Vitamin C is one of the most widely known vitamins. When we feel a cold or flu coming on we run to the store and get some vitamin C tablets or Emergen-C. It’s is one of the most widely known anti-oxidants which plays a vital role in keeping our immune system strong. As you’re going to see in this post, DIY liposomal vitamin C far exceeds the benefits of regular vitamin C!
Health Benefits of Vitamin C
All of us want to stay healthy and feel good. The white blood cells in your body rely on vitamin C to survive the attack of pathogens and free radicals.
Vitamin C also:
- Helps to stimulate collagen which allows you to have healthy skin, bones, ligaments, and more.
- Vitamin C will help support healthy aging and give you glowing skin.
- It will cause you to have a healthy immune system so you can fight off things like cold and flu.
- As mentioned above, its a powerful antioxidant. Antioxidants protect your cells from damage that cause disease and aging.
- It can protect and support your memory.
- Beneficial to cancer patients to keep their immune system strong.
- Supports healthy blood pressure.
- Supports healthy metabolism.
If you are deficient in vitamin C it could cause conditions like this:
- Scurvy
- Fatigue
- Nosebleeds
- Slow to heal wounds and easy bruising.
- Weak immune system.
- Bad oral health.
- Dull dry skin.
- Dry hair.
Why is Liposomal Vitamin C a better option?
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin and the cell membrane is fat-soluble. The water-soluble vitamin C has a hard time penetrating the fat-soluble cell the same way that oil and water don’t mix. Because oral vitamin C is water-soluble, the absorption rate is about 20% with the other 80% accumulating in the colon. This is where the liposomes are valuable. Liposomes are “nano-size” microscopic fat-soluble vehicles that carry the vitamin C past the digestive system and directly into the cells. This allows for about 80% absorption rate v/s the 20%! The amazing thing is this method of intaking vitamin C is superior to IV vitamin C! Not only is making this vitamin C easy but very cost-effective and will save you money.
As you can see DIY liposomal vitamin C is better absorbed by your body and well worth the money to make it on your own. It takes only a few minutes and purchasing a few items to get started!
Here is what you will need:
- Ultrasonic cleaner (jewelry cleaner)
- Ascorbic acid powder
- Sunflower lecithin
- everclear alcohol (optional)
If you want to take liposomal C but don’t want to make it, you can buy Liposomal Vitamin C here!
If you are looking for more ways to stay healthy or boost your immune system check out this Honey Elixer that we have used for years!
DIY Liposomal Vitamin C
Equipment
- Ultrasonic cleaner
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups filtered or distilled warm water no tap water
- 2 ½` tablespoon ascorbic acid
- 4 tablespoon sunflower lecithin
- 2 oz Everclear grain alcohol This is optional. It will provide more encapsulation. I skip it because of the kids.
Instructions
- In a Nutri-Bullet or blender pour 1 ½ cups of warm filtered water.
- Measure in ascorbic acid and lecithin.
- Blend for about 2-4 minutes.
- With a small strainer strain liquid to get some of the air bubbles out. You can strain it into a bowl or directly into the ultrasonic cleaner.
- Set the timer on the ultrasonic cleaner for 15 minutes. During this time the lipids will encapsulate the vitamin C. Stir with a wooden spoon about every 2 minutes.
- When the 15 minutes is up, pour the liquid into a glass container or mason jar and store it in the fridge for up to 10 days.
- Take 1-2 oz to get about 1500 mg of vitamin C.
- See recipe notes for the supplies I used to make this!
Notes
If you have an ultrasonic cleaner and have used it in the past to clean jewelry. Pour the liquid into a mason jar and let jiggle for 15 minutes in the jar to ensure it is clean.
I skip the alcohol because I have 4 kids, but it will help with the encapsulation to use it.
Here is a good stainless steel ultrasonic cleaner to make liposomal C.You can buy the ascorbic acid
here.
Here is the sunflower lecithin
I use.Disclaimer
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Violet
Do you know if you make liposomal vitamin C with whole food C powder and not just ascorbic acid? Thank you!
elkeliving
Hi, this is a great question and something I’ve spent a good deal of time looking in to. I would much rather make this with a whole food vitamin powder! I ran into one man on YouTube who for a short time made it with a whole food vitamin powder and a Dr. or scientist commented and said because it’s absorbed straight into the blood stream it’s best to use ascorbic acid. I also know that Dr. Mercola ( a well known natural health doctor) uses ascorbic acid in his liposomal C supplements and he talks negatively about synthetic vitamins. If you find out any more information I would love to know!
peter miltenburg
i use granules not powder
elkeliving
What type of granules do you use?
Denise
What is the MG per serving? Thank you.
elkeliving
It’s 1500mg per serving.
Mark Alan Effinger
Thank you, Elke!
We’re finding liposomal delivery works for a number of other nutrients, extracts and vitamins.
Your approach is perfect.
Thanks for sharing it so kindly.
t mel
I made this years ago, but now thinking about it, I cant help but question the supersonic cleaners cheap aluminum basin wearing down over time as the slightly acidic ascorbic acid wears away during the high frequency wash. I cant imagine the makers would install food grade aluminum for something designed to clean things worn outside the body….
elkeliving
That’s a great point. I saw a YouTube video and the man suggested putting the mix in a ziplock bag, but that didn’t make much sense to me to be a better solution. Maybe putting the mix in a mason jar would solve this problem.
Jemms
Ultrasonic waves do not penetrate preserving or regular grade glass jars. You need a laboratory grade glass beaker.
Jeff Holden
for those concerned about metal contamination you can buy a hospital grade ultrasonic cleaner with a stainless steel tank from eBay
elkeliving
Love this idea!
Lizette Lassen
Normally you take c-vitamin with roship, nyphon, acerola, seabuchthorn or something else, to Be sure to consume the c-vitamin. Would that Be an idea to put into this mix?
elkeliving
Hi, from my research, because this bypasses the digestive system and goes right to the blood stream, I have seen people say not to add anything to this mix. I think It would be the safest to take those things along with this?
Justin Barracosa
Just wanted to clarify a couple things…
1. May I ask where you read research that stated that liposomal vitamin C “…bypasses the digestive system and goes right to the blood stream..?”
Are you simply saying that the vitamin C isn’t subjected to typical first pass digestion?
2. Earlier you said that “The amazing thing is this method of intaking vitamin C is superior to IV vitamin C.”
Can I ask what you meant by “superior?”
Typically, one would infer that the reference is to bioavailability and absorption, but we know that isn’t the case here.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4915787/
Thank you, and great article!
Justin Barracosa
MMAFightMAG.com
elkeliving
Yes, absolutely! I have followed a couple of doctors for many years (Dr. Mercola and Dr. Axe) both of whom I learned and researched through. You can check them out! I typically try to stay away from .gov websites when it come to anything related to health. I don’t believe they have our best in mind. It was one of the two doctors either in an article or youtube video that reported that. Also, you can find that information on deeprootsathome.com. Hope this helps!!
Sita Johnson
do you use the heat setting as well as the ultrasonic setting?
elkeliving
I don’t use any heat.
Philip Lewis
Hi I was doing research on how to make my own liposomal Vitamin C when I came across your website. I was exploring an option of using olive oil as the lipid base but this method seems to work so I thought I would try this too.
I have on question though – I assumed that sunflower lecithin was only supplied as an oil but I see that some vendors sell it in powdered or granular form. Which form do you use in your recipe and if you are suing the liquid form would I need to adjust amounts of water or powder if I am using the powdered form?
elkeliving
Hi, the sunflower lecithin is the supply of the fatty lipid that would encapsulate the vitamin c. I have the powder form of the sunflower lecithin. In my research I have not seen anyone use olive oil or any type of liquid oil for the lipid base. Even the liposomal C from the store uses the sunflower lecithin. Hope this helps.
Philip Lewis
Yes that answers my questions perfectly. The possible use if olive oil was a wild guess before I did any research -I knew that ascorbic acid was water soluble and thus would get flushed out of system rather too quickly to allow for anything like optimal absorption so it seemed obvious to me to try and bind the ascorbic acid with a fatty layer (lipid) as efficiently as possible – as I use virgin olive oil quite a lot already it seemed like a potential candidate – then I saw a paper where they had used an extract from olive olive with which they were exploring as a highly efficient binder – I was going to pursue that further when I discovered your web page and when i read of your use if an ultrasonic bath I had a light-bulb moment as it seemed a really brilliant use of an existing and affordable technology. I may still follow up more research on the possible olive oil extract option but even if it is even better than using the lecithin it is likely to be a significantly more expensive option as the olive oil would have to have the special processing to get the extract. I have gone for the gmo free (allegedly) soya lecithin option because I know that I and my friend whom I am, also going to make some liposomal Vit C for are not allergic to it.
I am very grateful that you are sharing this information as it may well have saved me a lot of time and homework to find such a neat solution.
elkeliving
I appreciate your deep study into this process. It’s so fascinating and new research always comes out. Let me know if you find out any more about the olive oil extract. I would love to hear your findings!
Philip Lewis
This paper is details some research delving into use of Olive Oil in a related purpose – I haven’t read the full details yet but looks promising. I will be using your formula initially but will look at using olive oil base later when I can figure out an economical way of testing results. I will of course be more than happy to share any of my findings.
Yuri
Hi Elke,
thank you for your clear and easy-to-follow guide!
By any chance, do you know if I will be able to use flaxseed oil instead of lecithin?
I’m on a diet that allows only flaxseed oil and explicitly prohibits using all other vegetable fats.
Another question is about Everclear.
As I understand, you suggest adding Everclear alcohol to make lecithin emulsion more fluid, is it correct or I’m mistaken?
Thank you again,
your help would be much appreciated!
elkeliving
Hi,
From my research, I have only seen that people making it have used the lecithin (sunflower or soy). I have not seen anyone use liquid to encapsulate their vitamin C. A higher percentage of the vitamin C will be encapsulated if the alcohol is used.
Nitya
Hi Elke
I’ve been happily making my own liposomal vit c with your recipe but something weird happened this time!
I opened a new tub of Now sunflower lecithin and the colour was darker. After blending it all became thick foam and wouldn’t separate from the liquid. I let it sit over night but it still doesn’t separate and is all foam!
What to do? Can I still use it?
elkeliving
That is so strange. I have never had this happen. Did you check out the ingredient label and make sure they haven’t added any other ingredients?
Repon
Just an amazing article. I think liposomal vitamin c is more absorbable and bioavailable in the body because the vitamin C is encased within liposomes, microscopic droplets surrounded by a lipid bilayer, the same kind of barrier as our cell membranes. Taking a high-quality liposomal vitamin C offers greater bioavailability and also many benefits for health.
elkeliving
Yes!! Thank you for your input. I totally agree!
Gary
The recipe seems good but the use of NutriBullet should be clarified as they won’t operate and will shutdown or cook itself after approximately 50 seconds . You say blend for 2 to 4 mins without any guide on this for NutriBullet application
Cherie Locascio
Is it normal for the solution to settle at the bottom so it has to be shaken before use? The last few times I’ve made this has happened and I’m not sure if it’s normal. Thank you.
elkeliving
I haven’t noticed this happens too much. Just slight settling. Are you blending it well?
Vanessa
I cannot see the ultrasonic cleaner you use fir some reason. are you able to provide a link or details please?
Scotty
Hi.
You forgot to mention HOW MUCH grain alcohol is used in your recipe.
Regards,
Scotty
Wayne
Thanks for sharing this guide. Is there a substitute for the grain alcohol? Everclear is not widely available in some locations, so would Vodka or some other alcohol be a suitable substitute?