Niacinamide or Vitamin C: Which One Should Have Your Heart?

                                                     By Desire Uba (TIA'M Editor Crew) 

We love our multi-tasking ingredients like Vitamin C and Niacinamide, just like everyone else. If you’ve ever wanted to try skincare, you should have heard of these two powerful ingredients. 

However, you may not be sure which one is best for you - or if you just may be able to use both. Let’s figure that out, shall we?

Niacinamide and Vitamin C are both vitamins, which are essential molecules for our body’s health and immunity. 

Niacinamide, also known as Nicotinamide, is a form of Vitamin B3, which should not be confused with nicotinic acid, another form. Vitamin C is ascorbic acid, with various derivatives found in many skincare formulations.

While both can be gotten from food, this medium means that all your other organs mostly get the nutrient before your skin- if it ever does. Applying them to your skin helps them to work more directly and effectively on skin cells, giving the effect you want.

Do Niacinamide and Vitamin C have anything in common?

Yes, they do!

• Apart from being vitamins, they are potent antioxidant molecules. This is a superb quality that every skin type needs because they fight against free radicals (bad things that can damage your skin cells, leading to faster ageing, hyperpigmentation, impaired skin barrier, and even skin cancer) that are produced in the body due to sun exposure, ageing, smoking, pollution, and stress.
• Both of them cannot be produced by the body by itself. They need to be taken in via diet or supplementation.

Vitamin C - The Fighter

This is available in many forms, but the most potent form is the L- Ascorbic Acid, which is present in My Signature C Source. This is also formulated with ingredients to hydrate and reduce the risk of irritation on your skin.

Vitamin C is one of the most scientifically studied ingredients, and some of the benefits for your skin include:

• Reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles: Collagen is the most abundant protein in your skin which contributes greatly to keeping it firm, hydrated and elastic. However, as we grow older, our ability to produce it reduces which leads to the formation of fine lines and wrinkles. Vitamin C is one of the few ingredients that have been shown to help build collagen in the deeper layers of the skin, keeping it younger-looking and healthy.
• Protects against sunburn and photodamage: Vitamin C reduces skin cell/ DNA damage by free radicals from UV rays exposure. These rays (which is (are) mostly due to prolonged sun exposure and tanning beds) reduce Vitamin C content in the skin so increasing this by topical application bumps up antioxidant protection.
• Maintains skin hydration: Vitamin C may activate the production of skin lipids which reduces trans-epidermal water loss, thus maintaining the skin’s hydration levels and reducing the risk of dehydration.
• Anti-acne effects: Vitamin C has anti-inflammatory and wound healing properties that could help in dealing with breakouts effectively, especially in mild to moderate acne.
• Boosts UV protection: While Vitamin C is not sunscreen when used with sunscreen, it works to improve the sun-protective effects the UV- filters provide. 
• Reduces hyperpigmentation: It inhibits the activity of tyrosinase, which reduces melanin production. This makes it a suitable treatment for dark spots on the skin.

Best For:

• Ageing skin
• Dehydrated skin
• Normal to dry skin

Skincare Pro Tip: Use a few drops of your Vitamin C serum in the morning after cleansing, and before moisturizer/ sunscreen because it could boost the good work your sunscreen does 

(protecting you from the harmful UV rays of the sun.)

Niacinamide - The Soother

There’s a high chance that you have heard about this skincare ingredient. It is known to perform many functions including:

• Reduction in erythema and skin blotchiness: Skin inflammation that leads to erythematous rash and reddening may be alleviated by the topical application of niacinamide because the skin barrier is strengthened, so the skin is less irritated and more soothed.
• Anti-aging benefits: Boosts collagen and epidermal protein production. This keeps the skin hydrated, well-structured and elastic, reducing the appearance of physical signs of ageing like fine lines and wrinkles.
• Promotes skin barrier function: Niacinamide maintains the epidermal structure, skin health, and promotes barrier function, which is essential for all skin types, including sensitive/ eczema-prone skin.
• Brightens the skin: Hyperpigmentation is one of the few ingredients that have been proven to safely brighten dark spots/ areas on the skin, which could be by inhibition of melanosome transfer from melanocytes to keratinocytes.
• Antioxidant effect: While building skin cells, Niacinamide has also shown proven antioxidant properties by protecting human skin cells from reactive oxidative species produced due to exposure to UV light. 
• Oil control and acne management: Acne is caused by an interaction between bacteria, dead skin cells and oil that clog the pores of the skin. Sebum consists of lipids that form the oil found on the skin. When present in excess, sebum could clog pores thereby leading to acne. Niacinamide could reduce the overall quantity of oils in sebum. People with oily skin would also find this beneficial as it reduces the excessive sheen that could form on the skin. Niacinamide also helps with reducing the risk of acne formation and lesions.

Get the benefits of this powerhouse in our TIA’M Vita B3 Source, which contains 10% Niacinamide and 2% Beta-Arbutin to provide you with all of these as well as skin brightening and hydrating effects.

Best For:

• Combination-to-oily skin
• Oily, acne-prone skin
• Textured skin
• Sensitive skin

As always, we advise that you do a patch test first before incorporating any active ingredients into your routine!

Vitamin C and Niacinamide are some of the most studied ingredients that have proven to be great for obtaining healthy skin. They are safe to use together but you could decide to alternate them. We recommend using Vitamin C in the morning and Niacinamide in the nighttime.

Which of these do you use or would you like to use next?