Niacinamide: From 'Filth Parties' to Skincare Holy Grail
The Untold History of Your Favorite #GlassSkin Ingredient
Hello, I’m Adeline. I write Ginseng & Tonic to deliver a straight shot of beauty & cultural analysis to your inbox most Sundays. Subscribe for deep dives into the intersections of skincare and culture from someone fed up enough with the industry that she start formulating her own products.
You’ve probably opened this Substack because you’ve heard plenty about how niacinamide is an it skincare ingredient. And you’ve probably seen countless Tiktok skinfluencers and internet listicles extol its benefits: moisture barrier strengthening, skin texture refining, skin elasticity boosting, hyperpigmentation fading. But how much do you really know about what niacinamide is, or how it skyrocketed to skin ingredient cult status?
Believe it or not, the story of your favorite vitamin B3 derivative begins in a place far removed from the Instagram world of aesthetic, glistening serums and ASMR unboxing videos.
Niacinamide’s history actually begins in a disturbing series of “filth parties,” a series of unconventional medical experiments involving the ingestion of urine, poop and dried blood (really). Keep reading to learn how these experiments were critical to unraveling the mystery behind a devastating disease—and which ultimately paved the way for the cult skincare ingredient to take centerstage in the beauty world today. You’ll never look at your favorite serum the same way again.
Filth Parties and the Discovery of Niacin
Dr. Joseph Goldberger somberly scraped skin scabs, stool and urine samples mixed them with flour and cracker crumbs, forming them into small, doughy pills. He then presented them to his party guests, who one by one, resolutely choked down these pills.
It was 1916, and this disturbing scene was taking place at one of Dr. Goldberger’s “filth parties.” At these parties, Joseph Goldberger fed scrapings of filth—urine, scabs, feces—from his patients into little ingestible pills to his guests to prove his scientific thesis correct and his detractors wrong.
At stake was his assertion that pellagra — a common Southern disease that would cause diarrhea, dementia, dermatitis (skin rashes) and death — was not an infectious disease, but caused by a nutritional deficiency of niacin, or Vitamin B3. Pellagra at the time was a common disease in the South, and would cause diarrhea, dementia, dermatitis (skin rashes) and death.
2 years earlier in 1914, Goldberger was tasked with finding out the cause of pellagra by the U.S. Public Health Service, a government agency devoted to epidemiology. Back then, poor Southerners got the majority of their calories from ground meal, molasses and dried meat—not fresh foods. Goldberger suspected that this limited diet, with no fresh foods, was the cause of pellagra.
Dr. Goldberger’s argument stirred up deep resentment from his Southern counterparts. Soon, Southern doctors and politicians were accusing him of “crucifying” pellagra victims. For these Southern people, Goldberger’s argument that this was caused by a nutritional deficiency was indicting their way of life. They accused him of spreading propaganda about pellagra and faking his experimental results.
Goldberger got so fed up in response that he ended up doing something so drastic no one could refute it — eight filth parties in the spring of 1916, with 17 different guests, mostly fellow doctors, all of whom ingested scrapings of scabs, stools and urines of pellagra patients. Goldberger exclaimed: “If anyone ever got pellagra that way, we… should certainly have it good and hard! We just feasted on filth.”
Six months after the parties ended, none of the partygoers showed any signs of pellagra, making it clear that pellagra was not an infectious disease, but one caused by a nutritional deficiency.
Unfortunately, while Goldberger suspected the deficient compound was a vitamin, he did not live to discover which vitamin it was. In 1937, biochemist Conrad Elvehjem finally isolated the molecule responsible for pellagra — niacin, or Vitamin B3.
And here’s when your favorite skincare ingredient makes its entry: Vitamin B3 is also known as Niacinamide.
Niacin and Niacinamide
Both niacin and niacinamide are members of the vitamin B3 family.
Niacin (also known as nicotinic acid) is a B-complex vitamin with a carboxylic acid group attached to a pyridine ring. Structurally, that means it has the formula C₆H₅NO₂, featuring a –COOH (carboxyl) functional group.
Niacinamide (also called nicotinamide) is the corresponding amide form of niacin. It has the same pyridine ring, but instead of the carboxylic acid group, it has a –CONH₂ (amide) functional group.
Both niacin and niacinamide are hydrosoluble molecular forms of Vitamin B3, which is essential for cell physiological processes. They share identical vitamin functions, but diverge in terms of their pharmalogical and toxicological profiles.
While niacin is often used to treat internal issues such as cholesterol regulation and prevention of pellagra, niacinamide is more commonly used for dermatological issues.
From Filth Parties to Trending Skincare Ingredient
Niacinamide took a pivotal step towards its current cult status in the 1970s, when dermatologists began experimenting with it to address pellagra-related skin issues—most notably the dermatitis caused by flaking, irritation and rashes.
Because high doses of niacin can causes significant flushing, doctors were intrigued by niacinamide’s gentler profile for treating skin irritations. In 1976, research showed that topical niacinamide could help alleviate pellagra-type dermatitis.1 2 years later, a separate study pairing oral and topical niacinamide to combat psoriasis found it even outperformed steroid creams.2
By the end of the 2000s, dermatologists had identified that niacinamide could:
improve skin barrier function (2000);
effectively lighten hyperpigmentation (2002);
effectively treat inflammatory conditions like acne and psoriasis (2004),
improve yellowing, hyperpigmentation and wrinkling within aging skin (2004).
Suddenly, this mere vitamin was a bona fide skincare ingredient star.
Large CPG brands you’d recognize — Oil of Olay, Neutrogena, Pond’s, Nivea — then started offering formulations with niacinamide in the 2000s. Niacinamide’s effective profile and modest price point easily pivoted to it becoming a star with the 2010s indie beauty boom.
Now, just about every single skincare brand now touts a niacinamide product, meaning the ingredient has now secured a permanent place in your social media feed.
But How Much Niacinamide Do You Need?
How much niacinamide should you expect — or want — in your favorite serum or moisturizer?
How much is too much? And what percentage delivers the best result for your specific skin concerns?
I’ll break it all down in my next installment, arriving 2 Sundays from now:
Borrow Everything I Know About Formulating With Niacinamide
Interested in How I Formulate with Niacinamide?
Check out all the Sabbatical Beauty products with niacinamide
Want more now? Check out:
How to Read an Ingredient List Like Someone Who Makes Skincare
From Literature to Lotions: How I Went from Comparative Literature PhD to Skincare Formulator
In January 1976, Comaish et al. applied a topical preparation of niacinamide to a patient who experienced pellagra induced by treatment with the drug isoniazid. The areas treated responded rapidly, with almost complete resolution of the rash.
In 1978, Herschel S. Zackheim used a niacinamide analog paired with oral niacinamide to treat psoriasis. This treatment outperformed steroid creams.
Omg! I need to sit with this information! Thanks!