BEAUTY BAY | SKINHIT SOOTHING SERUM WITH NIACINAMIDE AND COPPER

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…

Beauty Bay | SkinHit Soothing Serum With Niacinamide And Copper

I haven’t experienced much from the accessible brand, Beauty Bay. So I thought the Beauty Bay SkinHit Soothing Serum with Niacinamide and Copper was a good place to start. They’re a democratically priced brand similar to The Inkey List, The Ordinary and Good Molecules — with a whole range of serums and moisturizers under $10.

Most popular are the $9.50 Skinhit Brightening Serum with Vitamin C and Peptides and the brand’s hilariously named Thirst Class Rich Moisturiser with Oatmeal and Oat Lipid, also $9.50.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Beauty Bay’s SkinHit Soothing Serum with Niacinamide and Copper reminds me very much of the OG affordable Niacinamide serum, The Ordinary’s Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%.

Like that popular serum from The Ordinary, the Beauty Bay version has a 10% concentration of the multi-benefit active.

There’s also Zinc PCA in the Beauty Bay formula — in a rather tight INCI list. It’s as if the marketers at Beauty Bay said, “What can we do to improve on The Ordinary’s Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%?” Trust me, those conversations go on in marketing departments at big beauty companies every day. I know because I’ve been in them!

But even with its 10% Niacinamide, Zinc PCA, and affordable price point, I wouldn’t say that Beauty Bay’s SkinHit Soothing Serum with Niacinamide and Copper is an improvement on The Ordinary’s Niacinamide serum. It’s just different.

What makes it unique is both good and bad. To start, there’s an added mineral. In addition to Zinc PCA, Beauty Bay infused their serum with Copper PCA. That’s intriguing to me. Minerals can and do help to balance hydration levels in the skin. And both zinc and copper can be anti-inflammatory and even help to mitigate oil production. If you’re oily, you’ll love that.

What Is Copper PCA and Is Copper PCA Good for Skin?

According to the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team, Copper PCA is “a synthetic skin-conditioning agent composed of the copper salt of PCA (Pyrrolidone Carboxylic Acid).”

That’s not saying much coming from the experts. I was curious, so I went digging and came across a cool piece on the benefits of copper in skincare on Into the Gloss titled, Ingredient To Know: Copper.

Today's ingredient, copper, is nowhere near new. In fact, for thousands of years—all the way back to the ancient Egyptians—the element has been heralded as a “fountain of youth' of sorts. Now with the science to prove it, copper has more recently blossomed into the realm of modern skincare as the heavy hitter in various night creams, SPFs, serums, and hair restoration, mostly thanks to biochemist Dr. Loren Pickart.
Pickart was studying the effects of human aging when he discovered that the main difference between younger blood and older blood was that the healthier “youth' activity found in the former was caused by a small copper-binding peptide called GHK. “Things change with age, you know?” Pickart said. “Further studies established that GHK-copper improved the healing of skin wounds. As for cosmetic skincare, studies on women in their 50s found that GHK-copper improved skin elasticity, firmness, and thickness while reducing wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, and photo-damage.” It can also be found in copper PCA, to combat inflammation. Yes, these are effective selling points.

PRODUCT REVIEW: THE ORDINARY NIACINAMIDE 10% + ZINC 1% – BEST NIACINAMIDE SERUM FOR ACNE-PRONE SKIN

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So while the blend of Copper PCA and Zinc PCA can help address issues unique to oily skin, Beauty Bay’s SkinHit Soothing Serum with Niacinamide and Copper is no “skin hit” for sensitive skin. Regrettably, the last two ingredients in the INCI are Tea Tree Leaf Oil, and Peppermint Oil — both fragrant plant oils and proven skin sensitizers.

So, if you’re sensitive, this one’s not for you. If you’re not so sensitive that your skin can’t handle a small amount of essential oils, then you may enjoy SkinHit Soothing Serum with Niacinamide and Copper.

SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the Beauty Bay SkinHit Soothing Serum With Niacinamide And Copper for $8 here.

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