If there was one skin care product that i could click my fingers and make everybody in the world use in their skincare routines it would be a retinoid don’t get me wrong we all love a good moisturizer and would i even be a dermatologist if i wasn’t obsessed with recommending spf sunscreen but even with that being said the retinoid would still be top of my list why do i say that and more importantly why are you not using one yet when you watch all the way through to the end of this video i guarantee you that i would have persuaded you to give this ingredient a try i’m also going to give you my specific retinoid product recommendations at the end of the video so make sure you stick around for those my name is dr syed aka real skin doctor and i’m a medical doctor specializing in dermatology who’s based in new york city for those of you new to the channel it’s my aim to guide you through the confusing and crazy world of dermatology and skin care using some real scientific evidence if you’ve had enough of watching morning skincare routines from people who have no idea what they’re doing then subscribe to the channel for a voice you can trust on skin care i always like to give my viewers information here using real life stories from my own clinical experience because i think that’s the best way of communicating information in a way that makes it easier to relate to so i’m going to tell you about my patient we’ll call her agatha who came to see me asking about retinoids broadly speaking the video is going to follow the structure you see here in the timestamp so if you’re really keen to get ahead to one specific part feel free otherwise kick back and join me in the clinic so i get to come to the clinic one day and says i have to say it you’re looking good today i know agatha let’s get to the point he says okay dr saying i’ve been hearing so much about these products called retinoids every beauty blogger everything i see online is talking about retinoid retinoid retinoid what are these things and should i be using them in my skincare routine broadly speaking retinoids is actually an umbrella term given to a series of compounds that are either derived from or related to vitamin a i can’t believe i just had vitamin i’ve said vitamin my entire life been in america for four years and now it’s vitamin a the retinoids can include for example retinols which is the alcohol version retinols which are aldehydes or retinoic acids which are acids the reason you’re more likely to have heard of retinols more so than retinals or retinoic acids is because retinols are the alcohol version which are slightly weaker and which are commonly found in over-the-counter products and aren’t restricted by prescriptions almost any beauty brand you can think of will have a retinol containing product somewhere in their liner retinoic acids for example are often stronger and tend to be prescription only in most countries retinoids are actually a very well studied compound and we know down to the nuclear level exactly how they affect our skin firstly anti-wrinkle we know that when retinoids bind to specific types of retinoid receptors in the nucleus they promote the formation of more collagen and elastic fibers in our skin collagen and elastic fibers are what make our skin look plump and firm and on the flip side loss of collagen and elastic fibers with age is what leads to our skin sagging and therefore us having wrinkles now i know everything in the world claims to be anti-wrinkle but retinoids truly our anti-wrinkle and we have scientific proof for it the investigators took one group of patients and gave them topical retinoids to use on their skin and took another group of patients and gave them a placebo which is basically just a moisturizer cream of some kind which didn’t have a topical retinoid in there they took biopsies meaning small samples of skin from both groups at the beginning of the research paper and then a couple of months in they took repeat biopsies of the same areas of skin took those little samples of tissue and stained them using some special inks to identify the collagen fibers in each sample you can see in this research paper as well as many others that there is clearly undeniably more collagen fibers in the group which use retinoid products as compared to those which use a placebo so this is evidence-based anti-wrinkle anti-aging effect show me any of these mumbo jumbo seaweed mineral jojoba avocado cumin products any of those that can show me similar effects on biopsy proven samples they will not be able to show you that same evidence next let’s talk about pigmentation a problem which i’ve talked about in some of my other videos we can get hyper pigmentation or dark patches from a bunch of different causes mainly things like inflammation or things like melasma in each case there are collections of melanin granules which are the pigment in our skin and they’re clustered together causing these dark patches what retinoids do is they actually cause dispersion of these pigment packets meaning that over time you notice that the dark patch seems to fade away retinoids also encourage cell differentiation and cell turnover which means that you get an overall exfoliating effect continuously when you use tropical retinoids without having to use these aggressive physical scrubs that can actually do more harm than good one of the most common types of patients that i normally prescribe or recommend retinoid products for is my acne patients sebum is the name of the oil created by the glands in our skin when we produce too much sebum or if it’s too thick this can lead to blackheads whiteheads and generally acne breakout retinoids reduce sebum production which is just one of the ways it’s actually really helpful for fighting acne finally the anti-skin cancer effect so anybody who studied cancer in science lessons in the past will probably remember the overall concept of cancer being that a cell doesn’t differentiate the way it’s supposed to and it ends up becoming a clone that rapidly expands retinoids actually encourage differentiation of cells and also cause cell death to early skin cancer cells so let me get this straight there’s an ingredient out there that is anti-wrinkle helps with dark spots prevents acne flares rejuvenates your skin and treats skin cancer and you’re not using it yet i don’t know what i’m gonna do with you guys okay this all sounds amazing but there has to be a catch right otherwise the government should just be putting this into all of our water and you’re right there are certainly some downsides and there’s a very good reason why the government isn’t putting this in all of our water we’re going to focus on the downsides of topical retinoids right now by far far far and away the most common downside of using a topical retinoid is dryness and irritation this is also the main reason why a bunch of my patients end up stopping using retinoids i’m going to show you later in this video exactly how you should be using your retinoid products to help minimize these kind of effects but retinoids do dry the skin as i mentioned earlier they reduce oil production in the skin therefore it’s no surprise that you end up with dry feeling skin afterwards they also increase skin turnover which means that when you start using them you’ll notice the peeling effects almost straight away this is especially a problem if you’re someone who has dry skin and it’s also most noticeable if you use the retinoids too close to your under eyes or in your folds between your nose and your cheeks because those areas are more sensitive the other really important downside to bear in mind when talking about retinoids is that you absolutely should not be using them if you are pregnant for anyone who’s been on accutane before and if you’re a female you know that we have to test you for pregnancy a billion times while you’re on it we have to test you twice before you’re allowed to start it and we have to bring you into the office every month to get tested for a negative pregnancy test because it really is that damaging to a potential baby if you were to get pregnant on accutane it can cause problems with the baby’s brain eyes and limb development as well as many other things and ultimately it just absolutely must be avoided we know all of these side effects for a fact when it comes to the tablet versions of the retinoids and because of that it’s important to even avoid the cream versions because there is always some degree of systemic absorption when we apply things to our skin it’s not clear cut that retinoid creams will also cause these kinds of effects but we really don’t want anybody running this kind of experiment by themselves because the downsides really are so damaging so yes do not use any form of tablet or cream version of retinoid while you are pregnant when it comes to the benefits of anti-wrinkle effect helping with pigmentation helping minimize acne you start to notice all of these things by around about four weeks and onwards when it comes to the dryness flaking and irritation you’ll probably notice that by day two so there’s a little bit of a disconnect here which means that you really have to slug it through the hard times in the first couple of weeks before you’ll notice any of the benefits but just remember real skin doctor telling you that right now and make sure to persevere because the benefits will be worth it for you and this is something i mentally prepare all of my patients for i said i got to listen to me you are going to want to stop this after one or two weeks because you’re not going to notice an improvement and you’re going to think it’s irritating and you’re going to think you have an allergy to it or something like that but you have to persevere because everyone goes through this phase and in the long term it is worth it so let me give you the tips that i gave to agatha and to all my other patients whenever we talk about topical retinoids the first principle start low and go slow you’re going to hear me repeat this motto in a lot of videos especially when we’re talking about different cosmetic treatments like chemical peels filler botox lasers the key thing when it comes to perfecting your skin is that it’s a marathon not a sprint if you’re impatient and you try and do everything quickly you can end up having really negative side effects which will put you off things or even cause lasting damage to your skin so start low and go slow even with your retinoids so when you’re first starting out a retinoid product i actually want you in the first week to only use it every other night that’s the first part of starting low is that you’re not even going to use it every night to begin with in terms of the amount you’re going to use it’s going to be the size of a green pea on your finger for your entire face now most people myself included when i first started using retinoids i put on a green pea-sized amount and i was like come on you got to be kidding me a green piece for the whole face let me put a green pea here and a green pea here and a green pea on my forehead i got a big forehead so i did that and then the next morning i woke up peeling like a snake the corners of my nose were peeling off my face was red and felt tight i had overdosed on a retinoid product now that i’ve told you that you don’t need to make the same mistake so yes truly stick to that a green pea-sized amount for your entire face the next thing is i want you to mix it with a moisturizer before you apply it to your face this is an area of some controversy online with people always asking can i apply both a moisturizer and a retinoid is it going to affect the way it works luckily for everyone scientific studies have been done into this and have shown that mixing a retinoid with moisturizer does not reduce its effect and it does reduce the side effects meaning the dryness and irritation so i want you to take your favorite moisturizer that you use on your face for me that’s survey moisturizing lotion and i want you to put both the retinoid in your hand and then the survey moisturizing lotion in there as well and to just mix it together you can then apply that combination through your entire face avoiding the area immediately under your eyes you want to spread it as a thin film on your entire face and you don’t want to rub it in aggressively until it’s all disappeared because chances are you’ve wiped most of that off with your hand i recommend doing all of this as a bedtime routine and the reason for that is that depending on the retinoid product you’re using some of them are actually inactivated by sunlight meaning that if you put it on first thing in the morning and walked outside depending on the product you’re using it could inactivate the ingredient meaning you’re not going to get the beneficial effect so i recommend not taking the chance with whichever product you’re using and just making it a habit to apply it at bedtime the next piece of advice i think it’s really important when you’re using a topical retinoid already to think carefully about what other products you’re planning to put on your face i strongly recommend avoiding things like a salicylic acid or a benzoyl peroxide being used at the same exact time that you put on the retinoid the reason is twofold one some retinoid products again are inactivated by certain acidic products like benzoyl peroxide and so you don’t want to be using those at the same time just in case it’s inactivating your retinoid secondly even if you’re using something which is stable for use along with benzoyl peroxide using at the same time is really likely to enhance the irritating and drying effect so if you are going to use either of those things benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid make sure you’re using them only in the morning and then i recommend using the retinoid product at bedtime if you’re using a gentle facial cleanser of some kind do that first before you apply your retinoid obviously because otherwise you’ll just wash off your retinoid the next thing is even though we’re mixing the retinoid with the moisturizer when we’re applying it it’s important to use that moisturizer throughout the day so make sure you’re also moisturizing in the morning and midway through your day because the retinoids are gonna dry out your skin and you’re more likely to continue using them regularly if you’ve built moisturizers into your schedule after one week of applying it every other night like this if you haven’t had any really bad drying or peeling then it’s safe for you to increase it to once per night continue with this have faith and know that you have to carry on for at least four weeks before you’re likely to see any of the beneficial effects so you’re in this for the long haul if you’re using this for a specific purpose like acne then try it out for at least two months and if at that point you’ve noticed no difference in the frequency of your acne outbreaks go back to your dermatologist and they can increase the strength of the retinoid product you’re using chances are you’re going to be starting with an over-the-counter cosmetic product which contains retinol as i mentioned retinol is weaker but they do still work and this study for example shows that retinols perform better than placebos but it also shows that retinoic acid products perform even better than retinols do because they have a stronger effect your dermatologist can guide you through the latter of exactly the strength of retinoid products you’re using and what might be best for you next but i just want to let you know that those options do exist those of you who’ve watched my top over-the-counter product recommendations which i hope is all of you right will know that my top recommendation in the retinoid categories is differing gel now why is that it’s because it contains something called adapylene 0.1 percent which is a third generation retinoid which has been proven to be effective in a lot of the ways i mentioned earlier as well as being much better tolerated than some other retinoids meaning that it’s known to cause less irritation redness and peeling the best part for me is that it’s so easily accessible and so reasonably priced you can get at most drug stores and you can also buy it on things like target online or amazon you can get an amount that will last you one or two months for around about 10 to 15 dollars which is amazing value now if you’re a little bit fancy and you don’t like things that look more medical or basic like those drugstore products there’s also a laroche per se version of the adapting which i also find to be really effective and popular amongst my patients and finally there’s this neutrogena retinol product which is the alcohol version of a retinoid a little bit more gentle and it combines it in a really hydrating base because it has hyaluronic acid in there so it means that it’s really nice and gentle for people who are new to retinoid products i have provided links for every product i talked about in this video in the description below but don’t get too bogged down into the specifics of each of these products find one that’s easy and accessible for you i would prioritize reputable companies that know how to make a safe product rather than these kind of small mom-and-pop startups where you don’t really know if they’re being regulated in the way that you would want the next thing i do after finding this reputable company is i’d find one that has a price point that i can live with and then i’ll just go with that one and try it out so this just leaves the question did i persuade you to add a retinoid into your skincare routine.
Thank you reading!