So today’s post is all about retinol so what we’ll be discussing a few things including what is retinol how to use retinol including my favorite tips and tricks as well as advice and we’ll give you some pearls towards the end so what is retinol retinol is the most powerful molecule in dermatology this has been with us for well over four decades this ingredient is what most dermatologists will start you off firstly to treat acne but also your anti-aging skin care routine so guys this is why retinol is super important in learning how to use it and understanding the tips and tricks which I’ll go through later on is super important so that your whole skincare journey is not only effective but also will be trouble free so retinol is a vitamin a derivative other vitamin A’s includes things like retinol and palmitate retinaldehyde and a whole heap of other drugs that we’re using Dermatology called retinoids and they include adapaline triferatine tazaritin and all those big names so retinol itself how does it work in the skin basically it reduces the amount of sun damage that your skin may receive over many decades of photoaging so it does so by increasing the amount of turnover that your cells have so it speeds up your turnover in turn reducing dull skin it can also reduce sebum production and sebum as you guys know is the number one cause of acne it also helps with collagen stimulation and this is super important because retinol stimulates your fibroblasts to produce natural collagen additionally dermatologists use this to reduce the amount of pigmentation in your skin as it also suppresses the cells called melanocyte so what’s my experience with retinol as a dermatologist we get given a lot of products like a lot and I’ll tell you this not all cheap products are bad and not all expensive products are good so my experience with this find the formulation that suits your skin type so something like this if you have dry skin head towards something like a retinol formulation in the cream base so Murad makes an excellent retinol formulations because they actually suit dry skin or more sensitive skin the flip side with retinol is that if you have more resistant skin you can use something like a serum which is basically less occlusive but it has a lot higher concentration of retinol in a smaller volume so how do we use retinol retinol if you’ve never used it before start low so start something like 0.5 percent and increase as tolerated one of the best tips I can give you is to buy a formulation that you can afford that you actually will like using so cheap doesn’t mean is bad but expensive doesn’t mean it’s good so you’ve got to try and basically find something that’s in the middle of the road so I can give you some recommendations down below so guys start every second night or even every third night and then increase as tolerated use it after a bath or shower apply a tiny amount like a pea-sized amount to the areas that you want to treat so this could include the face neck and chest from there you build up very slowly so retinol itself can be used with certain other skincare ingredients in certain skincare ingredients should not be used as retinol so what can you use with retinol retinol pairs well with something called niacidamide or vitamin B3 vitamin B3 can be used at the same time or even an hour before or an hour after retinol application another good Agent you can use if you have inflammatory acne or sensitive skin such as rosacea is azalic acid so azalic acid can be applied once again an hour before or an hour after retinol another frequent ingredient that we add is simple vitamin E vitamin E itself is known as tocophalol and vitamin E can help improve your Skin Barrier function but it’s also a very important antioxidant what this means is that it helps protect your skin against environmental and UV damage so we talked about what can be paired with retinol we what should not be used as retinol the most important thing is not to use other potential irritants so one of the most common irritants that we see as dermatologists is vitamin C vitamin C as the name suggests it’s ascorbic acid with the word acid means that most formulations of vitamin C have a very low PH so somewhere in between ph3 and 3.5 so what that means is that it has a lower pH in your skin and hence it can irritate the Skin So when you’re applying vitamin C together with retinol all you’re doing is compounding the potential irritation so what you should do in that situation is to use vitamin C in the morning because vitamin C is an antioxidant and can contribute to your collagen production now you can use your retinol at night but once again start very slowly and increase from there now the other ingredient you should not be using is Alpha hydroxy acids so things like lactic acid glycolic acid mandelic acid citric acid all these skincare acids much like ascorbic acid are formulated with a very low PH so if you apply both it’s going to cause you some skin irritation the same applies to something called benzyl peroxide or BPO which is very frequently used to treat acne so guys those are my top hints in regards to how to use retinol so in summary buy the best retinol that you can afford that slowly and increase is tolerated think about how you’re going to use retinol .
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