Erum Ilyas

Dr ILYAS discusses Niacinamide and Vitamin C with Hero cosmetics!

Dr ILYAS discusses this topic with Hero Cosmetics

Yes, it is considered safe to use Vitamin C and Niacinamide together in the same product or applied at the same time as a part of your skin care routine.

How do these ingredients work?

As we age our skin becomes thinner and more susceptible to redness and inflammation. Niacinamide, also known as vitamin B3, works as an anti inflammatory to reduce redness and irritation in the skin.

Topical vitamin C does several things: it’s a potent antioxidant to prevent damaging our cells from UV and the environment, it inhibits an enzyme called tyrosinase in the skin to prevent hyperpigmentation, it is an anti inflammatory to help with redness in skin, and it can boost collagen production. It has been shown to improve the texture and appearance of skin overall. One note- even though vitamin C can improve pigmentation in the skin, I find the best results are from pigment as a result of sun damage. It’s mechanism of improving pigment is by blocking a specific enzyme that triggers hyperpigmentation. Although this can be a similar issue with acne scars, not all pigment  is the same and I do not always find that acne scars respond consistently as well to vitamin C compared to other options. 

Why do some caution against using them together?

There is an old study from almost 60 years ago that showed that when these two products were used together under unique circumstances involving extremely high temperatures led to the development of nicotinic acid that is irritating to the skin.  This will not happen in real world circumstances.

 

Can these two ingredients work together? 

There are some studies that show that using these two ingredients together can improve dyspigmentation.

 

Dr ILYAS discusses this topic with Hero Cosmetics

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