This is literally the only real anti-aging ingredient out there if there’s a product that says it’s anti-aging and doesn’t have retinol ignore it it’s false advertisement hey guys it’s Jen and if you’re new to my channel I love everything about beauty makeup skincare fashion and if you’re into that kind of stuff feel free to thumbs up the video and subscribe to see more of our videos today I am going to be doing a Basics 101 class of what retinol is how to use it my experience with it how it can help you achieve your skin care ideals I’m a little bit biased because this is probably the one skincare ingredient that has completely transformed my skin let me just tell you I was not one of those girlies blessed with naturally Perfect Skin I’m not one of those like Koreans that has glass skin no blemishes no pigmentation I’ve always always struggled with my skin from the minute puberty hit probably about 11 years old all the way up until my 30s which I’m in now it’s just been a long difficult Journey but I have to say retinol was the one most transformative ingredient that I absolutely swear by I try to recommend it to as many people as I can and I’m going to tell you guys why basically retinol is a vitamin a derivative and what it does is it increases the skin cell turnover because of that skin cell turnover it’s basically going to do two main huge things which is to get rid of acne because it like forces all of the deeper layers where that acne is living in kind of pushes everything out and then everything turns over quick enough that you don’t get new acne forming in the deeper layers of your skin and then it also helps with anti-aging and anti-wrinkling because once again you’re pushing that baby skin up faster over time you actually can have a lessening of fine lines and wrinkles which I love that there’s basically three different levels of vitamin A derivatives you have your highest strongest level which goes by the name Accutane that’s option only it’s for very very very severe cases of acne so that’s kind of its own category the main category I’m going to talk about using in this video is sort of the second middle tier which most people are going to be talking about tretinoin or adapaline so the brand name is called Retin-A it’s actually what I use and then there’s also different which is adapalene Retin-A has been around forever and ever and ever different has been around for quite a while but it’s actually newer than Retin-A it was sort of mainly developed to be a little bit better if you have more sensitive skin and they sort of marketed it to be more toward anti-acne however I would kind of argue to say that both of these products do the same thing it’s basically if you can get a doctor’s prescription you could go with tretinoin if you can’t just go with different I’ve actually used both Retin-A and differin and honestly I found them to be very very comparable in both how they were worked how they felt how I used them I think both of those are really really great options and then there’s also the sort of over-the-counter General retinol in a cream kind of lower tier products you’ll find this in a lot of cosmetic products a lot of like lower end skincare products even higher end skincare products if it’s not specifically a retinol cream if it just is an ingredient in like a moisturizer that’s that lower tier not to say that they’re not effective but you would have to use them for a very very very long time to actually see results however if you have extremely sensitive skin that is always there as an option if you don’t want to dip your toes in sort of the deeper waters and really get into like retinol use so now I want to talk about my personal experience with retinol I’ve actually gone through the process of getting onto retinol three different times in my life the first time it was when I had pretty severe acne in junior high 13 years old and I felt so self-conscious about my skin it was one of those situations where every time I went to a family get-together my aunts would be like oh you know you look like you have a diamond embedded in your head are you washing your face the amount of Shame and self-consciousness that I felt when all of my cousins had Perfect Skin with like no effort it just made me feel so horrible thinking that people thought that I was like physically dirty when I had tried everything under the sun available to a 13 year old to get rid of my acne I really tried all of the Oxy pads all of the salicylic acid the spot treatments the benzoyl peroxides and it just didn’t make a dent I don’t know if y’all can relate but acne can just be so detrimental to your self-esteem when I went on it for my acne I didn’t really have any guidance on how to use it it was actually a really difficult and painful process us because instead of like tapering onto it I just got like a quick one minute overview use this once a night use a pea-sized amount all over your face that’s it for like a good two or three months my skin started cracking like the Sahara Desert my face was so dry it basically felt like an open wound it was so painful painful to the point where I mean my my face was like bleeding it hurt so bad I had to stop I just couldn’t handle it anymore I was like this is obviously not working for me I am already suffering so much because the acne itself is so painful and then that on top of it where my skin was just like cracked open I it’s honestly it was really traumatizing I just decided to live with like pretty bad skin for another several years when I was in college I got The Bravery mustard up to visit the dermatologist again even though I just felt like I wasn’t hurt I wasn’t listened to the first time and I was so ashamed of my face I just really wanted to have trust that I could try it again so I went again and this time I was put on different the first time I was on Retin-A I just found the same sort of process started to happen again so for a couple months my skin just started purging and it got worse and worse and worse and I was like I do not know what I’m doing wrong the doctor says this is supposed to help my acne and my acne is just exploding all over my face it was covering my whole face and I just didn’t understand why on the different my skin was 10 times worse than it ever was before I was even on it like I did not want to leave the house because my skin felt so bad it looked so bad and it was so bumpy and so painful and so embarrassing and then one day after three months it was like I like I I don’t even know what happened but I woke up and and my acne went away like it just went away and then it continued to get better and better and better the one bad part is that I did have a lot of hyperpigmentation from all of the acne that had exploded all over my face so that still took another several months to fade but I was so thrilled because at least I was at a point where I could put makeup over those pigment spots and my skin like looked clearer than it ever had since before I hit puberty I just remember thinking at the time I wish somebody had told me this I wish somebody had told me to wait it out that there is a light at the end of the tunnel because when I had quit the first time I tried it I just felt like there was no hope in sight and I was devastated so the second time I felt so devastated at three months I just thought like I don’t know if I can do this I don’t know if I can do this I don’t know if I can do this and then once three months passed my skin just looked so good and I was was shocked I was so shocked and I guess like ever since that point I really believed in the power of retinol about six or seven years after that my husband and I we had gotten married we moved to a new city I was seeing an esthetician and she was kind of saying like I think maybe you should taper off of it because I feel like it’s thinning your skin blah blah blah so based on her advice I decided to taper off of it and what I immediately realized in that month or two is I felt like my pores looked bigger and I was like this is so weird the only change I made was just stopping that different and I was like oh no did I make a mistake but at that point it’s like well I wanted to give it a try of just like not being on any retinol because I had been kind of felt like I was dependent on it for several years my husband and I decided to try for a baby you’re not supposed to be on retinol I stopped it for several years and then my skin went through a lot of changes I got older I went through breastfeeding which dried out my skin quite a bit because you know all of your resources are going toward making breast milk and that really dehydrates you I just experienced like the worst wrinkles that I have ever had in my life during that period of time and I was like whoa buddy I feel like I aged 10 years in a couple of months so I knew that immediately when I stopped breastfeeding and stopped having children for the final time I wanted to get back on retinol ASAP as soon as I was done breastfeeding my son that week I started on Retin-A I went to a dermatologist got a prescription for tretinoin I use Retin-A 0.025 cream ever since that point I almost feel like it has been at least stable and at best aging backwards like I feel like my skin actually looks younger now than when I was at that point about four years ago and my my husband agrees he’s over there helping me film he’s nodding hard nods yes I actually feel like I genuinely look younger now than I did back then so just to let you know that whole transition process that first three months that I’m talking about where your skin can get extra red and sensitive and dry that’s called retinization and you can do things somewhat to mitigate that what you really want to be aware of is that if you do too much too fast then your skin kind of can’t find its own balance and then the Skin Barrier which is that lipid layer on the outermost part of your skin that sort of protects it and keeps moisture in you don’t want to compromise that because then your skin can just get super super dried out on the inside layers during using the first steps of retinol on top of having that acne purging it can also just like cause a lot of that inflammation because the Skin Barrier can be a little bit compromised so if that happens just stop retinol use for a few days let your skin calm down and repair that barrier again and then sort of taper back into it you must slowly taper onto it don’t just like go zero to 100 because it’s going to be a very difficult painful bad experience and I don’t want you guys to be scared away because it really is worth it if you get onto it and your skin gets used to it so that’s where I want to get to the next step which is giving you guys a really solid sample regimen you’re going to want to use your retinol at night in your evening routine you don’t want to use it during the day because the ingredients tend to sort of break apart and lose its efficacy once it is interacting with sunlight so I like to put it on at night basically you wash your face you apply the retinol and then you apply a moisturizer and that’s it it’s such a simple easy routine the key is really to just be very very consistent it’s not about quantity it’s about tapering on being very careful as you go and being very very consistent if your skin is super extra sensitive you can always wait until your skin is totally dry after washing it before applying the retinol and then doing moisturizer or you can actually do wash your face apply the moisturizer and then do the retinol third just so it has a little bit of a buffer but I would say for most people wash your face apply retinol moisturizer it’s really actually very very simple and easy to do the trickier part is the tapering on if you’re starting off brand new to retinol what I would suggest is for the first month only use it once a week and then for the next month use it two times a week maybe for a couple weeks and then see if you can get up to three times a week do that for an entire month see at that point if your skin is still totally cool and you’re handling it well I think increased acne is like kind of totally okay with that but as long as your Skin Barrier is not totally compromised then you can go up to the next step you know go up to like three times a week then maybe four times a week until you can get to using it once a night every night and that is sort of where you stay you’re not going to use it more than once a night every night but I cannot stress enough how important it is to take these baby steps to increase it don’t just go to every night thinking your skin is Pretty Tough it can handle it that’s just not how it works and I really want to save you a lot of difficulty and pain yeah taper onto it in terms of quantity of how much you want to use you’re going to just want to take a pea-sized amount like a small pea and then dot it all over your face and then spread it in evenly on your face you’re going to want to avoid certain really sensitive thinner areas of your face so don’t put this on your eyelids don’t put it on your lips don’t put it like around your nostrils this is not a spot treatment if you’re dealing with acne and stuff don’t just put it on an acne spot that’s just not how the product works because you’re wanting to activate pretty much like all of the cells on your face to make that baby new skin and it’s just not gonna work in the same way as like a spot treatment I mean your skin Cycle takes about a month so it’s not gonna be an instant gratification kind of product you really have to be dedicated to it and have the patience to taper up to it you’re gonna have to see results over time but if you do stick to it you will see those results I’m going to say this one more time consistency not quantity is the key be consistent don’t try to add more than what you need or less just be consistent and don’t try to put too much on your skin because that’s not going to make it work better I kind of also mentioned this before but you’re going to want to avoid using retinol at all if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding you don’t want to have any potentials for anything happening to any babies so that’s really really important and I would also say that during that whole transition period the first like three or four months I would also avoid using any other active is like don’t use any other acids you don’t want any exfoliators you really don’t want anything else that’s going to agitate your skin or irritated really dedicate your skin care to this transition process be very simple very gentle don’t throw in any X factors here this is just not the time or place and then if any of your moisturizers have extra exfoliating ingredients don’t use anything like that just use something really simple that you know works for your skin and then once your skin is kind of stabilized once you’re past that transition period I like to add a vitamin C serum vitamin C is just like a general antioxidant serum that can really help protect your skin from toxins in the environment it can also help brighten and make your skin look a little more glowy it’s just a great all-around additive that seems to be not too harsh on most people so I do like using that in my morning routine in place of like the retinal part of the routine and then of course in the morning the only other difference is I absolutely use sunscreen every single day especially if you’re going through this retinization period it is so important that you use sunscreen because your skin is going to be very inflamed and compromised and any kind of inflammation especially if you have like medium to deeper skin tones they might be more likely to have pigmentation problems so if you’re the type of skin where like after you get a mosquito bite you get like a dark spot that just stays there for months you want to avoid sun exposure as much as possible because that’s going to trigger your skin to produce more melanin and it takes a long time for those spots to fade so you really want to be conscientious to protect your very sensitized skin especially during this period but like really the truth is you should be doing this forever no matter what skincare you’re using sunscreen is so so very important even my myself even though I am a religious sunscreen user every single day I still have pigmentation problems but I know it’s much much less than when I didn’t wear sunscreen please if you are going through this process of getting onto retinol get a sunscreen that you know works really well with your skin and use it every single day once you’re past the retinization period and your skin is feeling really happy really healthy really stabilized then I like to incorporate an exfoliator about once a week I kind of play it by ear I’m not like a religious once a week exfoliator it’s just that if I can feel a change in the texture of my skin it’s feeling a little more rough I do like to use some kind of exfoliator to just soften my skin but once you exfoliate that down it’ll actually help your actives penetrate better so that vitamin C I was talking about and the retinol will actually go deeper into your skin and work better so that is just sort of a maintenance tip that some exfoliators actually do work really hand in hand if if you use a retinol but I just wouldn’t use that until your skin reaches its equilibrium and and reaches a really good healthy happy state of being on the retinol so for the overview routine in the morning wash your face add a vitamin C moisturize and then sunscreen for the evening routine wash your face retinol moisturizer and that’s it I feel like it’s way simpler than most skincare routines out there and it’s actually probably a lot more cost effective than a lot of like skin care routines that will be recommended to you on YouTube we’re going with what actually works what’s effective not what’s most expensive or luxurious this is going to be the most effective okay so I wanted to wrap up with a few tips if you’re going through this process and your skin is feeling extra sensitive and you’re just going through this retinization process it’s okay if if it’s like too much at once to take a step back until it gets a little stabilized and then go on to the next step and I also want to remind you guys sometimes it does get worse first before it gets better but I please do not want you guys to lose hope it is a very sometimes emotionally challenging process to go through because you know your skin is such a reflection of how you feel on the inside and you want to present the best side of yourself out but if you’re going through this stage and it is the hardest part I’ve been there I know how it feels but I promise you it is temporary and there is that light at the end of the tunnel there is the silver lining in the clouds you just have to stick to it stick through it do not give up you are almost there please seek out a community online you can always come here ask me questions talk to me on Instagram reach out to me or other people in the community who have been through this experience because that exists there’s actually a subreddit that I’ve read a few different things on it’s actually R tretinoin and it does have quite a lot of people’s experiences that they’ve posted with their own experiences is with retinol so if you do need to find a community I will link that resource in the info box down below but I think it is really important to share your experiences to talk about it to know that when you’re going through it your skin is not a reflection of who you are on the inside just know and try to have that grounding that you are not alone and it is a temporary experience and it does get better I was that person who was like in my 20s and 30s being like they told me that when I was an adult I wouldn’t break out anymore but now I’m getting wrinkles on top of it this is not fair so I never went through a period where my skin was actually perfectly clear right now this current stage of my life is probably where I’ve had the least amount of acne in my entire life other than you know when I was a child I really do believe in the power of retinol I believe that it has completely changed my life for the better and even though it was quite of a roller coaster to get to this point it was so worth it going into it if you want to have those results you just need to know it takes time and patience but it’s the single most important part of my whole skincare routine I just feel like I had to share it with you guys but yeah it’s just important for you to be educated about what to expect because it’s not easy but it’s very worth it I guess that’s about it I hope this was educational I hope this was helpful for you if you feel like you learned something or are interested and maybe curious to try out retinol please hit thumbs up hitting thumbs up I know people ask you this in every single video but it really does make a huge difference in getting videos to more people for me it really means everything if you’ve been through retinol if you’ve kind of been through the same thing.
Thanks for reading x