is waterless better?
Sometimes, no. Sometimes, yes. In this example, the answer is truly, no.
The Ordinary
The Ordinary is a brand that, in my opinion, has changed the skincare game, especially in the recent years. I first discovered The Ordinary in 2018. What initially drew me to the brand was that I liked how they would showcase that they have an understanding about the ingredients in skincare and formulation.
This is why I also have a product that I absolutely love from them:
The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser
However, their products like the 100% L-Ascorbic Acid Powder and 100% Niacinamide Powder are products that I do not support or recommend, and here's why.
100% Powder Products
Being 100% powder means that there is no water content, so it is considered water-less or anhydrous. There is no formulating going on. It is basically a repack of a supplier's ingredient (unless they synthesize their own ascorbic acid and niacinamide, which I doubt). Note that there's nothing wrong with repacking a material and selling it. It’s done all the time with squalane oil. What's wrong is that the ingredient that is being provided to a consumer at 100% is an ingredient that can very well go absolutely wrong if used incorrectly. These two products rely very heavily on a consumer to know how to use them correctly for them to work as intended and that can be very dangerous.
Chasing that high (%)
Using ascorbic acid (vitamin c) or niacinamide at a high % can do more harm than good. I think that The Ordinary has (unintentionally) encouraged consumers to believe that a higher % of an ingredient is better, and this isn't the case at all. Ingredients can be used at low % and still be effective. Some are effective as low as 0.1%! There is no need to chase a high (especially 100%) and put the consumer at risk.
Ascorbic acid (vitamin c)
Ascorbic acid is water soluble and although it is, it's efficacy decreases when incorporated in water (funny). The thought process behind having a 100% ascorbic acid product would probably be to reduce the chance of decrease in efficacy because of this.
Here is where there is lack of thought:
measurement with a scoop does not tell a consumer the % vitamin c being used
pH for efficacy is important (can you measure pH?)
not all of us are chemists
safety
If you wish to use an ascorbic acid that is in a waterless system to increase the chance of efficacy, instead of using this 100% powder, use a product that is an anhydrous ascorbic acid suspension like:
This product is a 30% ascorbic acid suspension in silicone. I do think that a 30% use level is still very high, but how I like to use it is by using a very small amount of this product and diluting it in something else. Of course, this doesn’t tell me what use level I am using after diluting the product, but this ensures that I am using a % much less than if I were using the 100% powder, reducing any risks.
Niacinamide
Niacinamide is also a water-soluble vitamin. I consider it skincare's superstar ingredient because it was everywhere in 2020. However, I think the 100% powder product was introduced because of the hype around the ingredient with no thought whatsoever. It will sell because everyone loves niacinamide. Read the previous lack of thought on 100% ascorbic acid and reapply that here.
Instead of using a 100% niacinamide product, there are definitely plenty of niacinamide products to choose from because it was everywhere in 2020. I like to use:
Conclusion
Waterless is not always better. Experimenting with different products and ingredients is great because skincare should be fun, but if you don't know what you're doing with products like these, it can cause irritation or even worse skin issues or conditions. There are plenty of vitamin c and niacinamide products out on the market that are already formulated so that you don't have to do the guess work, play chemist, and potentially put yourself at risk. Experiment with those products instead.