A brief overview on Tretinoin vs off the shelf Retinol Creams.
Hey guys how you doing sally here i thought i’d make a quick video because i get an awful lot of questions about tretinoin and retinol and the type of products that you can buy over the counter or say just in your local pharmacy and the type of products that are prescription only so tretinoin is a prescription only topical cream or gel that is prescription only in
The uk that isn’t the same in other countries such as spain dubai um maybe dubai i’m not sure but thailand as well tretinoin is a retinoid and it is actually used an fda approved to help sun damage skin treat fine lines and wrinkles and acne it works funnily enough which sounds counterproductive by irritating the skin it irritates the skin so the skin actually
Speeds up the process of dividing skin cells and replenishing and renewing that works because what’s happening is all the cells are starting to be nudged further up as you know your skin is on a 28 day cycle 30 days if you like and these new cells that are down at the basal layer are coming up coming up coming up and then of course what happens is they naturally
Exfoliate away however melasma or sun damage is obviously deeply um embedded in the skin where the melanocytes are so what happens with tretinoin it actually speeds up that process so speeding up the life cycle of the cells means that we can actually get rid of pigmentation and we can have this healthy surface new cell skin um it actually means that you’re going
To have healthier newer cells in place of the older pigmented cells and the scar tissue now it’s really important to remember especially here in the uk that any product that is sitting on the shelf that’s called retinol is never ever going to do the job of a retinoid such as tretinoin and that’s because tretinoin has gone through multiple multiple different trials
Tests independent studies clinical trials for it to be called a topical or a medication if for example let’s just use the case of l’oreal retinol they would have to invest millions and millions into these studies and instead what they do is they put a minuscule amount of a retinol so that might be a vitamin a and they will call it retinol which obviously is
Not a protected name but it will not have nearly the same impact on your skin or on the treatment of sun damage wrinkles or pores and acne as a real topical medicated or medical tretinoin so what are the difference between a retinol and a tretinoin treatment so a retinol is a naturally derived vitamin a and tretinoin is a synthetic form of the retinal vitamin a
Tretinoin is stronger retinol is not as strong and i’m just going to make sure i’ve not left anything else here um obviously retinol creams are available without a prescription but tretinoin is a prescription only in the uk as i said you can buy it in spain as well so tretinoin is much stronger and actually i feel does the job it’s intended it’s been around for
50 plus years and it’s extremely well tolerated for most people it does have a bit of a learning curve or your skin will have a bit of a learning curve with it so you’ll only apply it in the evening and it will make your skin photosensitive which means you must must apply at least factor 50 or if not total block on the areas that you’re treating with tretinoin
Because the last thing you want to do if you’re actually treating skin pigmentation due to sun damage is then to go out in the sun when your sun is already when your skin is photosensitive which will obviously create more pigmentation so the research suggests that tretinoin actually helps to reduce pigmentation reduce sun damage reduce fine lines and wrinkles and
Improve the appearance of acne scarring acne and pores it actually is a fabulous treatment for just the overall appearance of the skin you’ll see trending on youtube there’s an awful lot of talk of glass skin and a lot of the um the commentators will be using tretinoin as part of their daily routine the thing about tretinoin is you don’t have to be unwell to get a
Prescription of tretinoin you can um there’s many many online pharmacies and you just go through you think you’re taken through a normal questionnaire and you can get a subscription box of tretinoin the other thing to talk about is and something i was definitely brought up to believe is that retinols or retinoids or tretinoin thin the skin and actually it’s been
Proven that the reverse is true actually what happens is this massive shedding of the skin cells and this initial peeling irritation redness and sometimes inflammation is actually a process by which the skin is then getting used to the medication and then the dermis actually becomes thicker which is what we want because as we age of course our skin thins due to
A lack of collagen hydration elastin and that is because at the age of 35 our collagen dives off a cliff and we stop producing any decent collagen so with tretinoin it’s actually improving the health of the skin but there is as i said a bit of a curve and that is something that most of us need to kind of work through a lot of us will give up before we truly get
The benefits of tretinoin and that’s because perhaps we get a bit of peeling maybe a bit of redness information sometimes it can feel sore and irritated now i’m actually treating myself with tretinoin 0.05 tiny p size amount don’t think for one minute that more is better because it’s not a tiny p amount mixed even with your own normal moisturizer in the evening
Applied across the face you can do the neck and obviously the chest and the backs of the hands as well should you wish and then obviously in the morning you just carry on your routine as normal however factor 50 so an spf a broad spectrum sun shield sun cream if you’re using any kind of active on your skin especially tretinoin i hope that helped it’s just a quick
Brief summary and let me know if you’ve got any questions and i can chat to you later
Transcribed from video
What is Tretinoin and Why Should You Use It? By Sally Atkins