How to successfully start a Retinoid?

 A retinoid is a multitasking ingredient that builds new collagen in the skin. It thickens the skin, peels away dead skin cells, fights acne, unclogs pores, fades dark spots, etc. If you know all about this, then why are you still not using it?

As a beauty blogger, I have been hearing everyone saying “I cannot use retinoid on my skin because it’s way too irritating. But most of the time, they are absolutely wrong. You can tolerate a retinoid, you’re just not using it correctly. Or you may not be using the right retinoid for your unique skin type. But those days are long gone for you once you start following these 5 easy steps.

“Do take benefit of this educational roadmap to get more youthful and better skin through retinoid”

5 steps to successfully start a Retinoid

Step # 1- Answer “Is a retinoid right for you”?

If you ever go on for a survey, you may come across some group of people who should absolutely not be using a retinoid. So if you are trying to conceive, you should not be on a retinoid and the restriction of use is also for a pregnant woman and a breastfeeding mother. Beyond that, some conditions like active eczema should not be on a retinoid. I strongly recommend you get clearance from your medical doctor or provider before starting retinoid, even over-the-counter forms to make sure it’s right for you.

Step # 2- Pick your retinoid product

This is the step when most people get so overwhelmed with all the options and terminology and price points and just knowing which to pick. Let me make it super easy for you to understand and conquer this step. So the simple step is following my simple diagram. Trust me this is easy!

A retinoid is a catch-all term for the topical vitamin A skincare ingredient. There are two main categories of retinoids, i.e. prescription retinoids and over-the-counter retinoids. Prescription retinoids include things like retinoic acid, tretinoin, Retin-A tezeretine, and taserac. Similarly, over-the-counter retinoids include things like retinol, retinaldehyde, retinal esters like retinal palmitate, and adapalene.

Adapalene is an over-the-counter retinoid that is actually a drug and it is FDA regulated and is not just a cosmetic like the others. The main difference between these two categories is that prescription products are generally in the retinoic acid form which means they do not have to go through any major conversions to work on your cells to do its job.

Now compare this to the over-the-counter forms which need to undergo one or more chemical changes to turn into retinoic acid and then do its job on the skin cells. Adapalene is different which works on a slightly different pathway and doesn’t need to be converted like the others. So for example retinol gets converted to retinaldehyde which is then converted to retinoic acid. These all end up as retinoic acid and affect the same type of change.

But the over-the-counter products need to do a little extra work to get to the usable form.

So what does all that mean?

My interpretation of this chemistry is that the prescriptions will be stronger and the over-the-counter forms will be weaker. It is important to understand that weaker does not mean ineffective.

For retinoids, weaker can actually be good things. The stronger prescription forms are more likely to cause a retinoid dermatitis or irritation on the skin which makes people quit using them.

Over-the-counter forms are easier to tolerate and still work. One can even make an argument that the weaker forms of retinoids work better than prescription because you can use them more often and long term. This is because they are less irritating and more tolerable.

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