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Azelaic Acid and Niacinamide: Benefits & How to Use Together

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Azelaic acid can be used along with niacinamide in the same skincare routine. They both can actually work together to help with redness, dark spots, acne, rosacea, melasma, and skin texture.

Azelaic acid and niacinamide together.

Below you will find details on niacinamide and azelaic acid, and how to use them together.

Niacinamide

Niacinamide is basically Vitamin B3. This is a versatile ingredient that can be found in a number of products from cleansers, serums, and moisturizers to sunscreen. It is easy to formulate and that is the reason you will often see it in so many products. 

Niacinamide is a well-studied ingredient and can do a whole number of things for our skin. In most studies, a concentration of up to 5% was used.

Benefits

  • It can enhance the skin barrier by stimulating the formation of ceramides in our skin.
  • It can decrease redness and erythema by its anti-inflammatory properties.
  • It can decrease sebum production (great if you have excessively oily skin).
  • It can be beneficial for rosacea.
  • It is an antioxidant.
  • It can help with hyperpigmentation and dark spots as it inhibits the transfer of melanin pigment from melanocytes to surrounding skin cells.
  • It can improve the texture of our skin and refine our pores.
  • It can improve fine lines and wrinkles.
  • It can decrease the yellowish appearance of skin aka sallowness.

Side effects

Niacinamide is a very well-tolerated ingredient so most people don’t have any issues when using this ingredient.

However, it can cause a burning sensation if your skin barrier is damaged.

Many niacinamide serums use very high concentrations of this ingredient which can cause redness and irritation. If that’s the case, try using a product with a lower concentration of niacinamide.

Azelaic acid

Not to be confused with hydroxy acids, azelaic acid is an entirely different ingredient. 

Hydroxy acids like alpha hydroxy acids – glycolic acid, lactic acid, and beta hydroxy acids – salicylic acid, are exfoliating acids that require a lower pH and these work mainly by exfoliating our skin.

Azelaic acid acid on the other hand is a dicarboxylic acid that works best at a pH close to that of our skin pH. It is produced naturally by the yeast (Malassezia furfur) which lives normally on our skin.

It can be found in cereal grains like wheat, barley, and rye. Just like niacinamide, it doesn’t have one or two but several benefits for our skin.

At a concentration of 15%, it is used for the treatment of rosacea. In most over-the-counter products, you will find it at a concentration of less than 15%.

Benefits

  • It is antibacterial and can target Cutibacterium acnes which causes acne (with no issue of antibacterial resistance development which can happen with topical antibiotics).
  • It can decrease inflammation.
  • It prevents hyperkeratinization, thus reducing the thickness of the stratum corneum, the top layer of the skin.
  • It can reduce redness and erythema and hence can be useful for post-inflammatory erythema and rosacea. 
  • It can be beneficial for hyperpigmentation/dark spots as it inhibits the enzyme tyrosinase which makes the melanin pigment.
  • It has antioxidant properties and can protect our skin from free radicals and oxidative stress.

Side effects

When someone first starts using azelaic acid, it can cause burning, stinging, redness, and itching. However, over time these symptoms improve. Applying it over moisturizer can also decrease these side effects. 

Which is better?

From the above discussion, it’s clear that both azelaic acid and niacinamide overlap when it comes to their skin benefits. Both are:

  • Anti-inflammatory.
  • Antioxidants.
  • Decrease redness.
  • Fade dark spots.
  • Useful for acne.
  • Useful for rosacea.
  • Improve skin texture.
  • Great for sensitive skin.

How do they differ?

  • Niacinamide can improve the skin barrier and hence the hydration of our skin.
  • Niacinamide is often well tolerated as compared to azelaic acid.
  • The antibacterial property of azelaic acid can be beneficial for acne.
  • Azelaic acid prevents hyperkeratinization which can decrease acne breakouts.

So, overall, niacinamide may be easier to tolerate and include in a skincare routine compared to azelaic acid. However, azelaic acid may be a better choice if your main concern is acne.

Can you use them together?

If you are thinking about choosing one of these ingredients over the other, the good news is you can safely combine azelaic acid and niacinamide in your skincare routine to get full benefits from both sides.

They both work close to the pH of our skin. So, there’s no pH incompatibility issue. In fact, you can find some products which have both these ingredients together.

Benefits of using together

1. Both niacinamide and azelaic acid can decrease inflammation in the skin. This can be great for reducing post-inflammatory erythema, redness, or rosacea.

2. Azelaic acid can decrease skin sensitivity and niacinamide can improve the skin barrier. This combination can be great for rosacea.

3. Azelaic acid can prevent the clogging of pores by dead skin cells and prevent acne while niacinamide can balance oil production. This is a win-win situation for someone with acne.

4. Azelaic acid can inhibit the enzyme tyrosinase which makes melanin pigment while niacinamide can prevent the transfer of melanin pigment to our skin cells. Thus by combining these ingredients, we can target hyperpigmentation from multiple angles. This can result in faster fading of dark spots/melasma.

5. In addition, both these ingredients are considered safe to use during pregnancy.

How to combine them

If you have never used azelaic acid and niacinamide before, it’s better to start with one ingredient first. 

I would start with niacinamide as it is much better tolerated. Once you are sure your skin goes along well with niacinamide, you can add azelaic acid.

Both niacinamide and azelaic acid can be used twice daily.

So let’s see how to use them together in the same skincare routine.

The foremost thing is that these ingredients can be layered over each other in any order without issue. 

What I mean is that if you have two serums, one with niacinamide and the other with azelaic acid – you can use either of them first.

However, if we take a look at the niacinamide serums available – most of them are watery in comparison to azelaic acid products which are more creamy or thicker in consistency. 

So, in most scenarios, one can use niacinamide serum first followed by azelaic acid serum. This can actually be beneficial for someone with sensitive skin, as niacinamide serum can act as a buffer.

If your moisturizer has niacinamide, then you can use azelaic acid first followed by the niacinamide moisturizer.

Pilling issue with azelaic acid

Azelaic acid is hard to formulate so you will often find pilling issues when using azelaic acid products. So if that happens, it’s best to use azelaic acid over your moisturizer. 

Burning and stinging with azelaic acid

A lot of people get a burning or stinging sensation from azelaic acid, in such cases use azelaic acid after moisturizing.

[I have used azelaic acid for several years and above are the main issues I faced when using an azelaic acid product].

Related: Best azelaic acid products

Summary

Niacinamide and azelaic acid can be safely combined in our skincare routine. Using them together can in fact enhance some of their skin benefits.

These are some products that already use this combination. Alternatively, you can include two separate products to include these ingredients in your routine. 

If you are new to these ingredients it’s best to introduce them one at a time.

References

Disclaimer: This blog post is for information purposes only and does not replace medical advice.

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