Niacinamide
The amide form of vitamin B3, one of the best-evidenced ingredients in skincare, used for barrier support and evenness.
Multiple 12-week controlled facial trials support tone, texture and barrier outcomes.
On the label: Niacinamide. Also known as Vitamin B3, Nicotinamide.
What it does for you
Helps skin hold onto water, look more even in tone, and stay less reactive day to day.
Why we use it
A single daily active only works if the barrier can take it. Niacinamide is here to make consistency possible, which is the whole premise of the product.
Mechanism
Niacinamide feeds into the cell's energy cofactors and prompts skin to build more of its own barrier lipids, which reduces water loss. Separately, it slows the handover of pigment between skin cells, which is why it evens tone.
Use level
Pivotal trials used 5%; 2 to 5% is typical in market products.
Commonly confused with
Niacinamide is not niacin. Niacin causes flushing; niacinamide does not. The old advice not to combine it with vitamin C has been largely walked back, and it came from conditions unlike those in a finished formula.
What the studies say
Significant improvement versus vehicle control in fine lines and wrinkles, hyperpigmented spots, red blotchiness and skin sallowness (yellowing). Elasticity improved as measured by cutometry. Tested at 5%, which sits at the top of the 2 to 5% range typical of market products.
- Human in vivo
- n = 50 white female subjects with clinical signs of facial photoaging
- 12 weeks
Double-blind, left-right randomized split-face, 5% niacinamide versus its vehicle control twice daily
Niacinamide: A B vitamin that improves aging facial skin appearance Bissett DL, Oblong JE, Berge CA. Dermatologic Surgery, 2005. DOI 10.1111/j.1524-4725.2005.31732
All three authors were Procter and Gamble affiliated. Industry authored, not independent.
Significant improvement versus control in fine lines and wrinkles, hyperpigmentation spots, texture and red blotchiness, and additionally in skin yellowing (sallowness). Same 5% level, same 50-subject split-face design and an overlapping author group with the 2005 Dermatologic Surgery paper, so the two are one body of work rather than independent replication.
- Human in vivo
- n = 50 Caucasian women aged 40 to 60
- 12 weeks
Double-blind, placebo-controlled, split-face, left-right randomized; moisturizer control versus the same moisturizer containing 5% niacinamide
Topical niacinamide reduces yellowing, wrinkling, red blotchiness, and hyperpigmented spots in aging facial skin Bissett DL, Miyamoto K, Sun P, Li J, Berge CA. International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2004. DOI 10.1111/j.1467-2494.2004.00228.x
Procter and Gamble affiliated authors. Industry authored, not independent.
In cultured human keratinocytes, nicotinamide raised ceramide biosynthesis 4.1 to 5.5 fold, glucosylceramide 7.4 fold and sphingomyelin 3.1 fold, by increasing serine palmitoyltransferase activity and its mRNA. Topical application increased ceramide and free fatty acid levels in the stratum corneum and decreased transepidermal water loss in dry skin. This is the barrier mechanism, not a facial appearance trial.
- Mechanistic, with a topical in vivo component
- 6 days in culture
Cultured normal human keratinocytes incubated with 1 to 30 micromol/L nicotinamide, plus topical application in vivo
Nicotinamide increases biosynthesis of ceramides as well as other stratum corneum lipids to improve the epidermal permeability barrier Tanno O, Ota Y, Kitamura N, Katsube T, Inoue S. British Journal of Dermatology, 2000. DOI 10.1111/j.1365-2133.2000.03705.x
Sample size and design of the in vivo arm are not stated in the abstract. Cite for mechanism, not for effect size.