How does retinol cream work to undo sun damage?
Retinol cream is a vitamin A derivative that fights damage, and helps your skin look smoother, more even-toned, and younger. Watch dermatologist Doris Day, MD, explain the benefits of retinol, the different types, and the best time of day to use it.
Transcript
Retinol cream is a vitamin A derivative. And what it does, all the way down at the molecular level,
is it normalizes skin cell turnover. And this makes the deeper collagen layers thicker.
And it makes the outermost layer smoother and flatter. That's why it helps your skin look smoother and more even
in tone. [MUSIC PLAYING]
That normalizing skin cell turnover helps the uneven brown spots move up and out of the skin.
It makes your pores appear smaller and your skin overall look younger. And there's no shortcuts.
It doesn't just make your skin look younger. It actually makes your skin younger. The best time to use your retinol is at night.
The reason is that retinol is very light sensitive. So if you put it on in the morning, and you go out in the sun, the sun will inactivate it.
When you put it on at night, that's when your skin is doing the most repair, so it does its best work at night while you're asleep.
There's so many different formulations of retinol available from prescription strength to over-the-counter.
The best one is one that works for you that doesn't over dry or irritate your skin. You can start with an over-the-counter version
and build up to a prescription strength. If it's too drying, you can moisturize on top or just start by using it every other night.
And then, moisturize over it. That will help you adjust to it and be able to use the highest concentration that your skin can tolerate.
In prescription strength, there's everything from a 0.02 to a 0.1% retinoic acid.
As it turns out, as you approach that 0.1%, you don't get double the efficacy over a 0.05.
You just get more irritancy. So if your skin can only tolerate the 0.05, that's fine. That's all you need to use to get the benefits.
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