Niacinamide in Skincare

If you’ve been browsing through skincare products, you might have noticed an ingredient that’s growing in popularity: Niacinamide. This new trendy ingredient is appearing in facial skincare products from serums to face masks. But what’s all the buzz about?

What is niacinamide?

Niacinamide may sound like a scary chemical ingredient, but it’s actually a form of Vitamin B3 that’s naturally occurring. Niacinamide is found in many foods, including cereal grains, meat, fish, dairy, and vegetables. In fact, it’s an essential nutrient. It’s required for energy use in the body, and for maintaining healthy cells.

Niacinamide is also a byproduct of your body processing niacin or tryptophan. It’s an important nutrient; in fact, we can’t live without it.

What is niacinamide used for?

Niacinamide is used to treat and prevent disease caused by vitamin B3 deficiencies like pellagra. Oral supplementation with niacinamide can also help with inflammation due to osteoarthritis and may help regulate blood sugar. There are other uses for Niacinamide, but more scientific research is needed.

Topically, niacinamide has been used to treat all kinds of skin problems. So we’re seeing niacinamide popping up in skin care products as well as in nutritional supplements.

Benefits of topical niacinamide

It’s vital to make sure you’re consuming enough dietary niacinamide, but niacinamide also has benefits when applied directly to your skin. It also helps increase ceramide levels in your skin. Ceramide is an oily substance that helps keep your outermost layer of skin, the stratum corneum, healthy and whole. The stratum corneum is a layer of dead skin cells held together with ceramide and it protects your skin from environmental stressors and disease, so even though it’s dead, it’s very important for healthy skin. This layer also helps prevent moisture loss from deeper layers of skin. Ceramide is vital for a healthy and functioning stratum corneum. 

Niacinamide also helps even skin tone. It’s also possible that niacinamide supports new collagen production in your skin.

With all these benefits for your skin, it’s easy to see why niacinamide has become so popular as a skin care ingredient. We have a niacinamide powder as well as a Niacinamide Serum Base to make adding this vitamin to your skin care routine easy.

Using niacinamide for skin care

Using niacinamide in a skin care regimen in addition to sufficient dietary consumption can really help keep your skin healthy and beautiful. There are some things to keep in mind, though.

Some studies show that a skin care product with 5% niacinamide is effective in helping with both acne and hyperpigmentation. Those with sensitive skin may want to start with a formulation at 2% niacinamide.

Using niacinamide for healthy skin is not a one-time solution. You typically want to use your niacinamide product regularly to see benefits. In fact, it can take a few weeks to see visible results.

Most skin care products that use niacinamide are serums. Serums are an additional skin treatment that is used after washing, after toner, but before moisturizer. This is because your moisturizer may prevent the serum treatment from being absorbed into your skin effectively.

You may see some cleaners that use niacinamide, but since these products are rinsed off, your skin will absorb less of the ingredient than you’ll get from leave-on products like serums, moisturizers, and masks.

Face serums are gentle enough to use every day, but should be used on a clean face whenever possible. Excess dirt and sebum can prevent the treatment from being absorbed into your skin. Washing your face after using this kind of treatment doesn’t give enough time for you to get the benefits from the treatment.

Typically, you only need a few drops of serum to treat your whole face, so serums may seem expensive, but they’ll last longer than you think, even with daily use.

How to use niacinamide in DIY skin care products

Niacinamide typically appears as a crystalline powder in its raw material state. It’s water soluble, so it should be added to the water phase of water-oil emulsions, like lotions. For water-based serums and toners, it can be added directly to the finished product.

Niacinamide is stable when heated, but it should be used in preparations with a pH between 6 and 7.5 for best results. Acidic preparations can break down the niacinamide and may cause a reaction. Recommended usage rate is from 1-10%. If you want an easy way to get started using this wonderful ingredient, check out our soothing and hydrating Chamomile Niacinamide Serum Kit.

That’s the what, why, and how of using niacinamide in your skin care routine. In terms of keeping yourself and your skin healthy, knowledge is power. Knowing what to use and how to use it for your own particular skin means you can make the best choices for you and your family.