There’s a myth for just about everything, and skincare hacks aren’t exempt. When it comes to learning about what’s great for your skin, it’s important to know what’s actually effective when putting products on your face. Vitamin E falls into question when it comes to having more positive effects if applied directly to the skin, or if it has any positive effects at all. Is the vitamin E hype simply just a myth?

Recently, Byrdie Beauty talked to three skincare experts in the industry, Mount Sinai Hospital Director of Cosmetic and Clinical Research Joshua Zeichner, MD, Robb Akridge, skin expert and co-founder of Clarisonic and celebrity facialist Angela Caglia to get the actual scoop on vitamin E.

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Vitamin E comes in many forms — a simple Google search will bring you to various supplements, oils and gel capsules — with alluring benefits such as evening skin tones, preventing free-radical damage and helping your skin when it’s inflamed, according to Zeichner. Healthline also reported that the ingestion of vitamin E can promote longer cell life and help with treatments of heart disease and high blood pressure.

A favored way to use vitamin E in daily life is by using it “directly from the capsule, in its purest form [while it] is protected from breakdown by the gel capsule itself,” according to Akridge. While applying vitamin E directly onto the skin has its share of benefits, it’s important to consider that the benefits aren’t as great as if it were to be ingested. Applying vitamin E directly onto the skin can improve skin hydration at best, but when taking vitamin E as a supplement, it can boost your immune system, help cell function and neutralize radicals.

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Now that we know the real deal about vitamin E, an important reminder when adding vitamin E to your skincare routine is to ensure that you’re using capsules that are purely vitamin E instead of capsules that are mixed with vegetable oils to avoid clogging your pores. Vitamin E is also oil-soluble which is wonderful if your skin is on the drier side or during cold winter months.

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