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It is the moisturizer in TruSkin's vitamin C family that leans fully into richness — cocoa butter sixth, sunflower second, rosehip and tamanu oils mid-list — and pairs that with sodium ascorbyl phosphate, the stable vitamin C salt, at a position where it can actually contribute. Most vitamin C night creams are light gels with a token derivative; this is a butter with a real one.
A sixteen-dollar cocoa-butter night cream that hydrates dry winter skin properly and carries a stable vitamin C derivative high enough on the list to matter slowly. Rich, unscented and vegan, it is a good-value bedtime cream for dry and normal skin and a shine-and-congestion machine for anyone oily; treat the 'vitamin C' as a bonus, not the reason to buy.
No verified review count exists for this cream — Amazon's total is walled off and Target does not carry it — so the feedback described here reflects readable reviews rather than a tally, and TruSkin has published no testing. The assessment stands on five years of continuous sale, the ingredient order and the known behaviour of cocoa butter and sodium ascorbyl phosphate, together with the brand's decade of consistent manufacturing.
The case for it
What would change this: A researched evidence row for the lead active would replace this with a verdict.
Same rule for everyone. “Supporting role” is the verdict on 8,197 of 45,024 concern verdicts across the catalog; rule R8 decided 4,250 of them. As of September 25, 2026, engine 5.1.1.
Brand or formulator? Disclose a concentration or correct a fact →
The case for it
What would change this: A researched evidence row for the lead active would replace this with a verdict.
Same rule for everyone. “Supporting role” is the verdict on 8,197 of 45,024 concern verdicts across the catalog; rule R8 decided 4,250 of them. As of September 25, 2026, engine 5.1.1.
Brand or formulator? Disclose a concentration or correct a fact →
The case for it
What would change this: A declared concentration would move this to a firmer reading of the dose.
Same rule for everyone. “Promising” is the verdict on 7,858 of 45,024 concern verdicts across the catalog; rule R9p decided 7,858 of them. As of September 25, 2026, engine 5.1.1.
Brand or formulator? Disclose a concentration or correct a fact →
The studies behind the evidence row
Also listed for Dullness — the actives here (Sunflower Oil, Cocoa Butter, Vitamin C, Rosehip Oil) are in our research queue for that concern; there is no verdict until their evidence rows are written. That is a gap in our table, not a mark against the product.
Falls shortJudged as a moisturizer, it comes up short on: seals moisture in, supplies barrier lipids.
A verdict is DermApproved’s assessment of how well a product’s ingredients fit a concern — never a claim about what the product treats. Evidence dots and collected reviews sit beside it and are never blended in. Rules 0.5.1 · evidence table ev-2026.09-r228 · how we decide
TruSkin's vitamin C serum did not become an Amazon phenomenon because of its base; it became one because it was cheap, unscented and used a stable derivative that did not turn brown in the bottle. Everything the brand has released under the orange 'C' since then has traded on that serum, and this night cream — added in 2021 as the bedtime half of a 'vitamin C around the clock' pitch — is the most interesting of the spin-offs because it makes an actual formulation choice. Where the daytime Vitamin C Face Cream is a light lotion, this is a butter. Cocoa butter sits sixth on the list, sunflower oil second, and the whole thing is built for the kind of dry, tight, heated-apartment skin that a vitamin C serum on its own leaves wanting.
The ingredient list reads cleanly. Water, sunflower oil, glycerin, ethylhexyl palmitate, a glyceryl stearate emulsifier, cocoa butter, cetyl alcohol — that is the cream. Then sodium ascorbyl phosphate at eighth, aloe juice powder, MSM, jojoba oil, tamanu oil, rosehip seed oil, panthenol, and a short botanical run of gotu kola, geranium and dandelion before the vitamin E, the gums and a phenoxyethanol-ethylhexylglycerin preservative system. No fragrance, no essential oils, no alcohol, no silicones; vegan and Leaping Bunny certified. For a brand whose older products still list 'kosher vegetable glycerin' and 'botanical hyaluronic acid', this is a proper INCI with proper Latin names, which suggests a newer formulation lab and makes it easier to trust.
Sodium ascorbyl phosphate is the right vitamin C for the job. It is the water-soluble phosphate salt, stable at the neutral pH a cream lives at, converted to ascorbic acid by skin enzymes at a slow, gentle rate, and it has a small but real literature of its own — most notably for reducing acne lesions at 5 percent, and for modest brightening over months. Eighth place in a cream, ahead of the aloe and every oil except sunflower, is consistent with a low-single-digit percentage, which is functional rather than decorative. It will not do what a 15 percent L-ascorbic acid serum does in the morning; it will, over two or three months of nightly use, make dull skin look marginally more even and give the brand a defensible reason to print 'vitamin C' on the tube. The MSM beside it is TruSkin's habitual wellness filler with almost no topical evidence, and the aloe powder is aloe.
The oils are where the cream earns its 'deep hydration'. Cocoa butter is one of the most occlusive plant butters in cosmetic use, and it is doing the overnight work here: the cream goes on thick and slightly greasy, needs ten minutes to settle, and by morning has left dry skin soft and un-tight in a way lighter creams cannot. Sunflower oil supplies linoleic acid for the barrier; jojoba is a sebum-like ester; rosehip and tamanu are the 'renewal' oils, both traditional wound-healing botanicals with linoleic-rich profiles and, in rosehip's case, trace retinoids, neither with evidence in a finished cream. Panthenol at fourteenth adds the humectant and barrier-recovery support a butter-heavy formula otherwise lacks. It is a coherent, old-fashioned rich night cream with a modern vitamin C salt in it.
Which also settles who should not use it. Cocoa butter and ethylhexyl palmitate are two of the more reliably comedogenic ingredients in a face cream, and on combination, oily or acne-prone skin the pattern is consistent: shine the first night, congestion within a fortnight. Fungal-acne-prone skin has the ester load to worry about. Sensitive skin will find nothing aggressive — the vitamin C derivative does not sting, and there is no fragrance — but the geranium extract is a mild sensitiser for the few, and the richness itself can feel like too much. This is a dry-skin, cold-weather product, whatever the brand's usual every-skin-type tagging says.
In use, on dry skin in winter over a water-based serum, it is genuinely pleasant. A pea-sized amount does the face and a little more the neck; it sits well over a retinol as a buffer; the chocolatey note from the cocoa butter fades in minutes. Under sunscreen by day it is too heavy for most people, and the brand is right to position it as a night cream. A tube lasts six to eight weeks rather than the three months a lighter cream would, because rich creams get used generously.
The feedback picture is the least clear of TruSkin's range. The cream has sold on Amazon since early 2021, but its review count sits behind the retailer's wall and there is no Target listing to cross-check, so the numbers used here are impressions from the readable reviews rather than a verified total — consistently 'very moisturizing, no scent, cheap' from dry-skinned users and 'broke me out' from oilier ones. TruSkin's decade of manufacturing consistency is the real reassurance on quality; the absence of any clinical testing is the brand's standing condition.
At fifteen ninety-nine for two ounces, it undercuts almost every vitamin C night cream on the market and costs the same as the brand's daytime cream, and what you get for it is a rich, unscented, vegan cocoa-butter moisturizer with a properly placed stable vitamin C salt. For dry or normal skin looking for a winter night cream that does a little brightening on the side, that is easy money well spent. For oily or breakout-prone skin it is the wrong cream at any price, and for anyone who wants vitamin C to do heavy lifting, the serum in the same line is where the active actually lives.
The hero actives that drive this product's performance.
| Ingredient | Function | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate (Vitamin C) | Eighth on the list, ahead of the aloe and the oils, the stable phosphate salt of vitamin C is the reason a night cream can carry 'vitamin C' without oxidising in the tube; it is a gentler, slower brightener than L-ascorbic acid and one with useful anti-acne data, sitting here at a plausibly functional dose. | Limited for Dark Spots |
| Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter | Sixth, just after the emulsifier, cocoa butter is the 'deep hydration' — a heavy, occlusive plant butter that makes this the richest product in TruSkin's vitamin C line and the one dry skin reaches for in winter. | Not yet assessed |
| Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Oil | Second on the list, sunflower oil is the linoleic-rich backbone of the lipid phase; with ethylhexyl palmitate and cocoa butter behind it, it gives the cream its slip and its barrier-repair credentials, and its comedogenic company is what oily skin should watch. | Not yet assessed |
| Rosa Canina (Rosehip) Seed Oil + Calophyllum Inophyllum (Tamanu) Oil | A pair of 'repair' oils placed mid-list — rosehip for its linoleic acid and trace retinoids, tamanu for its traditional wound-healing reputation — that give the night-time renewal story a botanical footing without any clinical proof in this formula. | Not yet assessed |
| Panthenol (Vitamin B5) | Fourteenth, after the oils, panthenol supplies the humectant and barrier-recovery support that a butter-heavy cream otherwise lacks, and is the ingredient most responsible for the softer, less tight feel by morning. | Not yet assessed |
Ingredient standings describe the active at treatment-level doses and vehicles; this product's own condition grades weigh its actual formula.
Water (Aqua), Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Oil, Glycerin (Vegetable Source), Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Cetyl Alcohol, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate (Vitamin C), Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera) Leaf Juice Powder, Dimethyl Sulfone (MSM), Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Oil, Calophyllum Inophyllum (Tamanu) Oil, Rosa Canina (Rosehip) Seed Oil, Panthenol (Vitamin B5), Centella Asiatica (Gotu Kola) Extract, Geranium Maculatum (Geranium) Extract, Taraxacum Officinale (Dandelion) Extract, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Xanthan Gum, Carbomer, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Potassium Hydroxide
moisturizer
PM
Use it as the last step at night over water-based serums; it sits well over TruSkin's vitamin C serum and gives a retinol a rich buffer, though the cocoa butter is too heavy under sunscreen for most skin by day.
Softer, less tight skin by the first morning from the butter and oils; a subtle brightening from the sodium ascorbyl phosphate over six to twelve weeks of nightly use, and no change to deep pigmentation.
The cream's two functional claims — hydration and brightening — rest on different footings. The hydration is well grounded: cocoa butter is a semi-solid triglyceride rich in stearic, oleic and palmitic acids that forms an occlusive film and measurably reduces transepidermal water loss, sunflower seed oil provides linoleic acid that supports stratum corneum lipid organisation and barrier recovery, and panthenol has controlled-trial evidence for improving barrier function and reducing water loss after irritation. Together they explain the overnight softening. The brightening rests on sodium ascorbyl phosphate, a stable vitamin C phosphate ester that is dephosphorylated to ascorbic acid in the skin; its penetration and conversion are less efficient than L-ascorbic acid's, but it has a documented antimicrobial and sebum-regulating effect — a 2005 open study in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science found 5 percent sodium ascorbyl phosphate reduced inflammatory acne lesions over twelve weeks — and in vitro evidence for tyrosinase inhibition supporting a modest, slow evening of tone. Its eighth-place listing in this cream is consistent with a low-single-digit concentration; TruSkin does not disclose the figure. Rosehip seed oil supplies linoleic and linolenic acids and small amounts of all-trans retinoic acid, with limited clinical data on scars and photoaging; tamanu (Calophyllum inophyllum) oil has in vitro wound-healing and antibacterial activity from its calophyllolide and coumarin content and traditional use, without controlled trials in a finished cream. Dimethyl sulfone has minimal topical evidence at cosmetic concentrations. Comedogenicity data on cocoa butter and ethylhexyl palmitate, both scoring high in rabbit-ear and human follicular assays, support the caution for acne-prone users.
Rich occlusive night creams remain the standard clinical suggestion for dry and xerotic skin in winter, and dermatologists would have little to object to in this one for that patient: no fragrance, no alcohol, a linoleic-rich oil base, panthenol, and a vitamin C derivative that will not irritate. The vitamin C would be described honestly as a slow, gentle brightener rather than a pigment treatment — sodium ascorbyl phosphate has its best evidence in acne, ironically, in a base no acne patient should use. That base is the counselling point: cocoa butter and ethylhexyl palmitate are the ingredients clinicians name when a patient with comedonal acne asks why their 'natural' night cream is breaking them out, and oily, acne-prone and fungal-acne-prone patients are directed to a lighter gel-cream instead. For dry, mature or eczema-prone skin without acne it is a reasonable, inexpensive occlusive layer that also happens to buffer a retinoid well; for hyperpigmentation the effective tools remain sunscreen, retinoids and dedicated lightening agents, not a butter with a C on it.
This is a bedtime step. After cleansing and any serums — it layers cleanly over TruSkin's Vitamin C Serum or over a retinol, which it buffers — squeeze a pea-sized amount, warm it between the fingertips until the cocoa butter softens, and press it over the face, adding a little more for the neck. Give it ten minutes to settle before pillow contact; it is slick at first and absorbed by morning. Very dry skin can also use it in the morning under sunscreen, but most will find it too heavy by day. Keep it off the T-zone if you are combination, and stop at the first sign of congestion, which oily skin can see within a fortnight. No sun caution is needed, since the vitamin C derivative is not photosensitising.
At $15.99 for 2 fluid ounces — roughly twenty-seven cents a millilitre — this is one of the cheapest vitamin C night creams on the market and on par with plain drugstore night creams that carry no active at all, which makes the sodium ascorbyl phosphate an effective freebie. The formula is generous with real emollients rather than water and thickeners, and the vegan, fragrance-free, properly labelled base is more than the price suggests. The catch is usage: a rich cream gets applied liberally and a tube lasts six to eight weeks, so the monthly cost is closer to nine dollars than the sticker implies. TruSkin's manufacturing record supports consistency; its lack of clinical testing and the unreadable Amazon review count mean you are buying on the ingredient list. For dry and normal skin it is very good value. For oily skin it is money spent on the wrong product.
Dry and normal skin that wants a rich, unscented, inexpensive night cream for cold months and likes the idea of a stable vitamin C working slowly in the background. It suits people already using TruSkin's Vitamin C Serum who want the matching bedtime step, anyone needing a plush buffer over a retinol, and readers who prefer a plant-butter base to silicone-heavy drugstore night creams.
Anyone whose skin is oily, combination or breakout-prone should avoid the cocoa butter and ethylhexyl palmitate, which reliably congest. Anyone expecting a vitamin C night cream to fade dark spots on its own, or wanting something light enough to wear under sunscreen, should look to the brand's serum or its lighter daytime cream instead.
Ready to try TruSkin Vitamin C Deep Hydration Night Cream?
Buy at Amazon ♥A thick, buttery white cream that warms and softens between the fingers, spreads with an oily slip and takes ten minutes or more to settle into a cushioned, faintly glossy finish.
Unscented; a faint chocolatey, nutty note from the cocoa butter and tamanu oil that lingers a few minutes.
A 2 fl oz white squeeze tube with an orange band and a crescent-moon mark next to the C roundel, with a flip cap.
The first night feels indulgent on dry skin — heavy going on, absorbed by morning, no sting from the vitamin C derivative; combination and oily skin usually notice shine and, within a week or two, clogged pores from the cocoa butter and palmitate ester.
About six to eight weeks of nightly face use from the 60 ml tube, since a rich cream tends to be used generously.
fall winter
TruSkin added the Deep Hydration Night Cream in early 2021 to give its Amazon-famous Vitamin C Serum a nighttime companion, choosing sodium ascorbyl phosphate — the same derivative in the serum — so that customers could 'use vitamin C around the clock'. The cocoa butter base was a deliberate contrast to the brand's lighter daytime Vitamin C Face Cream.
TruSkin, founded in 2015, is the Amazon-native US brand whose vitamin C serum became one of the platform's most-reviewed beauty products; it has since expanded into Target and Walmart. Its vitamin C line trades on that serum's reputation with affordable, botanical-leaning formulas that carry large review counts but no published clinical testing.
Vitamin C should only be used in the morning, so a vitamin C night cream is pointless.
Ascorbic acid's antioxidant role pairs naturally with daytime sunscreen, but sodium ascorbyl phosphate is stable and works on pigmentation and sebum regardless of the hour; there is no reason a night cream cannot carry it, though this one is more moisturizer than treatment.
Cocoa butter fades dark spots and stretch marks.
Cocoa butter is an excellent occlusive emollient with no demonstrated effect on pigmentation or stretch marks in controlled trials; any evening of tone from this cream comes from the sodium ascorbyl phosphate, slowly.
Sodium ascorbyl phosphate, a water-soluble, stable derivative listed eighth on the ingredients. It converts to ascorbic acid in the skin at a gentler pace than pure L-ascorbic acid and does not oxidise in the tube, which is why it suits a cream used at night.
Usually, yes. Cocoa butter is the sixth ingredient and ethylhexyl palmitate the fourth, a combination that leaves oily and acne-prone skin shiny and often congested; TruSkin's lighter Vitamin C Face Cream is the better choice for those skin types.
Yes — both use sodium ascorbyl phosphate and the brand designs them to be layered, serum first. The cream's rich base seals the serum in and there is no interaction to worry about.
No fragrance is listed. The faint chocolate-nutty smell comes from the cocoa butter and tamanu oil themselves, and it fades within a few minutes of application.
It can, but its cocoa butter base is heavy under sunscreen and makeup for all but very dry skin. It is formulated as a night cream, and that is where it works best.
Yes. It contains no retinoids, no acids and no essential oils, and sodium ascorbyl phosphate is a pregnancy-compatible form of vitamin C; the rest is plant oils, butters, panthenol and mild botanicals.
Recurring themes our editors read across retailer reviews of this product — summaries in our words, not quotations, and not a substitute for your own patch test.
Rich but sinks in by morning on dry skin
No scent
Cheap for a vitamin C night cream
Too heavy and pore-clogging on oily skin
Brightening is subtle
Tube runs out faster than expected