That’s key when vitamin C, a notoriously fickle, unstable ingredient, is involved. “Stabilizing the vitamin C is [C E Ferulic’s] real benefit. Ascorbic acid itself is a great ingredient, but if it’s breaking down, it’s not useful at all,” Dobos explains. She says that on its own, pure vitamin C would only last about a week before destabilizing and becoming ineffective. Dobos tells me that, according to the patent, the addition of ferulic acid preserves “90 percent of vitamin C when stability tested for one month at 45 degrees Celsius [113 degrees Fahrenheit].” SkinCeuticals’ website touts testing that found that its ingredients “remain potent to the last drop for up to 36 months.”
SkinCeuticals patented their formula when it launched and has been vigilant in protecting it. Back in 2018, L’Oréal, which owns SkinCeuticals, sued Drunk Elephant, claiming that its C-Firma serum was too close to C E Ferulic for comfort (the case was dismissed two years later). But patents typically expire after about 20 years and now other companies will be able to legally try to replicate C E Ferulic’s potent ingredient makeup.
There are already many “dupes” for C E Ferulic, as a quick prowl through Reddit’s SkincareAddiction forum will tell you, but none of them could have the same ingredient balanC E—until now. “I think we’re going to get a lot of competitors jumping in and trying to create a dupe product for lower cost,” Dobos speculates.
(As far as Allure knows, there is so far at least one new C E Ferulic serum coming from another brand this year, though we can’t share the details yet.)
But before you add a new and cheaper C E Ferulic dupe to your Amazon cart, Dobos advises doing your research and being skeptical of brands that capitalize on the patent expiry too quickly. “Are they as high-quality and safe as something from SkinCeuticals?” she says.
As cosmetic chemist Perry Romanowski points out, having the same ingredient makeup as SkinCeuticals’ original C E Ferulic doesn’t guarantee that a formula will have the same efficacy. Potency comes down to the quality of the ingredients themselves and the product manufacturing process, too. “Somebody can put in vitamin C, not stabilize it, put in the vitamin E and ferulic acid, then say it’s the same as SkinCeuticals,” he says.
