Actives glossary
Niacinamide
One of the few actives where the useful range is well documented and the high-percentage versions add little.
- INCI name
- Niacinamide
- Also called
- vitamin B3, nicotinamide
- Family
- Vitamin
- Range seen on labels
- 2% to 5% for most published work, 10% and 12% on shelves
- Sits well with
- ceramides, zinc-oxide, retinol
- Needs care with
- l-ascorbic-acid
Niacinamide is unusually well behaved for a skincare active. It is stable, it does not need an acidic vehicle, it does not sensitise skin to sun, and the concentrations used in the published appearance work are low: much of it sits between 2% and 5%.
The percentage inflation problem
Shelf products routinely carry 10% or 12%. The extra is a marketing figure rather than a documented one. Above roughly 5% the reports of flushing and irritation increase without a matching increase in the effects the low-percentage work describes. A 12% product is not automatically worse, but the number on its front is not evidence of anything.
Why it pairs with almost everything
Because it is stable across a wide pH range and does not compete with other actives for the same chemistry, niacinamide is one of the few things that can sit in the same routine as a retinoid, a mineral sunscreen and a barrier cream without a scheduling conversation.
The historical caution about pairing it with L-ascorbic acid comes from work at high heat that does not represent normal use. In practice the two coexist, and the strongest reason to separate them is that one of them wants a low pH vehicle and the other does not care.