Ingredient glossary
Ferulic Acid
On your shelf ✓What Ferulic Acid does for your skin, who it suits, and what to watch for.
INCI: Ferulic Acid
In short: Ferulic Acid delivers antioxidant and photo protection, suits most skin types, and the evidence behind it is strong.
- What it does
- Antioxidant, photo protection
- Best for
- Most skin types
- Evidence
- Strong
- How long
- Never measured
The molecule
The Glow take
Nice to have, and nothing to overthink.
Ferulic Acid plays a quiet supporting role, rounding out a formula rather than being the reason you buy it.
— Maya
What it does
- antioxidant
- photo protection
strong evidenceSeminal studies show that adding ferulic acid to a vitamin C + E serum improves stability and roughly doubles the photoprotective effect against UV damage.
On a label: usually effective at 0.5-1%.
Who it's for, and who should skip it
Tends to suit
- all
Approach with care
No specific group flagged to avoid it.
- Clogs poresLow
- Irritation riskLow
How it fits each skin type
- DrySuits
- CombinationSuits
- OilySuits
- SensitiveSuits
Where it fits in your routine
Nobody has published how long this takes to work.
What is known, and what is missing
Measured on: photoprotection - UV-induced erythema, sunburn cells and thymine dimer formation.
The famous doubling-of-photoprotection result is a swine-skin study of a vitamin C + E + ferulic solution applied for four days before solar-simulated UV: an animal model of a three-ingredient serum, which by rule cannot be read as a human onset for ferulic acid. Human work on the combination measures antioxidant and photoprotective endpoints without isolating ferulic's contribution or its earliest effective timepoint. At 0.5-1% part of its declared job is also in-bottle - stabilising ascorbic acid - which has no skin clock at all.
The porcine-skin C+E+ferulic photoprotection study (described; animal model, deliberately not used as a human timeline); no human ferulic-alone time-course study located.
Plays well with
Ferulic Acid, answered
Is Ferulic Acid safe during pregnancy?
Yes. Ferulic Acid is considered safe to use during pregnancy and breastfeeding. As with anything, if you are unsure it is worth a quick word with your doctor or midwife.
Who should avoid Ferulic Acid?
No specific group is flagged to avoid Ferulic Acid. It is well tolerated by most skin. Still, introduce anything new one product at a time.
What concentration of Ferulic Acid actually works?
Ferulic Acid tends to do its job in the 0.5 to 1% range. Much lower and it is likely underdosed.
Commonly confused with
- Vitamin C (LAA)Ferulic acid is not a vitamin C. It is an antioxidant added to steady a vitamin C formula and make it work harder.
Compare Ferulic Acid with
Can you mix Ferulic Acid with
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