C Serum with Sea Grape Caviar is super lightweight and slightly pulpy. It’s got such a luxurious texture that feels like a drop of liquid seaweed on the skin. I assume that’s made possible by the high concentration of aloe vera and the inclusion of obscure Sea Grape Caviar Extract. I’d never heard of it either. According to the brand: “harvested sustainably from the Bohol Sea in the Philippines, this nutrient-rich algae hydrates skin and improves water retention by using moisture absorbed from the air.”
Algae is quite common in skincare, no matter where it’s harvested. In general, it has humectant qualities that help to hydrate the skin as well as antioxidant properties. Combined with Glycerin, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Sodium Hyaluronate and Radish Root Ferment Filtrate, the formula is an effective hydrating serum — more than it is a brightening serum.
What I like about it: The Cocokind Vitamin C Serum with Sea Grape Caviar is quite unique. With its nourishing blend of aloe, algae and other humectants, it’s a superb hydrating serum that’s easily layered into any skincare routine. It’s also a pleasure to use!
What I don’t like about it: I think this serum isn’t marketed quite right. It’s much more of a hydrating serum than a brightening serum with Vitamin C. In fact, at just 3%, the concentration of Vitamin C is too low to deliver the real benefits of the potent antioxidant skin brightener. It should be called Deep Hydration Serum with Sea Grape Caviar.
Who it’s for: All skin types, even oily and acne-prone skin.
SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the Cocokind Vitamin C Serum with Sea Grape Caviar for $20 here.
That’s it, guys! I hope you’ve enjoyed my deep dive into Cocokind, one of my favorite brand discoveries of the year. There’s so much more to explore from the brand and I’ll be bringing it all to you in the weeks and months ahead.
See you next week…
💟 Carmine @skincarma
The Ingredient List of the Cocokind Vitamin C Serum with Sea Grape Caviar:
so|h, Glycerin 
sii|h 0 0, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate aox|aacne, Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate amic|pres, Xanthan Gum vc, Sodium Hyaluronate sii|h 0 0, Caulerpa Lentillifera Extract, Passiflora Incarnata Fruit Extract, Rosa Canina Fruit Extract*, Citrus Paradisi (Grapefruit) Peel Oil 
perf, Tocopherol aox 0-3 0-3, Sodium Dehydroacetate pres, Citric Acid buff
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