Niacinamide: A Tiny Building Block Researchers Are Examining Closely

1. What Exactly Is That?

Niacinamide is a substance. In science, 'substance' means everything that can be described exactly – like salt or sugar. Niacinamide is not an animal and not a plant, but a tiny building block that people produce and mix into creams. You may know this from the kitchen: if you stir cinnamon into the dough, the whole cake tastes a bit like cinnamon afterwards. It is similar with Niacinamide in a cream. It is mixed in, and then it is in every dollop. In the studies that exist about Niacinamide, it is almost always about skin. The substance was tested in creams, lotions, moisturisers and cleansing gels. Some researchers put it alone in the cream, others together with other substances, for example with ceramides. Niacinamide also has a second name: in some studies it is called nicotinamide. Both names mean the same substance. So if you read 'nicotinamide' somewhere, nothing else is meant.

2. Where Does It Come From?

You find Niacinamide in tubes, pots and bottles: in face creams, body lotions, moisturisers and cleansing gels. In the studies it is always in such a care product. If you look in your family bathroom, there may be products there whose list includes Niacinamide – usually printed small among many other names. For the researchers another question is more important than the origin: what happens when the substance comes onto the skin? That is exactly what they look at in their experiments.

3. What Do the Researchers Investigate?

There are many papers on Niacinamide. Researchers have counted 162 in total. In 55 of them people tried something, and in 25 of them there was a comparison. A comparison works like this: one group receives a cream with Niacinamide, the other a very similar cream without it. Afterwards the researchers check whether the skin changed differently in the two groups. What were these investigations about? Mostly about the skin. For example: does the skin change with age? Do dark spots become paler? Does a treatment of pimples improve when Niacinamide is included? In one small initial study Niacinamide was applied for a certain skin condition. To be honest: much is still open. In some studies Niacinamide was together with other substances in the cream. Then it is hard to say afterwards which substance did what. Other studies were small. Researchers need more trials to become more certain.

4. An Experiment to Think About

Imagine you want to know whether a new cream really changes something. Just trying it yourself is not enough: after one week you do not know whether the cream worked or whether it was chance. Here is a thought experiment. You give 100 children two pots. One contains the cream with the substance, the other a cream without. Nobody is allowed to know which pot they received. After a few weeks you check whether you notice a difference. Do you see how difficult that is? That is why research takes so long. And that is why researchers write down exactly how they did it, so that others can check it.

For adults and professionals: the detailed page on Niacinamide.