Confused.... is retin a good or bad for mature skin
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free skin care · Fri Jan 26, 2018 3:42 pm

Hi
Ive got quite wrinkly skin and lost a fair bit of elasticity
Ive just got some retin a 0.025%. Ive put a small pea sized amount on my face tonight. Just seen tbe thread about retin a giving large pores and damaging skin. Not read tbe whole post but see a lot of people saying it has caused an awful lot of damage to their skin and made them look older. Is this tbe case. Should i avoid retin a. What about retinoid.... is tbis tbe same thing.

Is there something else i should be trying xxxxx

Fri Jan 26, 2018 5:40 pm

salster68 wrote:

Hi
Ive got quite wrinkly skin and lost a fair bit of elasticity
Ive just got some retin a 0.025%. Ive put a small pea sized amount on my face tonight. Just seen tbe thread about retin a giving large pores and damaging skin. Not read tbe whole post but see a lot of people saying it has caused an awful lot of damage to their skin and made them look older. Is this tbe case. Should i avoid retin a. What about retinoid.... is tbis tbe same thing.

Is there something else i should be trying xxxxx

Hi Sally,

The reason why you have seen a big thread about their skin being damaged by retin a is because it is very very strong with high potential for side effects (redness, irritation, peeling, etc)to name a few.

If you never used retinoid product before I would not recommend it, especially if it was not prescribed by a dermatologist.

I would instead try retinol serum, (mind you even retinol serum can be irritating). Retinol works in the same way as retin a but take much longer for the results. I would take the safer route and go with the retinol. There are retinol serums these days that are encapsulated and a lot more gentle then they were in the past as well, I would start with that before jumping on to the big guns. You could also try vitamin c products, peptides, EGFs, stem cells as they are also known to help with lines and wrinkles and anti-aging in general.

Trust me, its much better to be safe then sorry. Retinol and Retinoid does wonders for your skin and is scientifically proven but it is by no means the be all and end all to anti-aging skin care.

free skin care · Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:50 am

Aww thankyou Aimeloi. I dod realuse retin a was very strong and was going to use it one night a week for a while. Whst is a hood retinol serum.... ivr seen one from the ordinary??? Also do i use this all over my face and under eyes or would i look at an eye cream with retinol in it

Thankyou do much again xxxxx

Sat Jan 27, 2018 7:22 am

salster68 wrote:

Aww thankyou Aimeloi. I dod realuse retin a was very strong and was going to use it one night a week for a while. Whst is a hood retinol serum.... ivr seen one from the ordinary??? Also do i use this all over my face and under eyes or would i look at an eye cream with retinol in it

Thankyou do much again xxxxx

Yes, try the retinol serum by ordinary but again be careful because over the counter retinol serums can be potentially irritating to some people as well. Maybe try it every other day for start and for few weeks before applying it every night.

For the record, I have experienced irritation in the past from retinol serum and although it was not bad irritation, it did take a week or so for the irritation to go away. So starting it slowly is always best and if there is any sign of irritation I would stop and try again at less frequency.

Yes I think an eye cream with retinol in it would be better, as the skin around the eyes are much thinner and using ordinary's retinol serum maybe too much for under the eye.

Lastly to use a good moisturizer something soothing while using retinols and also sunscreen during the day. Smile

Big hugs.. xxx

free skin care · Sat Jan 27, 2018 8:36 am

Aww thankyou again. Ill look at retinol serums and a separate eye cream with retinol in it. Seems like im looking for a needle in a haystack lol. Im a bit clueless.
I will only start it off very very slowly. Thankyou again for your help xxxc

Sat Jan 27, 2018 9:19 am

My pleasure Sally, Smile

Feel free to send me private message if you need to contact me. I am no way a skin care expert but I do have strong interest in skin care as many people here on EDS and maybe my own experience could help.

XXX

free skin care · Tue Jan 30, 2018 12:41 am

Retinol is much, much less potent than tretinoin (Retin A) and the results are also much less noticeable. For mature skin, time is of the essence so I suggest using a retinol for 1 or 2 months then a low strength tretinoin .025% for a while to work up to higher strengths. There are many good videos on YouTube - for example Hot N' Flashy goes into detail on how she uses tretinoin without irritation.

Tue Jan 30, 2018 1:29 am

I was concerned about some mild signs of photoaging of the skin (surface wrinkles, uneven texture), blackheads on my nose and enlarged pores. Retin-A has done wonders for my skin: it's texture is more even and although the blackheads and enlarged pores aren't completely gone, they've improved considerably.

free skin care · Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:50 pm

Retinol, Retinaldehyde (Retinal), Retinoic Acid were extensively used in the 80s for acne and by accident, it was noted they happen to make the skin look younger, BUT NOT WITHOUT CAUSING SIGNIFICANT TRAUMA to the skin to start with such as flakey, red, inflammation and marked increase sensitivity to the sun. The breaking-in process is often painful and traumatic. Note the first two R's listed above require chemical conversions in the skin first before they can illicit skin response via the retinoic receptors in the skin hence they are more "gentle".

Fast tract to 2018, we have since discovered PEPTIDES which consist of fragments of amino acids in different combinations to trick the skin to REPAIR and RENEW. Note the word Repair, cause damage in the case of Vit A derivatives. We now have NIACINAMIDE AND MYRISTYL NICOTINATE, both derivatives of Vit B3 that are shown to correct the 7 signs of ageing without any downtime. And something else more mysterious but worth noting: STEM CELLS FROM SWISS APPLES

I have closed the chapter with Vit A because as I get older, my skin and bones do not heal as fast. I only have to see how much longer a bruise or mosquito bite or pimple scarring takes to heal to know. Now, I go with products that are gentle that will heal, renew and repair, containing peptides, B3 and Stem cells.

Another benefit with advancement in time: Laser treatments. 10-15 years ago, an equivalent Laser procedure such as Q-switch YAG would cost upward of $1000. Now, $100. These treatments target at lesions such as broken capillaries and pigments but leave the surrounding skin intact. And because laser goes much deeper than any cosmetic where collagen is produced, it stimulates collagen and shrink pores.

But if you must try Vit A derivatives for yourself, consider ENCAPSULATED RETINOL such as RETISOME. Or Strivectin which pairs Retinol with Nia 114, their proprietary ingredient that speeds up the conversion of retinol to retinaladehyde to retinoic acid by 20 fold, hence a lesser amount of retinol is used yielding a gentler product.

Note Vit A derivatives do not work by Concentration, but rather, BIOLOGICAL EQUIVALENT measured in international units (IU). What this means is, it's the AMOUNT of Vit A that hits the skin that will determine the absorption/ results. So, you can buy a 1% product and mix it 50/50 with another moisturiser in your hand just before applying it to produce a half strength, or 25/75 to produce a quarter strength, so on. If you find what you are using now is too strong, simple mix it with another moisturiser. On an economic stand point, buy the strongest strength avail and dilute it accordingly. As you may have noticed, there isn't much difference in price between a 0.5% or 1% strength product from the same manufacturer BUT you are getting double amount.

Do not mix Retin-A over the counter from a Chemist with water based moisturiser. That's a different matter. I would steer away from Retin-A. There are far better options with elegant formulas that take into consideration the overall interaction of Retinoic acid in the skin in combination with other ingredients such as hyaluronic cid, vitamin E, D-panthenol, etc

Sat Jun 06, 2020 12:13 pm

Retinol or Retin A can often dry out skin.

This is not to say it doesn't benefit your skin when used in conjunction with a high quality moisturizer.

You may consider alternating days in which you apply retin A to your skin until your skin has developed sufficient tolerance to the product (which will happen).

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