The Skin Nerd: Is vitamin K the latest answer to our skincare prayers?
The Skin Nerd: Can the relatively unheard-of vitamin elevate our skin regimes, or should we stick to investing in the earlier stages of the vitamin alphabet?
In the world of vitamins, A, C and E undoubtedly get the glory but if you work your way down the alphabet, there is another vitamin that is starting to gain traction for its potential beauty benefits.
Vitamin K (yes, we skipped a few) is a vitamin that plays a key role in many bodily functions including blood clotting and wound healing.
What sparked my interest is that it has recently been cited for having many possible beauty benefits, having been claimed to assist with redness, strengthening capillaries, reducing inflammation and general skin recovery.
The most rumoured potential beauty benefit, however, is that it may help to brighten notoriously tricky-to-target dark circles, but is there any science to support this grand theory? This week, I investigate!
The ‘K’ in Vitamin K is for ‘koagulation,’ which is the German word for coagulation/blood clotting – giving a clue to one of the vitamin's key functions within the body.
Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin which comes in two forms, one of which is Vitamin K1 (also known as phylloquinone) which is found in food such as green leafy vegetables including spinach and broccoli, vegetable oils, cereal grains, meat and dairy foods.
The second type is Vitamin K2 (menaquinones) found in fermented foods and produced by the bacteria in the gut.
Although it clearly needs a hype team, hard-working Vitamin K goes about its business quietly, playing an important role in lots of our bodily functions, including blood clotting and maintaining bone health. This has led many to suggest it can also provide the following benefits to the skin:
Vitamin K is a popular ingredient in products that claim to brighten the under-eye area, which can be prone to dark circles and pigmentation.
As vitamin K helps to produce the proteins in the body that are essential for blood clotting, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to theorise how this could affect the blood that can pool under the eye but to date, there is no clear evidence to support this.
To get nerdie, one line of research (a study carried out in 2015) concluded that participants who used a formula containing vitamin K and caffeine had noticed an improved appearance of wrinkles and dark circles.
However, the ecological validity of this study (the extent to which we can apply these findings to real life) was limited as it was not clear enough whether the improvement in dark circles was due to the inclusion of vitamin K or from caffeine (or even the emu oil base the mix was within).
Vitamin K has been suggested to promote wound healing, helping to heal cuts, reducing redness, swelling and bruising.
With the ability to increase elasticity, there is a possibility that Vitamin K can help to lessen the appearance of stretch marks.
Research has suggested that vitamin K could be beneficial in minimising signs of ageing such as dark circles and wrinkles.
One study revealed positive results when a trial was carried out testing vitamin K as part of a blend of ingredients but as the vitamin was paired with retinol and vitamins C and E, it was difficult to be conclusive as to whether vitamin K had a true impact.
As regular readers of my column will know, retinol, has proven anti-ageing superpowers of its own, so this could very well have influenced the outcome.
While vitamin K has been proven to assist with many vital biological functions within the body, there is a lack of hard evidence on exactly how vitamin K benefits the skin directly.
It’s certainly a vitamin that has the experts in debate and is the topic of many studies, but I have yet to find a skincare-focused one that does not state that further research is needed before we can truly give it the backup from skincare science...
Frustratingly, the science backing vitamin K is inconclusive and this means that we will need to watch this space to see if further studies provide stronger evidence in support of the skincare benefits the beauty industry is beginning to claim.
That said, vitamin K is non–irritating, with no known side effects – so it is safe to use if you want to try it for yourself.
The only real caution here is for anyone at risk of blood clots, as this vitamin has proven effects on the blood clotting process.
I therefore recommend that you always check with your GP before using vitamin K.
If you are keen to give vitamin K a go, ) is a great choice, containing vitamin K in the form of lucerne oil and working to diminish dark circles by mending broken capillaries.
I also suggest that for the best results, you look for it in formulas where it's combined with other ingredients (that have been proven for their capabilities) such as vitamin A to maximise any effects.
