What is Niacinamide or Vitamin B3
Niacinamide, also known as Vitamin B3, is a“must-have” water soluble vitamin in your skincare regimen for the numerous benefits it provides. Niacinamide is one of the two forms of vitamin B3 — the other being nicotinic acid. Niacinamide and nicotinic acid both provide vitamin B3 activity, but they differ in chemical structure and how they affect your health.
Niacinamide is superb in preventing and reducing hyper pigmentation and skin discoloration by slowing down the transfer of melanin, the pigment that gives your skin color. If you’re looking for anti-aging benefits, this ingredient is great at boosting collagen production, which means it improves your skin’s elasticity and helps minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Niacinamide is available in different food products and high niacin foods include fish, chicken, turkey, pork, beef, mushrooms, brown rice, peanuts, avocados, green peas, and avocados.
Benefits of Niacinamide
As a skincare ingredient, niacinamide has a variety of benefits. It’s linked to improvements in the appearance of wrinkles, as well as a reduction in skin yellowing. Some studies even show a link between niacinamide and improved skin elasticity.
Anti-Aging - Help to prevent wrinkles. Studies show that niacinamide works fairly effectively as an anti-aging ingredient, helping to improve the appearance of facial skin by reducing the visibility of fine lines and wrinkles. Improve skin elasticity. As well as reducing wrinkles and yellowing, niacinamide is linked to increased skin elasticity—a key aspect of reversing aging—in some studies.
Reduce skin inflammation. In a 2004 study, niacinamide showed anti-inflammatory effects in acne, rosacea and nitrogen mustard-induced irritation. The researchers found that topical niacinamide has a “stabilizing effect” on the outermost layer of the skin. Regular use of Niacinamide can also help reduce excessive oils, redness, blotchiness, hyper-pigmentation, and sensitivity brought by a poorly functioning skin barrier.
Strengthen skin barrier. Niacinamide can also repair and strengthen the skin barrier, helping your skin to retain moisture more effectively while keeping out harmful bacteria. Regular use of Niacinamide can also help reduce excessive oils, redness, blotchiness, hyper pigmentation, and sensitivity brought by a poorly functioning skin barrier.
Improve skin’s UV protection. Studies show that niacinamide has “photo protective effects against carcinogenesis” and can protect your skin from UV radiation, helping it to stop the effects of sun damage.
Treat and prevent acne. Studies show that niacinamide lowers sebum production, making your skin less oily and preventing the clogged pores that often lead to acne breakouts. Other studies of niacinamide as an acne treatment show a more direct improvement in acne, with a 1995 study finding that 4% niacinamide gel produces similar improvements in acne to clindamycin, a popular topical antibiotic.
Moisturize skin: Your lipid barrier helps your skin retain moisture, allowing your skin to absorb hydration for a longer period of time. Niacinamide increases the production of ceramides, an essential component of your lipid barrier, which prevents water loss. It’s shown to be even more effective than petrolatum when it comes to providing moisture, which says a lot since petrolatum is said to be the “gold standard” to which similar hydrating ingredients are compared to. In nutshell, you get more moisture without the greasy and sticky texture.
Who should use Niacinamide?
All skin types – dry, oily, combination; can benefit from Niacinamide, aging skin would benefit strongly from this ingredient as it boosts collagen production and produces ceramides to make sure your skin is retaining moisture and staying well hydrated. Additionally, as Niacinamide is strong anti-inflammatory agent, it’s very beneficial to people with sensitive skin. What’s great about it is that it’s compatible with any product you’re already using. Yep, that’s right. You can use Niacinamide with hyaluronic acid, peptides, AHAs, BDA, vitamin C and even retinol.
When and How to use Niacinamide?
It’s safe to be applied at any time of the day – whether you prefer in the morning, evening, or both. It may depend on how much Niacinamide you’d need - Daily topical application of 10% is considered effective for the skin. So, if you are using 5% serum in the morning and evening, your skin is getting sufficient vitamin B, since it is water soluble the body does not store vitamin B, so you need it daily. We absolutely love its versatility and compatibility with other ingredients, you don’t have to worry about mixing.
Does Niacinamide has side effects?
Used topically, niacinamide is extremely safe. Rare side effects of topical niacinamide are mild itching, redness and burning which often go away over time as your skin becomes more accustomed to niacinamide. Some niacinamide users experience persistent redness. If your skin becomes red and irritated while using niacinamide and doesn’t resolve on its own, it’s best to stop using niacinamide and switch to another skincare treatment.
For pregnant women, niacinamide is considered likely safe at normal doses. However, it’s still best to talk to your doctor about the potential effects of niacinamide if you’re pregnant, nursing or planning to become pregnant.
pH and bioavailability of Niacinamide
The pH range of niacinamide is from 5 to 7, much closer to skin’s natural pH of 4.5 to 5.5 and it has low molecular weight of 122.12 g/mol. This combination makes niacinamide highly bioavailable( skin absorption) because ingredients below molecular weight of 500g/mol are absorbed by the skin easily.
Can Niacinamide be used with Ascorbic acid
So you may have heard through the grapevine that you can’t use vitamin C and niacinamide together. According to the lore, it’s not that they were harmful to your skin when used together, but that they kind of cancelled each other out — like if you used a vitamin C serum and then a product with niacinamide in it, they just didn’t work together. The myth is based on a study of nicotonic acid formation when hydrochloric acid (HCL) was mixed with Niacinamide at 6.0 pH and heated at 194 Fahrenheit or 90 degree Celsius for prolonged period. Some people made inference that mixing ascorbic acid with niacinamide will form nicotonic acid. What's missing is that HCL is very strong acid that gives up ions very easily compared to ascorbic acid which is very weak. Additionally under normal use, your serum will not pass 125 Fahrenheit even if you kept your serum in Arizona desert for days! Finally if you use a product with pH below 3.5, it will ensure maximum absorption and minimum degradation!
Together they create synergistic effect:
Skin Brightening – Ascorbic acid inhibits production of melanin and niacinamide slows down the transfer of melanin. Together they create a synergistic effect to deliver bright skin with no blemishes.
Anti-aging - Ascorbic acid acts as a stimulant for collagen production and niacinamide increase the production of collagen. Collectively, they start and increase production of collagen which makes your skin firm and reduces wrinkles.
Inflammation - Ascorbic acid can cause some redness especially during the introductory phase, niacinamide is anti-inflammatory that reduces redness and gets skin accustomed to vitamin without irritation
Anti-oxidant - Both are strong antioxidants, neutralizing the free radicals consistently to get you healthy, glowing and youthful skin!
What are your thoughts on Niacinamide?
Comments