FIRST AID BEAUTY | FACIAL RADIANCE NIACINAMIDE DARK SPOT SERUM

This review was originally part of my blog article titled, New Niacinamide Serums from First Aid Beauty, Glossier and Beauty Bay to Brighten a Dull Complexion. You can catch the full piece here.

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If you’re looking to light up your complexion each day, Niacinamide should be your best friend. Sure, there are numerous active ingredients that have the power to brighten skin – among them the multiple forms of Vitamin C.

But most of the best brightening serums and face creams on the market today contain Niacinamide. There’s simply nothing as effective — and as broadly beneficial for optimizing the healthy of your skin.

In fact, one of my latest product discoveries for brightening the complexion and fading dark marks and hyperpigmentation is powered by upwards of nine brightening actives. Nine!

The Topicals Faded Serum for Dark Spots & Discoloration is infused with Niacinamide, Tranexamic Acid, Azelaic Acid, Alpha-Arbutin, Glutathione, Kojic Acid, Licorice Root Extract, Melatonin and Turmeric Root Extract — in that order. Yes, Niacinamide is the first ingredient in the formula, at the highest concentration — for a reason.

Niacinamide is the real game changer. The form of Vitamin B3 is perhaps the most under-appreciated of all skincare ingredients. It happens to be the most extraordinary and versatile, with the broadest range of skin benefits, including: antioxidant protection, clarifying and unclogging pores, retexturing the skin’s surface layer, strengthening the skin barrier and, yes, brightening the complexion.

My most recent deep dive on Niacinamide was published as 2020 came to a close. Titled Niacinamide Is the Game Changer You Need to Defend Against Skin Damage and Maintain Optimal Skin Health, the piece featured five of my favorite Niacinamide serums.

NIACINAMIDE IS THE GAME CHANGER YOU NEED TO DEFEND AGAINST SKIN DAMAGE AND MAINTAIN OPTIMAL SKIN HEALTH

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If you aren’t employing a Niacinamide serum in your daily skincare routine, you’re missing a vital opportunity to up your game and defend your skin against the aging forces of time, stress and the environment.

I’ve been using some form of Niacinamide in my own daily routines both AM and PM for about five years now. My journey began with what I consider the OG Niacinamide serum, the Paula’s Choice 10% Niacinamide Booster. With a 10% concentration of the active, it’s hands down the best anti-aging serum available today.

PRODUCT REVIEW: PAULA’S CHOICE 10% NIACINAMIDE BOOSTER – THE BEST NIACINAMIDE SERUM

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What Is Niacinamide and What Does Niacinamide Do for the Skin?

I found a comprehensive article on the form of Vitamin B3 written by the skin experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team, titled simply, How Niacinamide Helps Skin. That doesn’t do it justice! They should have titled the article, Niacinamide is the Game Changer You Need to Maximize Your Skin Health in One Step.

An excerpt from the article:

How Niacinamide Helps Skin
Niacinamide is a skin care ingredient worthy of your attention and your skin will love you for using it. Among a handful of other amazing skin care ingredients such as retinol and vitamin C, niacinamide is a standout because of its versatility for almost any skin care concern and skin type.
As many of you know about us, but for those who don’t, the conclusions we make about any ingredient are always based on what the published research has shown to be true—and the research about niacinamide unanimously demonstrates how special it is. New research keeps showing it’s one of the most exciting skin care ingredients around.
What is Niacinamide?
Also known as vitamin B3 and nicotinamide, niacinamide is a water-soluble vitamin that works with the natural substances in your skin to help visibly minimize enlarged pores, tighten lax pores, improve uneven skin tone, soften fine lines and wrinkles, diminish dullness, and strengthen a weakened surface.
Niacinamide also reduces the impact of environmental damage because of its ability to improve skin’s barrier (its first line of defense), plus it also plays a role in helping skin to repair signs of past damage. Left unchecked, this type of daily assault makes skin appear older, dull, and less radiant.
Why You Should Use Niacinamide
As you might have gathered, we’re very impressed with all that niacinamide can do for skin when applied via skin care products like toners, serums, and highly concentrated leave-on treatments. Niacinamide is uniquely compatible with any of the products in your skin care routine, including those that contain retinol, peptides, hyaluronic acid, AHAs, BHA, vitamin C, and all types of antioxidants.
You can use multiple niacinamide-containing products in your routine, and it will still be non-sensitizing as this ingenious B vitamin is well tolerated by all skin types. It’s even suitable for use by those with sensitive or rosacea-prone skin.
Other helpful benefits of niacinamide are that it helps renew and restore the surface of skin against moisture loss and dehydration by helping skin improve its natural production of skin-strengthening ceramides. When ceramides become depleted over time, skin is left vulnerable to all sorts of problems, from persistent patches of dry, flaky skin to increasingly becoming extra-sensitive.
If you struggle with dry skin, topical application of niacinamide has been shown to boost the hydrating ability of moisturizers so skin’s surface can better resist the moisture loss that leads to recurrent dry, tight, flaky skin. Niacinamide works brilliantly with common moisturizer ingredients like glycerin, non-fragrant plant oils, cholesterol, sodium PCA, and sodium hyaluronate.
How does niacinamide help pores? Great question, although the answer here isn’t certain. Simply put, research hasn’t come to a full understanding about how this B vitamin works its pore-reducing magic, but it does! It seems that niacinamide has a normalizing ability on the pore lining, and that this influence plays a role in keeping debris from getting backed up, which leads to clogs and rough, bumpy skin. As the clog forms and worsens, the pores stretch to compensate, and what you’ll see is enlarged pores. By helping things get back to normal, niacinamide use helps pores return to their normal size. Sun damage can cause pores to become stretched, too, leading to what some describe as "orange peel skin". Higher concentrations of niacinamide can help visibly tighten pores by shoring up skin’s supportive elements.

With a full understanding of the indispensable benefits of Niacinamide to a healthy skincare routine, let’s take a look at three of my latest discoveries…

First Aid Beauty | Facial Radiance Niacinamide Dark Spot Serum

I have tremendous appreciation for First Aid Beauty. It’s simply one of the most effective skincare brands for people with sensitive skin. FAB uses tried-and-true, soothing ingredients like Colloidal Oatmeal, Oat Kernel Extract, Shea Butter, Feverfew Extract, even honey, at active levels.

And nary a drop of denatured alcohol, fragrance or fragrant plant oils in any of their products.

I love that about First Aid Beauty and it’s one of the reasons that I trust them to offer some of the best skincare for sensitive skin. How many times have I seen a product claim it’s ideal for sensitive skin only to find fragrance in the INCI? Too many!

Among my favorite of the brand’s products is FAB’s Ultra Repair Wild Oat Hydrating Toner — a milky hydrating toner with the consistency of heavy cream.

The Ultra Repair Wild Oat Hydrating Toner is infused with the kind of skin-replenishing actives that I love to see in any type of skincare product — but are somewhat unusual for a toner.

Beyond ingredient number one, water, there’s lots of goodness — including high levels of replenishing Squalane, anti-bacterial honey, and Honey Ferment Filtrate.

If you deal with sensitivity, the Ultra Repair Wild Oat Hydrating Toner was made for you! (Read my full review of it here.)

I’m also a fan of the First Aid Beauty Eye Duty Niacinamide Brightening Eye Cream — despite the fact that it’s housed in a jar.

Regrettably, once that super well-formulated cream inside is exposed to air (and potentially bacteria from your fingers!), it begins to break down. The solution is to use it up quickly — in a matter of four weeks. A good rule for products in jars is to use them within a month of opening. After that, much of the antioxidant (and anti-aging) potency has degraded and all that’s left is a moisturizing benefit. That’s not a bad thing, of course, unless you paid for more than moisture.

The Eye Duty Niacinamide Brightening Eye Cream is infused with a concentration of about 5% Niacinamide — a healthy dose of the antioxidant power brightener. The inclusion of a truly active level of antioxidant Niacinamide for the eye area is perhaps my favorite thing about Eye Duty. But, I also like its strikingly iridescent orangish hue that helps to instantly minimize the look of under-eye dark circles.

If you’re in the market for a clean eye cream to help brighten dull skin around the eyes and to help treat dark circles, the Eye Duty Niacinamide Brightening Eye Cream is an excellent option.

So, I was naturally excited to try out the brand’s new Facial Radiance Niacinamide Dark Spot Serum. I had long hoped First Aid Beauty would introduce a Niacinamide serum for sensitive skin.

Sure, there are other Niacinamide serums that sensitive skins can tolerate. But I don’t trust anyone but First Aid Beauty to get sensitive skin right. (Ahem, about that fragrance in the INCI’s!)

Like the brand’s Ultra Repair Wild Oat Hydrating Toner, the First Aid Beauty’s Facial Radiance Niacinamide Dark Spot Serum has a unique milky texture.

In fact, it’s the only Niacinamide serum I’ve come across like it. Most have a translucent pulpy or watery texture. The benchmark for pulpier Niacinamide serums is The Ordinary’s Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%; for watery ones, it’s the OG Paula’s Choice 10% Niacinamide Booster. They’re both light enough to layer, though my preference is for watery serums.

BRANDS I LOVE: FIRST AID BEAUTY AND THE BEST FACIAL SKINCARE FOR SENSITIVE SKIN

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FAB’s Facial Radiance Niacinamide Dark Spot Serum is a pretty solid brightening serum with perhaps a 10% concentration of Niacinamide. That’s paired with Licorice Root Extract, a botanical active popular in K-beauty formulations that also happens to be one of the more popular ingredients in traditional Korean Hanbang herbal medicine.

If you’re not familiar with Hanbang herbs and the philosophy behind them, check out this terrific article titled, What Is Hanbang & Why You Need It in Your Skincare Routine.

According to the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team, Licorice Root Extract has both skin-soothing and brightening properties. Notably, “one of its components, known as glabridin, is a potent antioxidant and skin-soothing ingredient, which is why licorice often shows up in products meant for sensitive, reddened skin.”

What Is Licorice Root Extract and What Does Licorice Extract Do for Skin?

Of course the star active in FAB’s Facial Radiance Niacinamide Dark Spot Serum formula is Niacinamide, but I think its sidekick Licorice Root Extract deserves a bit of attention, particularly given the brand’s focus on formulating for sensitive skin. I found an insightful piece on all things licorice on the Byrdie website titled, Licorice Extract Can Fade Dark Spots, According to Dermatologists.

In the quest for flawless skin, few things are as problematic as dark spots. Be they from sun damage (this is why it's so important to wear sunscreen daily, people!), hormonal conditions such as melasma, or a leftover reminder of massive pimples past, nothing mars complexion perfection as much as discoloration. When it comes to fading spots, hydroquinone is the often-recommended derm favorite, available both by prescription and in lower concentrations over-the-counter.
But there are numerous drawbacks to the highly potent ingredient, which is why more and more products now rely on natural alternatives.
One of the best among them? Licorice extract, which, incidentally enough, works in a very similar way to hydroquinone.
Here, dermatologist Rita Linkner, MD, of Spring Street Dermatology in New York City and dermatologist Jennifer Chwalek, MD, of Union Square Laser Dermatology in New York City explain exactly how this natural standout gets the job done, and what else you need to know about it. Read on and see spots run.
What is Licorice Extract?
Like the sweet treat, it all comes back to the licorice plant (scientific term: Glycyrrhiza glabra...we'll just call it the licorice plant). The root of the plant has been used for medicinal purposes for years, and is where black licorice the candy comes from, but it's also the source of licorice extract used topically for skin. This extract is filled with a variety of beneficial compounds, which do everything from deliver antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects to help fade dark spots.
It's this latter effect that makes it a choice ingredient in many skin-brightening products.

In addition to soothing Licorice Root Extract, First Aid Beauty’s Facial Radiance Niacinamide Dark Spot Serum contains healthy levels of other soothing actives, including Panthenol, Chrysanthemum Parthenium (Feverfew) Extract, Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf Extract, and Allantoin. Its milky texture just blankets the skin so well, whether you’re sensitive or not.

The serum’s only drawback is that it’s not entirely clean by the industry’s clean beauty standards. There are both Disodium EDTA and Tetrasodium EDTA in the formula. As with many “clean beauty” no-no’s, the jury is out on them. Disodium EDTA is used to stabilize a formula and enhance penetration of actives.

According to Credo Beauty, “Calcium Disodium EDTA, Tetrasodium EDTA, Trisodium EDTA, etc, are chelating agents, meaning that they bind to metal ions, which inactivates them. These ingredients are not linked to consumer health issues, but they might be a problem for aquatic life since they don't break down in the environment and have been found in waterways.”

If you’re not a strict clean beauty adherent and you struggle with sensitivity, FAB’s Facial Radiance Niacinamide Dark Spot Serum is a superb option and one of the best Niacinamide serums for sensitive skin.

SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Niacinamide Dark Spot Serum for $42 here.

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