Niacinamide 5% – what the percentage actually means

Most skincare brands publish which ingredients are in a product. Far fewer publish how much.

That is a shame, because the amount is often the only thing separating two products with nearly identical ingredient lists.

What the list says, and what it doesn't

The rules require ingredients to be listed in descending order by amount, down to one percent. Anything below one percent may appear in any order.

That gives you a rough idea. If niacinamide sits tenth in a list of forty names, you know there is less of it than of the nine above. But you do not know whether that means two percent or zero point zero five.

The percentage is information the manufacturer holds, and it rarely reaches the person buying.

Where niacinamide usually sits

Niacinamide, also known as vitamin B3, is one of the most widely used active ingredients in modern skincare. In finished products the amount usually falls somewhere between two and ten percent.

Higher is not automatically better. Some people find a high amount stings on sensitive skin, and the skin around the eyes is thinner than on the rest of the face.

Why we publish the figure

PDRN Eye Cream contains niacinamide 5 percent. That figure is on the packaging, on the product page and in this text.

We promise nothing about what the amount does. Claims like that are regulated, and they would be hard to substantiate for any one person anyway. But you get to know what you are buying, and can compare it with what you already have at home.

How to compare two products

Put them side by side and read where niacinamide lands in each list. If it sits higher in one, there is probably more of it there.

If the amount is printed on either of them, you have an actual figure to work with. If it is not, the order is all you get.

The full ingredient list is published on every product page here, in INCI format. It is the same text printed on the packaging. More on how to read it on the page About PDRN.