1. Niacinamide reduces irritation

Niacinamide plays well with retinol. Whilst retinols treat photoaging, when starting a new retinol treatment, it’s not uncommon to have slight irritation and dryness as your skin adapts. By adding niacinamide to your regimen, you can lessen irritation and dry skin. Research suggest that pre-treating the skin with niacinamide before the application of retinol it will increase the skins tolerance towards retinol and reduce irritation. This is a direct result if how niacinamide improves the barrier function of the skin. 

2. They work at similar pH levels

One of the challenges when face when combining actives is knowing what pH levels ingredients work at. You could undermine a product’s effectiveness if you mix it with another skincare ingredient that works at a different pH level. Thankfully, both retinol and niacinamide work at similar pH levels, therefore there is little or no risk of one ingredient altering the pH of the other when applied together. 

3. Increased Skin Hydration

One of the most common issues reported is dry skin. When your skin cannot retain enough water, it begins to appear unevenly in skin tone, wrinkled, and dry. Retinol can increase skin hydration and Niacinamide can reduce the amount of water your body loses throughout the day by stabilizing your skins barrier function. Niacinamide increases the number of lipids (the outermost layer of the skin), helping your skin retain more water.

4. Increasing skin cell renewal

Another reason why you should use retinol and niacinamide together is to increase the rate of skin cell turnover. Dead skin cells can only be shed from the skin when the skin is properly hydrated. When its hydration is below the threshold level, it takes longer to shed dead skin cells, prohibiting skin cell renewal.

Our 0.25% Encapsulated Retinol Serum contains 4% Niacinamide for this very reason. 

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