Concentration
5% is the daily, sensitive-skin workhorse. 10% carries the stronger oil-control and pore claim, but only works without complaints when the purity grade is right.
Private label · Pore & oil-control serum
Niacinamide Serum Manufacturing
Niacinamide is the most reordered serum in most ranges — and the one customers abandon fastest when the grade is cheap. We use low-nicotinic-acid material and hold the pH steady, so your reviews talk about smaller pores instead of red faces.
5–10% high-purity niacinamide
Low-niacin grade (<100 ppm)
Zinc PCA & arbutin add-ons
MOQ from 1,000 pcs
Specification
Technical baseline
Standard configuration below. Every line item is adjustable — this is a starting point, not a fixed recipe.
| Product type | Facial serum, leave-on, AM and PM |
|---|---|
| Key actives | Niacinamide 5–10% (low-niacin grade, <100 ppm nicotinic acid) · zinc PCA 0.5–1% · optional alpha arbutin 2% or azelaic acid derivative 5% |
| Format | Clear water-light serum, fast absorbing, no tack |
| pH | 5.5 – 6.5 — held inside this band to prevent hydrolysis to nicotinic acid |
| Viscosity | 500 – 1,500 cps (Brookfield, 25°C) |
| Appearance / odor | Clear, colorless, odor-free |
| Packaging options | 20 / 30 / 50 ml dropper, airless pump, refillable glass |
| Shelf life | 24 months unopened, 12 months PAO |
| MOQ | Flexible / Customizable — from 1,000 pcs in stock packaging |
| Lead time | Samples 7–10 days · production 30–35 days after approval |
| Documentation | COA, MSDS, PIF, raw material purity report, stability report, CPSR & MoCRA support |
What you can change
Four levers that decide how it sells
Purity grade
Low-nicotinic-acid niacinamide below 100 ppm. This single specification is the difference between repeat purchase and one-star reviews about flushing.
Combination actives
Zinc PCA for sebum control, alpha arbutin for tone, azelaic derivative for texture, panthenol to keep it comfortable on compromised barriers.
Texture by market
Southeast Asian buyers want water-light; European buyers read substance as efficacy. We tune viscosity and dry-down to the market you actually sell in.
The hard part
The complaint is flushing, and it’s a raw material problem
Niacinamide hydrolyses into nicotinic acid outside a narrow pH band, and cheap grades already contain it. Either way the customer feels warm and goes red. We control both variables and keep the paperwork to prove it.
- Low-nicotinic-acid niacinamide (<100 ppm), verified on every incoming lot.
- Incoming purity reports archived with the batch record, available to your distributor on request.
- pH held at 5.5–6.5 through mixing, filling and stability — the band where hydrolysis does not occur.
- Stacking compatibility check against the other acids in your range, so your routine advice is correct.
- Twenty-person sensory panel before a texture is signed off as approved.
Product questions
Niacinamide serum: what brands ask us
Two causes, and both are avoidable. The first is nicotinic acid already present as an impurity in low-grade niacinamide. The second is hydrolysis — if the formula drifts outside pH 5.5–6.5, niacinamide converts to nicotinic acid in the bottle. We specify low-niacin material and hold the pH band through production and stability, then archive the purity report with the batch.
You can, though most brands are better served selling them as two products. Niacinamide and L-ascorbic acid have different pH optima, and combining them usually means compromising one of them. If you want a single product, we typically use a stabilized vitamin C derivative so both actives sit comfortably at the same pH.
10% wins the click; 5% wins the second bottle. If your brand is new and reviews matter more than the claim, launch at 5% and hold 10% as a later SKU. If you are in an oily-skin or acne-adjacent category where buyers actively search for 10%, go straight there with the low-niacin grade and you will not pay for it in returns.
Before you order
Ordering, risk and reassurance
The questions that hold a first order back — answered plainly, including the ones most factories avoid.
For a stocked formula in a standard component, 1,000 pcs per SKU. A custom formula or a custom component starts at 3,000 pcs — the component supplier carries its own MOQ and the line has to be stripped and validated between runs, so short runs cost us more than they cost you. If you are testing a market, say so: we would rather book a first run into a shared filling slot than lose the project. Tell us the volume you are working with and we will confirm the lowest workable MOQ.
Two routes. A sample set of existing formulas goes out at cost, and the fee is deducted from your first bulk order. Or we develop to your brief: you approve a lab sample, then a pre-production sample made on the actual filling line, and only then do we book the run. You see what the line produces before you pay for the run. Ready to evaluate? Request a sample set and we will send the current set with the spec sheets.
Your approved sample becomes the reference standard. We keep sealed retains from that batch, the production batch is checked against it for color, odor, viscosity and pH, and every batch ships with a COA listing the results. If bulk deviates from the approved sample on any of those parameters, we remake it or credit it — that is written into the contract, not just said on a call. Ask for the sample-to-bulk comparison sheet and we will attach it to your quote.
The base formula is ours and stays shared. Everything you build on top of it — active combination and percentage, texture, fragrance, color — is yours: 24 months of exclusivity in the markets we agree in writing, and we will not sell that combination to anyone else in those markets. You can extend the term, buy the formula outright, or take the full documentation to another factory if you ever move production. Need exclusivity in a specific country? Tell us the market and we will put the term in the contract.
Yes — and we would rather see your market list before quoting than discover a missing document after production. Standard set: COA, MSDS, stability and compatibility data, microbiological and heavy-metal testing, plus the ingredient data your safety assessor needs. Market-specific: EU CPNP notification support, UK UKCPR, US MoCRA facility registration and product listing, and ASEAN notification for the specific country you sell in. Selling into more than one market? Send us the list and we will map the documents to each one before you commit.
25–35 days after sample approval for a stocked formula in a standard component; add 10–15 days if the component is custom or needs a new mould. You get a written milestone schedule — formulation, component arrival, filling, testing, release — with a photo update each week. If we miss a milestone for reasons on our side, we cover the difference to air-freight the balance so your launch date still holds. Have a fixed launch date? Share it with us and we will build the schedule backwards from it.
Every quote is itemised: formula and filling, component, secondary packaging, testing, documentation. Only two things move after quoting — component price (we re-quote only if resin or glass moves more than 5%) and artwork changes made after plates are cut. Mould and plate fees are one-off and stated up front; nothing is added at the end. Want the line-by-line breakdown before you commit? Request an itemised quote.
30% deposit to book the production slot, 70% against the bill of lading copy. T/T by default; L/C at sight or a platform-held payment for a first order if that suits your procurement rules better. Returning customers move to 30-day terms after three clean shipments.
Send us the batch number, photos, and — if you can — a third-party test within 30 days of arrival. Where the fault is ours we replace the goods or credit you, and we will tell you plainly what our own checks missed. We will not ask you to dispose of stock before we have seen the evidence.
The flushing people associate with niacinamide is almost always free niacin (nicotinic acid) in the raw material, not the niacinamide itself. We buy to a specification that caps free niacin at the low ppm level, verify it on the incoming COA, and keep the formula pH away from the range where hydrolysis creates more of it. That is why two niacinamide serums at the same percentage can behave very differently on skin.
Standard grades are 99% minimum with free niacin controlled, and we run 5% for daily-use positioning and 10% where the brand wants a stronger claim. Above 5% the texture and the tolerance profile both need work — we will tell you where the trade-off is rather than just printing a bigger number. Not sure which level fits your positioning? Send us your claim and price point and we will recommend one.
Send us your positioning brief
Tell us the claim you want to make and the market you sell in. We’ll recommend a concentration, a grade and a texture — costed, within 48 hours.
Also available
Other serum ranges
Serum ranges
Six serum categories, fully customisable
Every formula below is a working starting point, not a fixed recipe. Adjust the actives, the texture, the fragrance-free claim and the packaging — we re-work it until it sells in your market.
Brightening
Vitamin C Serum
10–20% · SAP / MAP / Ethyl Ascorbic Acid
Stabilized vitamin C derivatives with ferulic acid and vitamin E. Low-irritation, non-oxidising, water-light or anhydrous formats.
Anti-aging
Retinol Serum
0.25–1.0% · encapsulated retinol / HPR
Time-release encapsulated retinol for tolerability, or next-gen HPR for fast results without the flaking. Buffered with ceramides.
Hydration
Hyaluronic Acid Serum
1–2% · 4-molecular-weight HA complex
Multi-weight HA from 8 kDa to 1.6 MDa for surface and deep hydration, with panthenol and beta-glucan for barrier support.
Firming
Peptide Serum
3–8% · signal, copper & neuropeptides
Matrixyl 3000, copper tripeptide-1 or acetyl hexapeptide-8 systems. Cold-process filling protects peptide integrity.
Tone correction
Tranexamic Acid Serum
2–5% · TXA + alpha arbutin
A hydroquinone-free brightening system for melasma and post-inflammatory marks. Stable across pH 5–6.5.