When your skin feels dull, dry, or just not as radiant as it used to be, the problem often starts beneath the surface. While topical products can do wonders, true luminosity begins from within—especially when your body has the nutrients it needs to build, repair, and protect healthy skin cells.
Two of the most researched nutrients for radiant, youthful-looking skin are Vitamin E and Vitamin C. Together, they act like an internal antioxidant defense team: protecting your skin from oxidative stress, supporting collagen, and strengthening your barrier for lasting hydration and glow.
Here’s how they work, why they matter, and the easiest way to get them every single day.
Vitamin E: The Skin’s Natural Moisture Shield
Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant that naturally lives in your skin’s sebum (oil) and cell membranes. It acts like a built-in shield against dryness, irritation, and oxidative stress, including by protecting lipids in the skin from becoming damaged by UV rays, pollution, and other aggressors.
When your skin’s natural Vitamin E stores are depleted, your skin can become more sensitive, flaky, or even susceptible to early signs of aging.
Top Benefits of Vitamin E for Skin
1. Strengthens the Skin Barrier
Vitamin E helps seal in hydration and reduce transepidermal water loss, which keeps your complexion plumper and balanced.
It does this by reinforcing the outermost layer of the skin (your stratum corneum), helping it hold onto moisture and stay resilient against irritants. A strong barrier means fewer flare-ups, less sensitivity, and a naturally dewy glow.
2. Promotes Elasticity + Firmness
Another benefit of Vitamin E is that it helps preserve skin elasticity and smooth texture over time by defending lipids (fats) in the skin from oxidation. At the same time, it supports the integrity of collagen fibers, which can weaken due to sun exposure or environmental damage. With consistent intake, Vitamin E can help skin maintain its bounce and youthful structure.
3. Supports Recovery + Resilience
Just like Vitamin E has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions inside your body, it does the same for the outside, too. It can help calm irritation, reduce redness, and improve how your skin recovers from stressors like UV exposure or pollution.
Vitamin E has been shown to reduce oxidative stress markers in the skin—measurable signs of cell damage caused by free radicals from pollution, UV exposure, stress, and even diet. When these markers rise, it means your skin’s defenses are overwhelmed, leading to collagen breakdown, inflammation, and premature aging.
By lowering those oxidative stress levels, Vitamin E helps your skin recover faster, stay calmer, and maintain a more even, radiant tone over time.
4. Combats Early Signs of Aging
Another benefit of Vitamin E's ability to neutralize free radicals is that it fights the development of fine lines and uneven tone, making it a cornerstone nutrient for long-term skin health. It can also enhance the effectiveness of other antioxidants (like Vitamin C), amplifying your skin’s defense system and helping you age more gracefully.
How to Use Vitamin E For Skin Health
Because your body doesn’t produce much Vitamin E on its own, your levels depend largely on your diet and use of supplements.
Foods like almonds, sunflower seeds, spinach, and avocado are great sources of Vitamin E, but even with a healthy diet, many people still fall short of the amount they need for the greatest skin-related benefits.
That’s where adding in supplements with Vitamin E can help—since it's a convenient way to boost your intake and maintain the steady antioxidant protection your skin needs to stay soft and resilient. A supplement can help fill the gaps in your diet, especially if your skin is feeling dry or reactive.
Vitamin C: The Collagen Catalyst
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is one of the most essential nutrients for glowing, resilient skin, and it's one your body can’t make on its own. It’s a water-soluble antioxidant that plays multiple roles in protecting and repairing skin at the cellular level, including helping protect against free radicals, supporting collagen synthesis and gut health, and promoting overall skin vitality.
Collagen is the protein that keeps your skin firm, lifted, and smooth—but your body can’t build it properly without Vitamin C. It’s the nutrient that activates enzymes that stabilize and cross-link collagen fibers, essentially weaving them into a strong, flexible structure.
When Vitamin C levels drop—which tends to happen in your mid-30s and after—collagen production slows and the skin may start to look thinner, looser, or more fatigued.
Beyond its collagen-boosting effects, Vitamin C is also known for its brightening power. It helps reduce the look of dullness and discoloration by neutralizing oxidative stress and supporting a more even tone.
That’s why consistent intake of Vitamin C, not just topical application, is key to taking great care of your skin from within, so it can maintain natural luminosity for longer.
Top Vitamin C Benefits for Skin
1. Boosts Collagen Production
As mentioned above, Vitamin C assists in collagen synthesis—the process that keeps your skin firm, smooth, and youthful. It helps enzymes link collagen fibers together, strengthening the skin’s structural support. Regular intake can help improve elasticity, potentially reduce sagging, and soften the appearance of fine lines over time.
Another benefit of Vitamin C and collagen: they support a healthy gut-skin axis, which can keep skin clearer by limiting inflammation (one of the major issues resulting from leaky gut).
2. Brightens + Evens Skin Tone
One of Vitamin C’s most-loved benefits is its ability to visibly brighten dull complexions and even help with hyperpigmentation and dark spots. It does this by interfering with melanin production (the pigment responsible for dark spots), helping to fade them and leading to a more even skin tone over time.
3. Protects Against Environmental Damage
Just like Vitamin E, Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that neutralizes free radicals generated by UV rays, pollution, and daily stress.
This protective effect helps minimize oxidative stress that leads to premature aging, dull-looking skin, and inflammation. Think of it as a daily shield that keeps your glow from fading under modern life’s wear and tear.
4. Enhances Skin Hydration + Barrier Function
Beyond its brightening power, Vitamin C can help your skin retain moisture by supporting lipid production in the outer layers. When combined with Vitamin E, it enhances the skin’s overall barrier function, keeping hydration locked in while defending against irritants.
5. Works Synergistically With Vitamin E
Together, vitamins C and E are the ultimate antioxidant duo.
Vitamin C even regenerates Vitamin E after it neutralizes free radicals, essentially “recharging” its protective power. This synergy means that these two vitamins have powerful combined effects on elasticity, glow, and defenses.
How to Use Vitamin C
Since Vitamin C is water-soluble and quickly used up by the body, you need a daily supply to keep your levels steady.
While there are certain foods you should avoid to stop acne breakouts (such as sugar, dairy, and highly processed foods that take a toll on gut health), natural Vitamin C foods are not among them. Citrus fruits, leafy greens, berries, bell peppers, mango, and kiwi are all great sources to include in your diet.
Supplementing also ensures you’re consistently getting enough Vitamin C for your skin to thrive—including when environmental stress, sun exposure, or lifestyle factors increase your body’s antioxidant demands.
Top Benefits of Taking Vitamin E and C Supplements for Glowing, Youthful Skin
As you just learned, Vitamin E and Vitamin C are even stronger when combined, since Vitamin C essentially recycles E, so it can keep defending your skin barrier longer. Together, they make up one of skincare’s most powerful duos for smoother, stronger skin.
Both help to support and maintain collagen. Vitamin C builds it while Vitamin E protects it.
They can help protect skin barrier strength, since Vitamin E reinforces your skin’s natural moisture wall, while Vitamin C supports the enzymes that stabilize it.
Together, they maintain hydration and elasticity by reducing oxidative stress that leads to sagging and dryness.
Finally, their joint antioxidant activity helps your skin look glowy and truly healthy, creating that lit-from-within look we all want.
Think of this duo as the ultimate internal skincare routine—nourishing your skin cells so your topical products can perform even better.
The Best Time to Take Vitamin C + E for Maximum Skin Benefits
For most people, supplementing in the morning is ideal. Taking your antioxidants earlier in the day helps defend against the oxidative stress caused by sunlight and pollution.
That said, consistency is even more important than timing—so whether you take them with breakfast, lunch, or your evening wind-down, the key is to make it a daily ritual.
If you’re pairing supplements with a topical routine, use your topical Vitamin C in the morning and your Vitamin E-rich moisturizer at night for around-the-clock protection.
Once you understand what these two vitamins do, the next question is how to get them—and lucky for you, there's an easy and delicious way to do it.
SKIN TREATS Elasticity + Glow Gummies provide 80 milligrams of Vitamin C (89% of your daily value) and 15 milligrams of Vitamin E (covering 100% of your daily need) in crave-worthy cranberry-flavored gummies that fit right into your daily routine.
Formulated without stevia—an ingredient that can trigger acne but that's used in many gummies to add sweetness—SKIN TREATS is sweetened naturally and designed to love your skin back.
SKIN TREATS also contain astaxanthin, another potent antioxidant, which, together with vitamins E and C, can support overall skin health.
Take two gummies anytime you need a treat—morning, afternoon, or post-workout. That's all you need to make healthy skin feel indulgent.
Want even better results? Pair SKIN TREATS with other CLEARSTEM products (or supplements, such as MINDBODYSKIN® for hormonal acne), which are always made without pore-clogging ingredients, for a complete inside-out approach to clear, radiant skin.
Key Takeaways on Vitamin E and Vitamin C Supplements for Clearer, Brighter Skin
Vitamins E and C are two of the most essential nutrients for skin resilience, radiance, and repair. They brighten, hydrate, and protect your complexion at the cellular level—and they're even better when taken together.
If you’re ready to make glowing skin a daily habit, skip the guesswork and enjoy your antioxidants in the most delicious way possible.
Shop SKIN TREATS Elasticity + Glow Gummies and the entire CLEARSTEM collection.
