TL;DR
A solo niacinamide is a SKU, not a strategy. Single-active serums dominate the budget skincare market because they are easy to formulate, easy to brief, and easy to sell. They also leave compounding biological work on the table. Elelaf will not ship a niacinamide-only serum because our editorial position is that real skin work happens at ingredient combinations, not at single isolated actives. The honest tradeoff is that we are giving up an obvious revenue line.
I get the same email about twice a month. Why does Elelaf not have a 10 percent niacinamide serum? The Ordinary has one for seven dollars. CeraVe has one. Naturium has one. The category is hot, the margins are real, and the customer demand is there. Building one would be easy.
This piece is the honest answer. We have considered the niacinamide-only serum at three different formulation meetings over the past two years. We have decided not to ship it three times. The reasoning is editorial more than commercial, and I want to write it out properly.
What niacinamide actually does, briefly
Niacinamide is a form of vitamin B3. The skincare-relevant mechanisms include reducing sebum production at 2 to 5 percent concentration, supporting ceramide synthesis in the stratum corneum, reducing transepidermal water loss, modulating the inflammatory response, and providing modest depigmenting effects on post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation through inhibition of melanosome transfer.
A 2020 review by Bissett in the British Journal of Dermatology documented these effects across more than 30 clinical studies. The ingredient is genuinely useful. The data is solid and replicated. This is not a piece arguing against niacinamide.
Why niacinamide-only serums sell so well
The commercial case is straightforward. Niacinamide is inexpensive at scale (under $50 per kilogram). It is stable at pH 5 to 7, which is easy to formulate. It does not require sophisticated delivery systems. The clinical claims are well-supported and easy to write. The product brief writes itself: “10 percent niacinamide, with zinc, for oily and combination skin.”
The category is a textbook example of how the budget skincare market sorts itself. The Ordinary launched its 10 percent + zinc 1 percent in 2017 at $7. It became one of the best-selling skincare products globally. Every major retailer pulled a niacinamide-only product onto shelf within 18 months. The pattern is now mature.
From a product manager’s perspective, this is the easiest possible launch. Low risk. Established demand. Defensible claims. The temptation for any new brand is real.
Why we decided against it three times
The argument has three parts.
First, the biological case. Niacinamide works better in combination than alone. The barrier-repair claim is more credible when niacinamide is paired with ceramides and panthenol. The sebum-control claim is more credible when paired with zinc and a humectant. The depigmenting claim is more credible when paired with vitamin C or a tyrosinase inhibitor. A solo niacinamide is leaving most of the real work on the table for marketing simplicity.
Second, the routine case. A consumer using a niacinamide-only serum typically also uses a moisturizer, often a serum for hydration, and possibly a separate vitamin C. The niacinamide-only product is asking the consumer to do the formulation work that the brand should have done. The slow-skincare position is that we should ship products that do more work per step, not less.
Third, the editorial case. We position around the microbiome and around routine consolidation. A niacinamide-only serum does not advance that position. It is an off-brand SKU that would dilute the editorial logic to capture revenue from a category we do not believe is the right product category for our reader.
The honest version of all three arguments is that we would be slightly better off financially with the serum and slightly worse off editorially. We have decided the editorial cost is the higher one. Reasonable people can disagree.
What we ship instead
The Microbiome Glow Serum, our hero, contains niacinamide at 4 percent alongside a postbiotic complex, panthenol, and a fermented hydrating extract. The niacinamide is doing its standard work and amplifying the microbiome-support mechanisms of the postbiotic complex. The two ingredients are doing more together than either does alone.
The BioCell Renewal Cream contains niacinamide at 3 percent alongside ceramides, cholesterol, and free fatty acids. The barrier-support mechanism is the combination, not the niacinamide alone. The product replaces a niacinamide serum plus a ceramide moisturizer in a typical routine.
The trade-off is honest: our products cost more than a $7 single-active serum. The compounding biological work justifies the price, but only if the reader values that work. A reader who specifically wants a $7 niacinamide-only serum is not our customer, and we are okay with that.
The contrarian section: niacinamide-only serums are not bad, they are just minimal
I want to be careful here. This piece is not saying The Ordinary niacinamide is a bad product. It is a competent, honest, well-priced product. Many readers benefit from it. The Ordinary’s pricing model is also a public good in the industry; it has put effective active ingredients within reach of budget-constrained consumers.
What I am saying is that a brand whose editorial position is routine consolidation, microbiome focus, and multi-active formulation cannot also ship a single-active SKU without contradicting itself. The Ordinary’s editorial position is exactly the opposite of ours. They ship single actives at minimum effective dose with clinical naming. That is a defensible position and they execute it well. We cannot execute their position because it would erase our position.
If you want a niacinamide-only serum, buy The Ordinary’s. If you want a routine that consolidates multiple actives in fewer products and centers on microbiome resilience, buy ours. The two are not in direct competition because the editorial logic is different.
What the request actually tells us
The reader asking for a niacinamide-only serum is often a reader who:
Has read enough skincare content to know niacinamide is well-studied and wants to add it to their routine specifically. The active-by-active approach has been the dominant skincare education for a decade.
Is comparing prices against budget brands and wondering why ours is higher when the active list looks similar. The answer is that the active list is not similar in the formulation work; the niacinamide in our serum is not doing the same job as the niacinamide in a solo serum.
Wants a serum specifically rather than a moisturizer or a hybrid product. The category preference is partly habit; many readers find that the multi-active moisturizer or the multi-active serum does the same work in one product.
All three of these are reasonable, and we lose some readers to the budget single-active option. That is the price of the editorial position.
FAQ
So if I wanted niacinamide, would your serum work? Yes, at 4 percent concentration, which is in the documented effective range for most of the niacinamide mechanisms. The Microbiome Glow Serum delivers the niacinamide benefits alongside microbiome support.
Why 4 percent and not 10 percent? The clinical evidence on niacinamide plateaus around 4 to 5 percent for most mechanisms. The 10 percent products are not delivering proportionally more benefit; they are using the higher number as a marketing signal.
Will you ever ship a single-active product? Unlikely, given our current editorial position. If we did, it would be for an active that requires isolation for stability or pH reasons, not for category-following reasons.
Are you saying The Ordinary is a bad brand? No. The Ordinary executes a different editorial position well. Their pricing transparency and single-active focus serve a real audience. We serve a different audience.
Can I layer your serum with The Ordinary niacinamide? You could, and it would not harm you. The combined niacinamide dose would be around 14 percent, which is above the plateau of measurable benefit. The honest answer is that the additional product would be cost and time without clear additional benefit.
For related reading, see the microbiome over brightening piece and the no influencer marketing editorial.
Tag hub: More on microbiome-focused formulation
Sources
Bissett DL. Niacinamide: a B vitamin that improves skin appearance. British Journal of Dermatology, 2020. Draelos ZD. Niacinamide in topical skincare. Dermatologic Therapy, 2009. Levin J et al. Comparison of cosmeceutical ingredients. Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology, 2016.