PRODUCT REVIEW: SYNERGIE SKIN VITAMIN B 13% ESSENTIAL NIACINAMIDE SERUM - BEST NIACINAMIDE SERUM, BEST BRIGHTENING SERUM
Synergie Skin | Vitamin B 13% Essential Niacinamide Serum
This product review was originally part of my blog article titled, Niacinamide Serums to Get Your Complexion Going and Glowing Ss21 from Naturium, Strivectin, Alpyn Beauty and More. You can catch the full piece here.
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I can’t light up my complexion with a subzero cryofacial from my favorite new age spa, the Kollectiv NYC, every day. As much as I would love a daily cryofacial, I don’t actually need one. A good brightening treatment is essential for igniting and prolonging your glow — and I use one in each of my skincare routines, twice daily.
If it isn’t already, a well-formulated Niacinamide serum should be your skin’s best friend, too. Of course, Niacinamide isn’t the only powerful active that has the ability to brighten your complexion. There are numerous skin brighteners including, of course, tried-and-true Ascorbic Acid, or Vitamin C.
And while the benefits of topical Vitamin C are broad, including antioxidant defense, collagen building and skin brightening, Niacinamide has the power to do even more. Yes, even more!
Among the most important benefits of the form of Vitamin B are brightening, pore-clarifying, antioxidant defense, sebum control and smoothing a rough skin texture. As I’ve said, there’s simply nothing as effective — and as broadly beneficial for optimizing the health of your skin that a damn good Niacinamide serum.
My most recent deep dive into all-things Niacinamide was published as 2020 came to a welcome 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 — some of which continue to be staples in my daily skincare regimen.
NIACINAMIDE IS THE GAME CHANGER YOU NEED TO DEFEND AGAINST SKIN DAMAGE AND MAINTAIN OPTIMAL SKIN HEALTH
If you aren’t employing a Niacinamide serum in your AM and PM skincare routines, you’re missing a vital opportunity to up your game and defend your skin against the aging forces of time, stress and the environment. And, a little daily pore maintenance goes a long way toward pushing your skin health forward.
Niacinamide has played a central role in my own skin health maintenance for about five years now. My journey began with what I consider to be 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 in the world today. Have a tried every anti-aging serum in the world? Of course not; I don’t have to. I’ve already found it!
No joke, I go through two bottles of 10% Niacinamide Booster every month.
PRODUCT REVIEW: PAULA’S CHOICE 10% NIACINAMIDE BOOSTER – THE BEST NIACINAMIDE SERUM
What Is Niacinamide and What Does Niacinamide Do for the Skin?
There’s a comprehensive article on Niacinamide by the skin experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team, titled simply, How Niacinamide Helps Skin. 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.
WATCH VIDEO REVIEW OF
THE BEST NIACINAMIDE SERUMS FOR CLOGGED PORES AND A BRIGHTER COMPLEXION
ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE
So, halfway through 2021, I’ve discovered several new Niacinamide serums that stand out to me and that I consider solid formulations, any of which would step up your skincare game were you to incorporate one into your routine.
Let’s take deep dive into one of the best Niacinamide serums for SS21…
Synergie Skin | Vitamin B 13% Essential Niacinamide Serum
I just discovered this cool clinical science brand from Down Under a few weeks ago. Hey, if I can’t get to Australia, Australia can come to me! Synergie Skin is a range of nerdy, high-potency products in brown glass pharmaceutical bottles with names like XCell B, TriDration B and ÜberZinc — one of the uber-coolest mineral sunscreens I’ve discovered over the past year.
Synergie Skin’s ÜberZinc will definitely be a part of my next sunscreen article, one I anticipate publishing in the fall, around October. (Stay tuned!)
Come to think of it, some of the best sunscreen innovations are coming out of Oceania. This past winter I reviewed one of those — the Skinnies Sungel SPF 30. Based in New Zealand, Skinnies’ waterless sunscreens are truly exceptional and among the best sunscreens for face in the world!
PRODUCT REVIEW: SKINNIES WATERLESS SUNGEL SPF 30 – THE BEST ANTI-AGING SKINCARE IS SUNSCREEN
With really well-formulated skincare that’s certainly pro-skin health, Synergie Skin seems to have nailed it. Nothing could intrigue me more than Synergie Skin’s Vitamin B 13% Essential Niacinamide Serum.
With my undying devotion for the Paula’s Choice 10% Niacinamide Booster, it’s a high bar. While I’m not saying I’m ready to give it up for the Synergie Skin Vitamin B 13% Essential Niacinamide Serum, it’s certainly a contender as one of the best Niacinamide serums I’ve come across. But it has its flaws, unlike Paula’s pitch perfect serum.
The brand’s Vitamin B 13% Essential Niacinamide Serum is a relatively uncomplicated formulation, with just about 15 ingredients; regrettably, the final five of which are drying alcohol, caramel color, Citronellol, Geraniol, Linalool — three fragrant components of sensitizing essential oils.
All of those are in negligible amounts in the formula, however, leaving a whole ton of goodness — starting with the 13% Niacinamide indicated in the product’s name. Thirteen percent is a solid level for delivering powerful antioxidant protection to the skin as well as the brightening and pore-clearing that Niacinamide is best known for.
But there’s more to the Synergie Skin Vitamin B 13% Essential Niacinamide Serum than that.
Ingredient number one is, of course, water. But, amusingly, it’s not just the plain old water you’d find in most water-based serums, including the Paula’s Choice 10% Niacinamide Booster. It’s “purified Australian rain water”! I don’t know what the benefits of that are, if there even are any, but it sure sounds fun.
More seriously are the inclusion of a veritable cocktail of pro-skin health actives, including a trio of moisturizers and hydrators — Panthenol (Vitamin B5), Glycerin and Sodium PCA. There’s also a handful of botanical extracts and even replenishing phospholipids — a type of fat composed of fatty acids, glycerol and phosphate. (Lecithin is a phospholipid.)
Aside from the exceptional level of Niacinamide, what intrigues me most about the formula is its phenomenal texture. It’s slightly oily, slightly water and perfectly layer-able, making it a pleasure to use. And I know that because I look forward to using it, the real indicator of a product’s appeal for me.
I’ve only experienced a handful of products from the brand and if Synergie Skin’s ÜberZinc and Vitamin B 13% Essential Niacinamide Serum are any indication of what the brand has to offer, count me in, Synergie Skin!
SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the Synergie Skin Vitamin B 13% Essential Niacinamide Serum for $85 here.
WATCH VIDEO REVIEW
THE BEST NIACINAMIDE SERUMS FOR CLOGGED PORES AND A BRIGHTER COMPLEXION
ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE
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MY 2021 VITAMIN C PICKS + THE BEST VITAMIN C SERUMS TO BRIGHTEN UP THE COMPLEXION!
ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE
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RETINOL, RETINOIDS, RETINOIC ACID PART ONE: THE BEST RETINOL SERUMS AND BEST RETINOL CREAMS
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The Ingredient List of the Alpyn Beauty Wild Nettle & Niacinamide Firming Serum:
so|h, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil emo 0 0, Glycerin 
sii|h 0 0, Capryloyl Glycerin/Sebacic Acid Copolymer, Niacinamide cci|sb|aacne|h, Urtica Dioica (Nettle) Extract so, Nephelium Lappaceum Leaf Extract, Squalane sii|emo 0 1, Sodium Phytate chel, Sodium Hyaluronate sii|h 0 0, Superoxide Dismutase aox, Lactic Acid exf|h|buff, Sodium Levulinate, Potassium Sorbate pres, Lysolecithin emu, Sclerotium Gum vc, Xanthan Gum vc, Curcuma Longa (Turmeric) Root Oil perf, Pullulan, Diheptyl Succinate emo, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate aox|sb, Tocopherol (Mixed) aox 0-3 0-3, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil emo 0 0-2, Arctostaphylos Uva Ursi (Bearberry) Extract aox|sb, Taraxacum Officinale (Wild Dandelion) Extract, Vaccinium Membranaceum (Huckleberry) Extract, Prunus Virginiana (Chokecherry) Extract, Salix Alba (White Willow) Extract so, Borago Officinalis (Borage) Flower Extract emo, Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Leaf Extract surf, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract so|aox 0 0, Arnica Montana (Arnica) Flower Extract 
perf, Calendula Officinalis (Calendula) Flower Extract so|aox|perf, Lactobacillus/Punica Granatum Fruit Ferment Extract exf, Maltodextrin, Silica vc, Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate amic|presThe Ingredient List of the Naturium Niacinamide Serum 12% Plus Zinc 2%:
cci|sb|aacne|h, Propanediol solv|h, Glycerin sii|h 0 0, Zinc Pca aacne|h, Polyacrylate Crosspolymer-11 vc, Sodium Hyaluronate sii|h 0 0, Tocopheryl Acetate aox 0 0, Caprylyl Glycol h|emo, Dimethicone emo 0 1, Hexylene Glycol solv|emu|perf|surf 0-1 0-2, Xanthan Gum vc, Glyceryl Polyacrylate, Potassium Sorbate pres, Citric Acid buff, Phenoxyethanol presThe Ingredient List of the Algenist Algae Niacinamide Moisture Veil:
sii|h 0 0, Isododecane emo|solv|perf, Dimethicone emo 0 1, Isostearyl Isostearate emo 1 4, Niacinamide cci|sb|aacne|h, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Neopentyl Glycol Diheptanoate emo, Polyglyceryl-6 Polyhydroxystearate emu, Polyglyceryl-6 Polyricinoleate emu, Magnesium Sulfate vc, Sodium Chloride vc, Parachlorella Beijerinckii Exopolysaccharides, Phloretin aox, Fucus Spiralis Extract emo, Tetraselmis Chui Extract emo, Spiraea Ulmaria Extract so, Hydrolyzed Algin, Sorbitan Oleate Decylglucoside Crosspolymer emu|surf, Disteardimonium Hectorite vc, Polyglycerin-6 h, Xanthan Gum vc, Triethyl Citrate perf, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Extract, Eucalyptus Globulus Leaf Extract perf, Bergamot/Grapefruit/Orange/Tangerine Fruit Ferment Extract aox, Mica col, Citrus Limon (Lemon) Fruit Extract, Ethylhexylglycerin pres, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Phenoxyethanol pres, Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891) col 0 0The Ingredient List of the StriVectin Super-B Barrier Strengthening Oil with Vitamin B3 and Prebiotics:
Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Shea Butter Ethyl Esters, Isopropyl Palmitate, Squalane, Myristyl Nicotinate, Passiflora Edulis Seed Oil, Plankton Extract, Bacillus Ferment, Rosa Canina Fruit Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Oil, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Extract, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Extract, Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Quercus Suber Bark Extract, Oak Root Extract, Panthenyl Triacetate, Glyceryl Caprylate, Glycerin, Naringenin, Caprylhydroxamic Acid, Fragrance/Parfum, Tocopherol, Citric Acid, Hydroxycitronellal.
The Ingredient List of the Synergie Skin Vitamin B 13% Essential Niacinamide Serum:
cci|sb|aacne|h, Glycerin sii|h 0 0, Panthenol (Vitamin B5) so|h 0 0, Caprylyl Glycol h|emo, Glycerin sii|h 0 0, Sodium PCA sii|h 0 0, Pelargonium Capitatum (Rose Geranium) Leaf Extract, Polysorbate 80 emu|surf 0 0, Phospholipids sii|emo, Aroma (Natural), Hydroxyethylcellulose vc, Alcohol (Grain Derived) amic|solv|vc, Caramel (Natural Colour) col, Citronellol perf, Geraniol perf, Linalool perf
