Guide to Retinols and Retinoids

What's up, everyone? We're back. Dr. Maxfield. Dr. Shah. And welcome back to our channel, Dr. Lee, where we talk about all things skincare and dermatology. Today, we are going to talk about a monster of a topic. Actually, we thought about it and we're like, oh, this has got to be spoken. So today we're going to be talking about some of the best retinols, retinoids that you can buy. Yeah. And this is something, we talked about retinols a while ago. It's been a long time since we did a retinol video. And we actually have never done our favorite retinol product video at all. And like in all videos, my favorite retinol is not going to be the same as his favorite retinol. And it's not going to be the best retinol for you. So we break everything down into categories, like what's the best for a starter? What's the best for acne? What's the best for dry skin? So we're going to do retinols by category. Here we go. All right. So if you're new to this channel, we have to bring back our old graphic on retinoids in general. So retinoids are the family. Within this family, You have retinol. Retinol needs to be converted to retinaldehyde or retinal, and then that needs to be converted into retinoic acid to be active in the skin. And so they all fall under this vitamin A derivative umbrella called retinoids, and then you have some other generations of retinoids, which are adapalene and tazeratine. And so this is basically what our retinoids are. What do they do? They do a lot, which is why we always come back to retinoids in some way. They are a foundation. and almost like a necessary staple for acne treatment. They also cover almost all of the bases when you're talking about anti-aging or photo aging for skincare. And they do it in just almost every single way. Like if you're talking about hyperpigmentation, they actually act on almost all of the steps involved in hyperpigmentation. It's the same for acne and it's the same for photo aging. So they pretty much do everything that you need to be done in skincare. So if you can tolerate a retinoid, I really honestly believe after sunscreen, it is by far the best ingredient. And this is why... You hear dermatologists talking about this ingredient all the time. And so it has a lot of benefits. It will improve your skin texture. It will decrease fine lines and wrinkles. It will decrease dark spots and hyperpigmentation and melasma. And it basically breaks up those little skin cells, making it a great treatment for acne. Now that we've said that it's amazing, what are our favorite retinols for someone who's looking to start a retinol? Actually, this is such an important... I don't know how, but I feel like there's still a ton of people who are entering the retinol space. I mean, I guess... makes sense as people get older. But this is a category I feel like that gets talked about all the time. And the reason that there is a category for starter retinols is, as Dr. Sean was talking about, that irritation. So when we're looking at ingredients here, we want something that's a little bit more gentle, a little more tolerable, and it may not be the most effective, but it's really supposed to help you enter the space of retinoids. So for me, the first thing I'm looking for is actually retinol. So retinol, because it's the one that needs to be converted to retinoic acid in general. is the most gentle. Now, this is not always true. There's exceptions, percentages, all this kind of things that go on to play a role. But in general, retinol is going to be less irritating than retinoic acid. Our goal with these starter retinols is they're going to have supporting ingredients that are going to be hydrating. They're going to be at lower concentrations so that they're not as irritating. And then eventually the goal is that you could use that particular product forever or these particular products forever, or you could basically scale up to something that's a little bit more effective with time. And there's some magic that happens with retinols too. We talked about this behind the scenes before, but retinol actually gets absorbed and then stored in your skin cells when there's too much. So if you have too much retinol in your skin, too much more than your skin needs, your skin cells actually store it and then they save it for later when the retinol levels are low and they can actually release it. And that's one of the reasons that's thought to help minimize the irritation as opposed to something highly, highly effective like tretinoin or retinoic acid that just floods the system. It cannot be back. converted. It cannot be stored and that might be why that's more irritating. Okay, so we have the gentle retinol and then along with that, I think we intrinsically think about kind of a gentle vehicle or something in the vehicle or product to offset, again, the irritation. So with those two things in mind, I think that encompasses our gentle retinol product picks. So let's start off with one of the basic retinols, one of the first retinols that I ever tried, the CeraVe resurfacing retinol. This is a great product because it uses an encapsulated form of retinol, which slowly releases itself throughout the day, and that makes it much more tolerable. And then it's supported by other ingredients, which help to calm the skin. Yeah, it does. And not only that, but it has licorice and niacinamide. Both are great complementing actives. They help with hyperpigmentation, acne, and the niacinamide pretty much does a little bit of everything. So collagen growth too, all boosting that retinoid. Right. So it has these calming ingredients and they also are always supported in the CeraVe products by ceramide. Yes. which do help to restore the skin barrier. And so I think if you're like, I don't know, I want something that's a budget retinol. I don't want it to overly irritate my skin. I would say that this is a really good starter retinol. All right. So moving on from that one, another one that's a little bit more expensive is the Kiehl's retinol, which came out this year. Now Kiehl's has been around for like 150 years, and it took them like 150 years to come out with a retinol. And that's how you kind of know it's going to be good. They put together this new retinol serum, which I've really loved. I probably used it for several months without any signs of irritation at all. And it would get on my eyelids. I wouldn't get irritated from it, which is fascinating for me because I have very sensitive eyelids. But the Kiehl's retinol is a microdose formula of retinol. So it uses small percentages of retinol that slowly release over time. so that you're not getting that irritation, but you're still getting that efficacy that you would see with a retinol. Yeah, and then in this too are peptides, which I think peptides are a really great complementing ingredient, especially when it comes to retinoids because they're very well tolerated, but then they also have some of the similar benefits in reversing that photoaging. And similar to the CeraVe one, it also has ceramides in it, which is gonna help to restore the skin barrier, moisturize, and basically protect your skin while you're still having those benefits of retinol. And so this is one that I think I started using this year. Really loved it and then for people that are looking to get in retinols that are familiar with Kiehl's Kiehl's kind of has like a cult like following so if you like products from Kiehl's you tend to like other products from Kiehl's So this is one of my favorite ones and I think the CeraVe one is a great option for a starter too So those products have the gentle retinol the complementing ingredients the soothing properties then along with this like idea of minimizing irritation You have dry skin And so dry skin kind of coincides sometimes with sensitive skin. So let's talk now about the best retinols or retinoids for dry skin. Right. So we actually have retinoids that are moisturizers. They're retinols that are in a moisturizing vehicle, right? So vehicle is really important because you can have gels, you can have lotions, you can have creams, you can have serums, but the creams tend to have... complementing ingredients to also help to hydrate the skin. And so if you're somebody who has sensitive skin or dry skin, you're like, well, I don't want to try a retinol. This is a really good option for you is to find a moisturizer that has retinol in it, like the ones that we're going to talk about right now. Yeah, these basically take the hack that we put out there in that, like either mixing a moisturizer with the retinol or diluting it either way. But yeah, this comes pre-formulated moisturizer, retinol. One of the ones we'll talk about, Olay Regenerist. I swear if you Google retinol, this one is one of the first ones to show up every time. It's in that like very pretty, beautiful purple packaging. It catches your eye. But the nice things about this one, it has peptides, which I talked about, a great complimenting ingredient. It has a nice moisturizing vehicle, and then it also has niacinamide. So a similar soothing profile with a nice soothing moisturizing base. Right. And this is a product that really has withstood the test of time. I mean, so many people use this. It's very effective, very moisturizing. I think Olay is a brand that probably doesn't get enough hype on social media, especially with younger generations, but has been a staple for a lot of people their entire lives. And so this is really a great product. They do come in a fragranced one and a fragrance free option. Go with the fragrance free one. I mean, I think that it has the same effective ingredients that the fragrance one does with. the reduced risk of irritation and allergy. And so in my opinion, if you could choose between the two, I always go fragrance free. And I'll kind of say that over and over again. Now, if you have a product that has fragrance in it and there's no other alternative, I still think fragrance would be okay under those scenarios. Yeah. And that's kind of like back to our great fragrance debate. But I think realistically, like there are things that, you know, at this point that can be irritating and if it doesn't irritate you, it doesn't irritate you. So enjoy. And you actually can skip your moisturizing step if you use this. So cleanse, apply this at night, go to sleep. Another one worth mentioning in this category for dry skin is the Rock Retinol Correction Cream. Now this is also a hydrating, it's like the max 24-hour hydration cream, hydrating similar to the Olay one. I just like Rock when it comes to retinol because they were the first over-the-counter brand to stabilize retinol. Cetretinoin was invented at University of Pennsylvania by Dr. Kligman, and then that was a prescription. ended up becoming Retin-A. And then after that, it became Retinol, which was available over the counter. And the first company to stabilize that form of Retinol was Rock. And they've withstood the test of time, you know, 50 plus years in formulation. And so this is a moisturizing cream for them. Again, they have a fragrance-free one and a fragrance one. Go with the fragrance-free one. Those are two titans, two great options. Next up is the best body Retinol. So if you're using Retinol on your face, you're going to see those same benefits by using it on the body. So go. crepey skin, texture, hyperpigmentation, discoloration is going to have all those benefits and even will have benefits for keratosis pilaris. Yeah, I mean, I think this is so neglected and we've actually gone a little bit out of our way to highlight these areas recently, but the decolletage and all of that just photo damaged skin that just, I don't know, we just ignore it. We like focus in on our face and later I think we see in the clinic a lot of people kind of obsessing over areas that they didn't pay a lot of attention to growing up. So This is an actually interesting category, I think, though, because we both agreed and settled on one item here. One product. And the reason why is because I used to recommend. And I still recommend, I think it's a great product, has a lot of great ingredients in it, is the Paula's Choice Body Retinol. Now, the reason why I'm not including it in this category anymore is because the Vers Retinol just came out and it's six ounces, so it's bigger than the Paula's Choice option and it's less expensive. And so this is going to have similar effective ingredients to the Paula's Choice one, except it's a lower price and a bigger size. Yeah, I remember I was perusing the internet. I think when this first came out, I was just, you know, just early morning looking, pretending to shop. Oh, it came from an Instagram ad. That's what drew me there. And I was like, oh, this is really, really good. And then since then, I've just been loving it. There actually needs to be more body retinols available. People all the time have body acne as well. Like we talked about the anti-aging part. There's also body acne. So you could theoretically mix your vitamin A retinoid into a moisturizer to help get it on that large surface area. But this Versed is like a really great starter option there. All right. So he just called it Versed, which is not the name of the brand. The name of the brand is Versed. Versed. Versed is actually like a pre-anesthetic. It will knock you out called Medazolam. They use it in anesthesia. So every time I say the name of the brand Versed on social media, all the doctors and nurses and anesthetists always comment like, I thought you said, I thought it was called Versed, which is an anesthetic. So not the same thing, but I think this is a great option as a body moisturizer at a reasonable price. And in addition to having retinol, it has jojoba oil, which we really like as a body oil or a skincare oil. And it also has squalane, which we love. So great option, affordable price. I think you should be using retinol on your body and wearing sunscreen. You absolutely should. And I almost guarantee that almost nobody is. Including me. Including me. And I understand why. Next up, big category is the best retinoids for acne. Okay. This is actually how retinoids started in the first place. So when Dr. Kligman was doing his experiments and we'll probably do a whole video on... how ethical those experiments were, he was really trying to create an ingredient for acne. And as a result of those studies, they found out it was really helping with wrinkles. So a lot of the people that had done the initial studies didn't want to stop using their retinoid because they were seeing a lot of benefits with their skin pigmentation and with their wrinkles. And then eventually it started to get marketed as a wrinkle cream, but it all started with acne. So let's talk about acne. So why then is it great for acne? Right. So acne, we talk about this all the time. It's involved with oil production, which leads to occlusion of the pores, which leads to overgrowth of bacteria, which causes inflammation. And so retinoids do decrease the oil production. They actually increase the skin cell turnover to help normalize keratinization and decrease the pore clogging. They don't decrease bacteria directly. And this is like another fun little caveat. I just really wanted to put this little caveat in here. They do alter the pH and the actual environment. And they make it inhospitable for the bacteria. So they don't kill the bacteria, but they actually make it harder for this propionibacterium acnes to live on the skin. And then they do modulate and decrease the inflammation from acne. So of all the causes of acne, retinoids are solving 98% of those causes of acne. And so that's why it is the most effective ingredient over the counter for acne, and ingredient in general for acne. I mean, Accutane or Isotretinoin is based on this vitamin A derivative for that exact same reason. So let's talk about, I think, the most... effective ingredient available over the counter for acne is adapalene. Yeah, adapalene is, I mean, it really is. It's hands down. This ingredient was prescription. Now it's available over the counter and it's been studied head to head versus tretinoin and has showed comparable efficacy. It's also more stable. It can be mixed and used with benzoyl peroxide and is pretty affordable. There's just, it just, there's so much. to say positive about this ingredient in the acne space. First product that came out that was an Adapalene product was Differin Gel. It was the only one that was available and it was FDA approved for the treatment of acne. Very, very, very, very effective. And then also you have the option of using the La Roche-Posay one, which has very similar ingredients. Find whatever one is available to you. I actually don't have a preference between the two. Whatever one's more affordable wherever you live and available wherever you live, I think both are going to be amazing options for acne. If you could choose one retinoid for acne that's available over the counter, I would choose one of these two. And we would be remiss if we didn't recommend prescription medications for acne. I mean, first of all, we have much more effective ingredients. And when you see a dermatologist, so it really is important to see a dermatologist for your acne, especially if you've tried a lot of these over-the-counter products and they're not working. So I think my two favorite retinoids that are available by prescription are tretinoin and tazeratine. Almost no question about that, only because of the bulk of studies, especially that have been done on tretinoin in this space. And we talk about there's some thought maybe like with anti-aging, maybe retinols are as effective long term, especially for anti-aging as compared to tretinoin. You know, maybe, maybe not. But for acne, just from my personal experience. And I would venture that it's absolutely not true. When we have a person using a low strength retinoid, even low strength tretinoin, and they're like, they've hit a wall or a ceiling, they're like not quite getting to where they need to be. I mean, time and time again, we increase that strength a little bit and they hit that mark. So I'm very, very committed to the idea that these prescription and stronger retinoids do have a higher ceiling, unfortunately, than some of the over-the-counter ones. Absolutely. And I think that tretinoin is a really good starter and that's where I start most of my patients on that have acne and I think actually I think tazeratine in my opinion is more effective in my experience with using it so I think tazeratine is a little bit more effective but a little bit more irritating and tretinone is a great starter that most people respond really well to and we have multiple concentrations of this and you may want to start with a lower concentration and then go to a higher concentration but this is something that you want to discuss with your dermatologist now that being said how do you get tretinoin if you're not able to see your dermatologist? So I will always maintain that if you have access to a dermatologist, it's best to see them because they're going to be able to guide you. Maybe, maybe tretinoin is not the best option for you. Maybe you benefit better from something else. Maybe you better, the chemical peels are better for you, or maybe an oral antibiotic is better for you, or there's so many different options for the treatment of acne and anti-aging that it's always, I think, in my opinion, important to see a dermatologist. But if you couldn't see one or you... don't have access to one or you need a refill of your tretinoin or something like that, I really think the best option telemedicine wise to be able to have access to tretinoin but not see a dermatologist in person is apostrophe.com. That was like a very carefully constructed statement. I completely agree with every little last bit of it. The value of seeing someone in person is absolutely there. I think establishing the correct diagnosis and having something tangible in front of you is so under... underappreciated these days. However, I am wholeheartedly behind apostrophe in this space. I think telemedicine, telederm is here to stay. It is necessary for certain people, certain areas. And so that is where I would go to. Okay. So last category is the best overall retinols. You don't have anything specific that you're trying to treat other than anti-aging, pigmentation, just kind of just in general, what is the best retinols that you could use in your arsenal for whatever? Yeah, and so we actually were looking for a while and like, okay, how are we going to measure these? And we're actually kind of all over the place because some are expensive, some are inexpensive, some are like straight to the point, some are luxurious. So we decided Paula's Choice gets the first nod. Paula's Choice is 1% retinol. What makes this one, I think, so special is just the dearth of complementing ingredients in this. So, of course, it uses a solid concentration of retinol, 1%, but it also has a lot of good supporting ingredients. peptides, your THD ascorbate, which is a form of vitamin C. It has oat, which is calming and soothing. We really like that. It has willow bark, which is actually where salicylic acid came from in the first place. And so it has a lot of complementing and supporting ingredients that make it just overall a great retinol for somebody who doesn't have one of these specific issues we talked about earlier. Okay, I have a confession to make. I actually pitched it to him in that way because I knew he'd do a better job with the ingredients list. Like, just letting you know that he is so good at rattling off lists of things and I stumble through it every time. So that's why I pitched it that way. Well, I'll take the brunt of it then. Fair enough. All right, the next one, and we've mentioned it in our expensive skincare video in the past. This one is a little bit pricey. I don't know if you can buy this online. You may need to go to like, uh... medispa or dermatologist office to get this but it's not a prescription so this is the skin better science retinol it's called alpha ret the reason why i like this one is they've done a lot of studies on it so it has data behind it but i also like that they use very interesting ingredients they use glycolic acid in addition to retinol they used a combined form of retinol and lactic acid so it exfoliates and has that benefit of retinol in it and it also has a ton of other ingredients so this has soothing and active ingredients in it like ceramide squalane licorice and glycerin. So just really overall, like hydrating a lot of great supporting ingredients as antioxidants, exfoliants, and retinol. Now it can be a little bit irritating, but I think that you should ease into this one every other night and it's going to be very effective. A little pricey, but I actually think the studies behind it make it worth it. Yeah. And I think when you look at the ingredient list though, that is in this every, well, not every, but like most of these ingredients actually have a targeted purpose. There's another thing about ingredients list. Like if I see a long ingredient list, I'm immediately. skeptical and a little scared away. But if you dig in and you see that all the ingredients are targeted towards the main ingredient, in this case, retinol, and that purpose, that's like actually a really big win. So that's where this one comes in at almost. And I mean, I guess it does. It earns its keep with that laundry list. And then to sum up this entire list, we've already mentioned these two in the past, but I think best in overall retinoids, I think adapalene, even though it was initially marketed as an acne treatment, I still think it's going to do all of the things that we mentioned, pigmentation, anti-aging, affordability. tolerability. So Adapalene is definitely going to fall into this space. And of course, prescription tretinoin, which I think is the GOAT. I mean, I think it's the one. It's the one. If you don't know, it's the one. I start people usually at 0.05% if there's no other contraindication to starting it at that point. And I think it's just overall probably the best for every person who's just getting into retinoids. We're huge fans, obviously, of retinoids, as many of you know. We'll put some links below that you can shop. But ultimately, I think that if you can tolerate a retinoid, you should definitely consider it in your skincare routine. And we'll probably do a deep dive on tretinoin one day. Yeah, one day. But it deserves it. That's the best of retinoids. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Please like, comment, and subscribe. Yeah, we appreciate you always. Thank you for being a part of this journey with us. See you in the next video.

What's up, everyone? We're back. Dr. Maxfield.

Dr. Shah. And welcome back to our channel, Dr. Lee, where we talk about all things skincare and dermatology. Today, we are going to talk about a monster of a topic. Actually, we thought about it and we're like, oh, this has got to be spoken.

So today we're going to be talking about some of the best retinols, retinoids that you can buy. Yeah. And this is something, we talked about retinols a while ago.

It's been a long time since we did a retinol video. And we actually have never done our favorite retinol product video at all. And like in all videos, my favorite retinol is not going to be the same as his favorite retinol. And it's not going to be the best retinol for you.

So we break everything down into categories, like what's the best for a starter? What's the best for acne? What's the best for dry skin? So we're going to do retinols by category. Here we go.

All right. So if you're new to this channel, we have to bring back our old graphic on retinoids in general. So retinoids are the family. Within this family, You have retinol.

Retinol needs to be converted to retinaldehyde or retinal, and then that needs to be converted into retinoic acid to be active in the skin. And so they all fall under this vitamin A derivative umbrella called retinoids, and then you have some other generations of retinoids, which are adapalene and tazeratine. And so this is basically what our retinoids are.

What do they do? They do a lot, which is why we always come back to retinoids in some way. They are a foundation. and almost like a necessary staple for acne treatment. They also cover almost all of the bases when you're talking about anti-aging or photo aging for skincare.

And they do it in just almost every single way. Like if you're talking about hyperpigmentation, they actually act on almost all of the steps involved in hyperpigmentation. It's the same for acne and it's the same for photo aging. So they pretty much do everything that you need to be done in skincare.

So if you can tolerate a retinoid, I really honestly believe after sunscreen, it is by far the best ingredient. And this is why... You hear dermatologists talking about this ingredient all the time. And so it has a lot of benefits. It will improve your skin texture.

It will decrease fine lines and wrinkles. It will decrease dark spots and hyperpigmentation and melasma. And it basically breaks up those little skin cells, making it a great treatment for acne. Now that we've said that it's amazing, what are our favorite retinols for someone who's looking to start a retinol? Actually, this is such an important...

I don't know how, but I feel like there's still a ton of people who are entering the retinol space. I mean, I guess... makes sense as people get older.

But this is a category I feel like that gets talked about all the time. And the reason that there is a category for starter retinols is, as Dr. Sean was talking about, that irritation. So when we're looking at ingredients here, we want something that's a little bit more gentle, a little more tolerable, and it may not be the most effective, but it's really supposed to help you enter the space of retinoids.

So for me, the first thing I'm looking for is actually retinol. So retinol, because it's the one that needs to be converted to retinoic acid in general. is the most gentle.

Now, this is not always true. There's exceptions, percentages, all this kind of things that go on to play a role. But in general, retinol is going to be less irritating than retinoic acid.

Our goal with these starter retinols is they're going to have supporting ingredients that are going to be hydrating. They're going to be at lower concentrations so that they're not as irritating. And then eventually the goal is that you could use that particular product forever or these particular products forever, or you could basically scale up to something that's a little bit more effective with time. And there's some magic that happens with retinols too. We talked about this behind the scenes before, but retinol actually gets absorbed and then stored in your skin cells when there's too much.

So if you have too much retinol in your skin, too much more than your skin needs, your skin cells actually store it and then they save it for later when the retinol levels are low and they can actually release it. And that's one of the reasons that's thought to help minimize the irritation as opposed to something highly, highly effective like tretinoin or retinoic acid that just floods the system. It cannot be back.

converted. It cannot be stored and that might be why that's more irritating. Okay, so we have the gentle retinol and then along with that, I think we intrinsically think about kind of a gentle vehicle or something in the vehicle or product to offset, again, the irritation. So with those two things in mind, I think that encompasses our gentle retinol product picks.

So let's start off with one of the basic retinols, one of the first retinols that I ever tried, the CeraVe resurfacing retinol. This is a great product because it uses an encapsulated form of retinol, which slowly releases itself throughout the day, and that makes it much more tolerable. And then it's supported by other ingredients, which help to calm the skin. Yeah, it does.

And not only that, but it has licorice and niacinamide. Both are great complementing actives. They help with hyperpigmentation, acne, and the niacinamide pretty much does a little bit of everything.

So collagen growth too, all boosting that retinoid. Right. So it has these calming ingredients and they also are always supported in the CeraVe products by ceramide. Yes.

which do help to restore the skin barrier. And so I think if you're like, I don't know, I want something that's a budget retinol. I don't want it to overly irritate my skin.

I would say that this is a really good starter retinol. All right. So moving on from that one, another one that's a little bit more expensive is the Kiehl's retinol, which came out this year. Now Kiehl's has been around for like 150 years, and it took them like 150 years to come out with a retinol. And that's how you kind of know it's going to be good.

They put together this new retinol serum, which I've really loved. I probably used it for several months without any signs of irritation at all. And it would get on my eyelids. I wouldn't get irritated from it, which is fascinating for me because I have very sensitive eyelids.

But the Kiehl's retinol is a microdose formula of retinol. So it uses small percentages of retinol that slowly release over time. so that you're not getting that irritation, but you're still getting that efficacy that you would see with a retinol. Yeah, and then in this too are peptides, which I think peptides are a really great complementing ingredient, especially when it comes to retinoids because they're very well tolerated, but then they also have some of the similar benefits in reversing that photoaging.

And similar to the CeraVe one, it also has ceramides in it, which is gonna help to restore the skin barrier, moisturize, and basically protect your skin while you're still having those benefits of retinol. And so this is one that I think I started using this year. Really loved it and then for people that are looking to get in retinols that are familiar with Kiehl's Kiehl's kind of has like a cult like following so if you like products from Kiehl's you tend to like other products from Kiehl's So this is one of my favorite ones and I think the CeraVe one is a great option for a starter too So those products have the gentle retinol the complementing ingredients the soothing properties then along with this like idea of minimizing irritation You have dry skin And so dry skin kind of coincides sometimes with sensitive skin. So let's talk now about the best retinols or retinoids for dry skin.

Right. So we actually have retinoids that are moisturizers. They're retinols that are in a moisturizing vehicle, right?

So vehicle is really important because you can have gels, you can have lotions, you can have creams, you can have serums, but the creams tend to have... complementing ingredients to also help to hydrate the skin. And so if you're somebody who has sensitive skin or dry skin, you're like, well, I don't want to try a retinol.

This is a really good option for you is to find a moisturizer that has retinol in it, like the ones that we're going to talk about right now. Yeah, these basically take the hack that we put out there in that, like either mixing a moisturizer with the retinol or diluting it either way. But yeah, this comes pre-formulated moisturizer, retinol.

One of the ones we'll talk about, Olay Regenerist. I swear if you Google retinol, this one is one of the first ones to show up every time. It's in that like very pretty, beautiful purple packaging.

It catches your eye. But the nice things about this one, it has peptides, which I talked about, a great complimenting ingredient. It has a nice moisturizing vehicle, and then it also has niacinamide. So a similar soothing profile with a nice soothing moisturizing base. Right.

And this is a product that really has withstood the test of time. I mean, so many people use this. It's very effective, very moisturizing.

I think Olay is a brand that probably doesn't get enough hype on social media, especially with younger generations, but has been a staple for a lot of people their entire lives. And so this is really a great product. They do come in a fragranced one and a fragrance free option. Go with the fragrance free one. I mean, I think that it has the same effective ingredients that the fragrance one does with.

the reduced risk of irritation and allergy. And so in my opinion, if you could choose between the two, I always go fragrance free. And I'll kind of say that over and over again.

Now, if you have a product that has fragrance in it and there's no other alternative, I still think fragrance would be okay under those scenarios. Yeah. And that's kind of like back to our great fragrance debate. But I think realistically, like there are things that, you know, at this point that can be irritating and if it doesn't irritate you, it doesn't irritate you.

So enjoy. And you actually can skip your moisturizing step if you use this. So cleanse, apply this at night, go to sleep. Another one worth mentioning in this category for dry skin is the Rock Retinol Correction Cream. Now this is also a hydrating, it's like the max 24-hour hydration cream, hydrating similar to the Olay one.

I just like Rock when it comes to retinol because they were the first over-the-counter brand to stabilize retinol. Cetretinoin was invented at University of Pennsylvania by Dr. Kligman, and then that was a prescription. ended up becoming Retin-A. And then after that, it became Retinol, which was available over the counter. And the first company to stabilize that form of Retinol was Rock.

And they've withstood the test of time, you know, 50 plus years in formulation. And so this is a moisturizing cream for them. Again, they have a fragrance-free one and a fragrance one. Go with the fragrance-free one.

Those are two titans, two great options. Next up is the best body Retinol. So if you're using Retinol on your face, you're going to see those same benefits by using it on the body.

So go. crepey skin, texture, hyperpigmentation, discoloration is going to have all those benefits and even will have benefits for keratosis pilaris. Yeah, I mean, I think this is so neglected and we've actually gone a little bit out of our way to highlight these areas recently, but the decolletage and all of that just photo damaged skin that just, I don't know, we just ignore it. We like focus in on our face and later I think we see in the clinic a lot of people kind of obsessing over areas that they didn't pay a lot of attention to growing up. So This is an actually interesting category, I think, though, because we both agreed and settled on one item here.

One product. And the reason why is because I used to recommend. And I still recommend, I think it's a great product, has a lot of great ingredients in it, is the Paula's Choice Body Retinol. Now, the reason why I'm not including it in this category anymore is because the Vers Retinol just came out and it's six ounces, so it's bigger than the Paula's Choice option and it's less expensive. And so this is going to have similar effective ingredients to the Paula's Choice one, except it's a lower price and a bigger size.

Yeah, I remember I was perusing the internet. I think when this first came out, I was just, you know, just early morning looking, pretending to shop. Oh, it came from an Instagram ad.

That's what drew me there. And I was like, oh, this is really, really good. And then since then, I've just been loving it. There actually needs to be more body retinols available. People all the time have body acne as well.

Like we talked about the anti-aging part. There's also body acne. So you could theoretically mix your vitamin A retinoid into a moisturizer to help get it on that large surface area. But this Versed is like a really great starter option there. All right.

So he just called it Versed, which is not the name of the brand. The name of the brand is Versed. Versed. Versed is actually like a pre-anesthetic. It will knock you out called Medazolam.

They use it in anesthesia. So every time I say the name of the brand Versed on social media, all the doctors and nurses and anesthetists always comment like, I thought you said, I thought it was called Versed, which is an anesthetic. So not the same thing, but I think this is a great option as a body moisturizer at a reasonable price.

And in addition to having retinol, it has jojoba oil, which we really like as a body oil or a skincare oil. And it also has squalane, which we love. So great option, affordable price.

I think you should be using retinol on your body and wearing sunscreen. You absolutely should. And I almost guarantee that almost nobody is. Including me. Including me.

And I understand why. Next up, big category is the best retinoids for acne. Okay.

This is actually how retinoids started in the first place. So when Dr. Kligman was doing his experiments and we'll probably do a whole video on... how ethical those experiments were, he was really trying to create an ingredient for acne. And as a result of those studies, they found out it was really helping with wrinkles.

So a lot of the people that had done the initial studies didn't want to stop using their retinoid because they were seeing a lot of benefits with their skin pigmentation and with their wrinkles. And then eventually it started to get marketed as a wrinkle cream, but it all started with acne. So let's talk about acne.

So why then is it great for acne? Right. So acne, we talk about this all the time. It's involved with oil production, which leads to occlusion of the pores, which leads to overgrowth of bacteria, which causes inflammation. And so retinoids do decrease the oil production.

They actually increase the skin cell turnover to help normalize keratinization and decrease the pore clogging. They don't decrease bacteria directly. And this is like another fun little caveat.

I just really wanted to put this little caveat in here. They do alter the pH and the actual environment. And they make it inhospitable for the bacteria.

So they don't kill the bacteria, but they actually make it harder for this propionibacterium acnes to live on the skin. And then they do modulate and decrease the inflammation from acne. So of all the causes of acne, retinoids are solving 98% of those causes of acne.

And so that's why it is the most effective ingredient over the counter for acne, and ingredient in general for acne. I mean, Accutane or Isotretinoin is based on this vitamin A derivative for that exact same reason. So let's talk about, I think, the most...

effective ingredient available over the counter for acne is adapalene. Yeah, adapalene is, I mean, it really is. It's hands down. This ingredient was prescription. Now it's available over the counter and it's been studied head to head versus tretinoin and has showed comparable efficacy.

It's also more stable. It can be mixed and used with benzoyl peroxide and is pretty affordable. There's just, it just, there's so much. to say positive about this ingredient in the acne space. First product that came out that was an Adapalene product was Differin Gel.

It was the only one that was available and it was FDA approved for the treatment of acne. Very, very, very, very effective. And then also you have the option of using the La Roche-Posay one, which has very similar ingredients.

Find whatever one is available to you. I actually don't have a preference between the two. Whatever one's more affordable wherever you live and available wherever you live, I think both are going to be amazing options for acne. If you could choose one retinoid for acne that's available over the counter, I would choose one of these two.

And we would be remiss if we didn't recommend prescription medications for acne. I mean, first of all, we have much more effective ingredients. And when you see a dermatologist, so it really is important to see a dermatologist for your acne, especially if you've tried a lot of these over-the-counter products and they're not working. So I think my two favorite retinoids that are available by prescription are tretinoin and tazeratine. Almost no question about that, only because of the bulk of studies, especially that have been done on tretinoin in this space.

And we talk about there's some thought maybe like with anti-aging, maybe retinols are as effective long term, especially for anti-aging as compared to tretinoin. You know, maybe, maybe not. But for acne, just from my personal experience. And I would venture that it's absolutely not true. When we have a person using a low strength retinoid, even low strength tretinoin, and they're like, they've hit a wall or a ceiling, they're like not quite getting to where they need to be.

I mean, time and time again, we increase that strength a little bit and they hit that mark. So I'm very, very committed to the idea that these prescription and stronger retinoids do have a higher ceiling, unfortunately, than some of the over-the-counter ones. Absolutely. And I think that tretinoin is a really good starter and that's where I start most of my patients on that have acne and I think actually I think tazeratine in my opinion is more effective in my experience with using it so I think tazeratine is a little bit more effective but a little bit more irritating and tretinone is a great starter that most people respond really well to and we have multiple concentrations of this and you may want to start with a lower concentration and then go to a higher concentration but this is something that you want to discuss with your dermatologist now that being said how do you get tretinoin if you're not able to see your dermatologist?

So I will always maintain that if you have access to a dermatologist, it's best to see them because they're going to be able to guide you. Maybe, maybe tretinoin is not the best option for you. Maybe you benefit better from something else. Maybe you better, the chemical peels are better for you, or maybe an oral antibiotic is better for you, or there's so many different options for the treatment of acne and anti-aging that it's always, I think, in my opinion, important to see a dermatologist. But if you couldn't see one or you...

don't have access to one or you need a refill of your tretinoin or something like that, I really think the best option telemedicine wise to be able to have access to tretinoin but not see a dermatologist in person is apostrophe.com. That was like a very carefully constructed statement. I completely agree with every little last bit of it. The value of seeing someone in person is absolutely there.

I think establishing the correct diagnosis and having something tangible in front of you is so under... underappreciated these days. However, I am wholeheartedly behind apostrophe in this space.

I think telemedicine, telederm is here to stay. It is necessary for certain people, certain areas. And so that is where I would go to.

Okay. So last category is the best overall retinols. You don't have anything specific that you're trying to treat other than anti-aging, pigmentation, just kind of just in general, what is the best retinols that you could use in your arsenal for whatever? Yeah, and so we actually were looking for a while and like, okay, how are we going to measure these?

And we're actually kind of all over the place because some are expensive, some are inexpensive, some are like straight to the point, some are luxurious. So we decided Paula's Choice gets the first nod. Paula's Choice is 1% retinol. What makes this one, I think, so special is just the dearth of complementing ingredients in this.

So, of course, it uses a solid concentration of retinol, 1%, but it also has a lot of good supporting ingredients. peptides, your THD ascorbate, which is a form of vitamin C. It has oat, which is calming and soothing. We really like that. It has willow bark, which is actually where salicylic acid came from in the first place.

And so it has a lot of complementing and supporting ingredients that make it just overall a great retinol for somebody who doesn't have one of these specific issues we talked about earlier. Okay, I have a confession to make. I actually pitched it to him in that way because I knew he'd do a better job with the ingredients list. Like, just letting you know that he is so good at rattling off lists of things and I stumble through it every time. So that's why I pitched it that way.

Well, I'll take the brunt of it then. Fair enough. All right, the next one, and we've mentioned it in our expensive skincare video in the past.

This one is a little bit pricey. I don't know if you can buy this online. You may need to go to like, uh... medispa or dermatologist office to get this but it's not a prescription so this is the skin better science retinol it's called alpha ret the reason why i like this one is they've done a lot of studies on it so it has data behind it but i also like that they use very interesting ingredients they use glycolic acid in addition to retinol they used a combined form of retinol and lactic acid so it exfoliates and has that benefit of retinol in it and it also has a ton of other ingredients so this has soothing and active ingredients in it like ceramide squalane licorice and glycerin. So just really overall, like hydrating a lot of great supporting ingredients as antioxidants, exfoliants, and retinol.

Now it can be a little bit irritating, but I think that you should ease into this one every other night and it's going to be very effective. A little pricey, but I actually think the studies behind it make it worth it. Yeah.

And I think when you look at the ingredient list though, that is in this every, well, not every, but like most of these ingredients actually have a targeted purpose. There's another thing about ingredients list. Like if I see a long ingredient list, I'm immediately. skeptical and a little scared away. But if you dig in and you see that all the ingredients are targeted towards the main ingredient, in this case, retinol, and that purpose, that's like actually a really big win.

So that's where this one comes in at almost. And I mean, I guess it does. It earns its keep with that laundry list. And then to sum up this entire list, we've already mentioned these two in the past, but I think best in overall retinoids, I think adapalene, even though it was initially marketed as an acne treatment, I still think it's going to do all of the things that we mentioned, pigmentation, anti-aging, affordability.

tolerability. So Adapalene is definitely going to fall into this space. And of course, prescription tretinoin, which I think is the GOAT.

I mean, I think it's the one. It's the one. If you don't know, it's the one.

I start people usually at 0.05% if there's no other contraindication to starting it at that point. And I think it's just overall probably the best for every person who's just getting into retinoids. We're huge fans, obviously, of retinoids, as many of you know. We'll put some links below that you can shop. But ultimately, I think that if you can tolerate a retinoid, you should definitely consider it in your skincare routine.

And we'll probably do a deep dive on tretinoin one day. Yeah, one day. But it deserves it.

That's the best of retinoids. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Please like, comment, and subscribe. Yeah, we appreciate you always. Thank you for being a part of this journey with us.

See you in the next video.

Transcript for:Guide to Retinols and Retinoids

Transcript for:
Guide to Retinols and Retinoids