hey guys happy Tuesday I think this is gonna put up on oops I wanted to film a video for you guys today sharing with you what I consider to be my top 4 retinol products on the market I'm gonna tell you why they're good what they're helpful for and how to use them so retinol is kind of an umbrella term for topical vitamin A top of the vitamin a includes retinoic acid which you can get by prescription it stret knowing it's been around for decades and decades and in the 80s we discover that it has
an anti-aging benefit and that it boosts collagen production in the skin improving the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines it also removes sun damaged skin cells and it can remove pre skin cancer cells as well so it has a lot of benefits it does require a prescription and while it is an effective medication in the beginning it can be very very irritating a lot of people cannot cannot tolerate that and they end up bailing on on topical retinoic acid a que reddening so you have a few other alternatives out there the number one that I
often recommend to you guys I have many videos on is going to be adapt Elaine now adapt Elaine aka different used to only be available by prescription it wasn't until a few years ago when it became available over-the-counter adapt lean is a naphthalene derivative of retinoic acid that sounds sounds really fancy it's basically a third-generation retinoic acid meaning we've just played around with the pharmacology and the structure of retinoic acid to see how we can get it to be delivered to the skin differently and target different receptors so that's how we got a dappling but
we haven't had a dappling at our disposal for as many years as we have had tried Noah so we simply don't have the amount of data on a dappling for anti-aging benefits and we've been using it mostly almost entirely exclusively for acne for many many years but we are now beginning to have some small studies I have not a dappling like tread no nak retin-a is in fact promising and effective as an ENT aging ingredient specifically there are clinical trials showing improvement in actinic keratoses which are basically those sun damaged skin cells that I alluded
to earlier and we have data showing that it can improve the appearance of what are called solar lenticels are those sunspots the nice thing about a dappling is that your skin it doesn't have to do anything to it to activate it it's already in its active state so that it combined to retinoic acid receptors in the skin so adapting you can buy as different different gel this is by gal derma or la roche-posay of course has adapt alene in their epic lair line same drug just different Browns so I get a lot of questions from
you guys what is a good ingredient for brightening up sunspots aka solar lunch it goes you may have them on your face the backs of your hands adapt lean is going to be an evidence-based ingredient for doing that not only not but for improving the look of wrinkles and fine lines with long-term use to use add a point and start using it at nighttime the way to use it at nighttime is to at the end of the day wash your face get all of your makeup all the dirt oil whatnot off of your face and
then put a moisturizer on a lot of the moisturizer to fully absorb and then apply adapt lean this minimizes the irritation that people can experience with adapt lean you think about the logistics of a nighttime skin care routine a lot of people myself included do their nighttime skincare routine a few hours B even before going to bed in these cases go ahead and wait to apply your topical vitamin A until you get into bed like right before you get into bed that way the moisturizer has fully absorbed and it's fully dry but if you do
shower and do your nighttime routine and hop right into bed a lot of people do that as well then just make sure that the moisturizer is dry full it has dried fully so that you apply apply the vitamin a derivative you certainly can apply adapt lean in the morning I'm like retinoic acid adapt LeAnn actually is stable in the presence of light so you don't have to worry about it degrading a wide exposure after after you put it on you can also use a dappling on other body sites besides your face you can put it
on your hands the forearms if you have especially sun spots that you're trying to improve the appearance of I find on these body slides it's a lot less drying there are fewer issues around irritation so you don't necessarily need to put moisturizer on first let it fully dry then put the the adapt lean on I find that it's much less irritating on those body sites but you certainly can do that if you're finding that it is irritating for you what about on the neck or the upper chest these are areas you have to be careful
because adapt lean it concentrates in the oily surfaces and there are fewer oil glands on the neck in particular so it can be a lot more irritating there so I always tell people to kind of back off on using it on the neck some of the other products I'm going to mention in today's video might be better suited for you if you're looking to improve the appearance of photoaging on the neck and the upper chest and around the eyes as well because adapt lean around the eyes too can be very irritating adapt lean is much
less irritating down retinoic acid so if you have if you tried retinoic acid aka try knowing I've had a miserable experience with it that doesn't make adapting out of the realm of possibility it is much less irritating than down retinoic acid akh right now I'm that's adapt alene beyond its benefits for photo aging it also obviously improve any existing acne that you have it also can help in improving hyperpigmentation either related to photo damage or healing acne post acne marks adapt lean as well as all these other ingredients one thing that I want to clarify
to you guys is about the appearance of pores because people often ask me about this it it will help your pores become smaller with consistent use however there are a few caveats and things you need to understand about that moving forward pore size is pretty much fixed it will help make the oil gland a little bit smaller and so if the oil lens kind of stretching out your pore you have a lot of sebum you have built up dead skin cells in there through adapting clearing that out it can help shrink it but it actually
can make your pores appear larger because what it's going to do is remove some of the dead built-up stuff on top of the pore that's kind of camouflaging it and as that's coming off the pore can appear larger but in fact it is not changed in size for the most part pore size is something that it is fixed it can be very challenging to to change this can help but you may actually and using it end up feeling that your pores are larger they're not actually larger they're just more obvious now because all the dead
built-up stuff what's covering them is now making them more apparent it will help improve the oiliness of those pores and that down the road can certainly help with things like acne the pore size thing is going to be the same for these other ingredients as well okay the next ingredient is red and aldehyde this is a topical cosmeceutical vitamin a derivative so it's not under the FDA monograph for any specific skin disease or condition like retinoic acid and adapt alene are retinol to hide unlike retinoic acid and the naphthalene derivative adapt alene it requires your
skin to to oxidize the retin aldehyde this is done by cells in the skin called keratinocytes and they actually have to be on a at a particular stage in their development to do this so not all the skin cells are going to convert the retinaldehyde once you put it on the skin but this allows for more slow and controlled delivery of the vitamin A retinol the hide is definitely an evidence-based ingredient for improving wrinkles fine lines boosting up collagen production in the deeper layer of the skin removing hyperpigmentation improving the appearance of pores although again
without caveat that it may actually make them more noticeable by removing the dead stuff on top as far as what you can expect is that one great thing it's certainly less irritating for sure partially because your skin takes it up more slowly and deals with it in a slower fashion so well it's less irritating it's going to take longer to work but it definitely will get you to those those those endpoints that you're seeking of improving wrinkles and fine lines smoothing out the skin improving hyperpigmentation I mentioned this product and other videos a lot it's
the oven retirin al zero point one intensive cream and why I want you bring this product up again in today's video is because not only is a retinol dahye which as I've said is more slow-release and so less irritation but the reason I wanted to call attention to this product again in today's video is because this product actually has been shown to improve the appearance of crows feet around the eyes so I always tell you guys be really careful you know vitamin-a around the eyes can cause a lot of irritation so and like my adapt
lien videos for example I'm always hesitant to tell anybody to put it around the eyes but this in fact can be used around the eyes it's got that slow uptake factor going for it that makes it much less irritating and easier to tolerate around the eyes so for those of you looking to improve the appearance of crows feet around the eyes this is a good product to consider there actually is a clinical study and actual people showing this to be effective for that I'll list it down below for you guys so that's why I have
a lot of confidence in this product and I think it's a great choice if you're looking to improve crow's feet and also you could consider using it for wrinkles around the mouth too that is another area where you can run into a lot of irritation and so this is a good one and it also can be used to ajumma Nate the neck how do you use this product I would recommend using it in your nighttime skincare routine now unlike adapt alene or your prescription retinoic acid this product you might find works very well for you
as your nighttime moisturizer it doesn't require you to think too much about whether or not you want to put your moisturizer on first and then put on your vitamin A or anything like that it's already a nice moisturizer so you can basically put it on at night before you go to bed as your nighttime moisturizer to your face and neck just make sure that your face is clean you've washed your face before you put this on and it can be your nighttime moisturizer it is expensive so you may instead want to use another moisturizer and
just kind of use this and spot focused areas that you're seeking to improve the appearance of like wrinkles fine lines and hyperpigmentation for example so if you really only want to use this to try and remedy wrinkles around the eyes then go ahead and use a regular moisturizer allow it to dry fully and then apply this on top once the moisturizer has dried you know you certainly can do this this this can be used not only around the eyes but also on the neck and the chest if you're seeking to improve the appearance of wrinkles
in those areas and I will say this when it comes to using a product like this introduce it into your routine very slowly to minimize the risk of irritation and by slowly I mean try using it once a week even for the first week or so then bumping up to twice a week and then you know every other night go really slowly you don't have to necessarily use these ingredients every single day to derive benefit from them so we know that using it as little as one to two nights a week gets you those results
just a little bit more slowly and bought with a lot less irritation so it's always better err on the side of caution and start really really really slowly rather than jumping in and trying to use that every single day I've covered a naphthalene derivative of retinoic acid which is already active good to go and that's different or adapt alene then the next in line is right now the hide your skin just has to do one thing to it so it's a lot slower to work but with less irritation and the next ingredient in line is
retinol now retinol your skin has to do to perform two steps on it and some of the skin cells have to be in a certain differentiation state as was the case with retinol the high retinol is going to take a longer to start working as opposed to as opposed to retinoic acid aka treta knowing but retinols there is good evidence showing that long-term consistent use of retinol gets those results of improvement of wrinkles and fine lines boosting up collagen production in the deeper layers of the skin removing sun damaged skin cells and also can be
helpful for acne oiliness and pores all again with the caveat that it might make my make your pores more noticeable however not all retinols are created equal you guys I am really really really picky with what retinol I feel comfortable recommending to people because retinol it's not an FDA approved ingredient for anything it's a cosmetic so manufacturers can just put retinol in their products say they have a retinol cream but they're not required to demonstrate efficacy bioavailability uptake and things like that so I am really picky about what retinols I recommend because I've seen studies
looking on different retinols over-the-counter and some are just not just aren't cutting it as far as bioactivity some are just not like the the manufacturer they don't have any there's no for there's no there's no regulatory body requiring them to down trait stability or anything like that so there is a lot of variability out there you guys so I tend to go with the bigger companies like Johnson & Johnson L'Oreal Allergan and why not but Johnson Johnson L'Oreal they have retinols that you can buy in the drugstore that are not cost prohibitive and they're good
those are good those are brands that have a long-standing track record in rd4 retinols let's talk about the Sara B resurfacing retinol serum this is a great choice for not only those of you seeking to improve wrinkles and fine lines but I want to call attention to this product for people who have a lot of post acne discoloration or post acne redness the reason for this is that not only does this product have retinol it has niacin amide as well as licorice root extract those are two ingredients that are anti-inflammatory and have been shown to
improve hyperpigmentation particularly in combination with retinol it helps in how pigment is transferred around and it can help calm down the inflammation of the skin that drives hyperpigmentation so I love this product for people whose acne heals with a dark mark but it's also a great one to consider if your acne heals with redness a lot of people have a lot of persistent erythema aka redness especially after they've gone through a course of accutane and they want to use something that's going to improve that this is a good product to consider it's not it's not
your as irritating as prescription retinoic acid and after you've gone through a course of accutane maybe your acne is pretty well controlled this type of product actually can be very helpful not only in kind of giving you an additional veil of acne control but I mean it has ingredients are seriously going to go to work and improving some of that redness so I really like it in those such ray shons another group that this is one that you might want to consider although be very cautious is people who have redness and sensitive skin possibly even
rosacea you know it's not a rule that people with sensitive skin and rosacea cannot use retinol that's not true as a matter of fact a lot of people with rosacea and I'm doing well with topical vitamin A and in the long run and actually can't improved the rosacea it's merely a matter of getting over the hurdle of the retinas ation process aka that period of time we have a lot of dryness and irritation and peeling so retinol is something that people with sensitive skin can entertain introducing into their skincare routine to derive the benefits of
using vitamin A so this is a product for people with rosacea they might find it actually beneficial and that not only is a retinol and a slow-release formulation so it's not gonna dump all the retinol in at one time into your skin which can cause a lot of irritation it's kind of a gradual slow release but it also has ingredients that are helpful for rosacea on their own the niacin amide and a licorice root both of those can calm down redness and inflammation a lot and so this is something that for people with rosacea they
actually you know potentially can't consider using BB if you have rosacea be very be very conservative with how you introduce this consider using it only one night a week see how you tolerate it and then building up gradually if you can get over the hurdle and not have issues with irritation and flaring your rosacea you might find that long-term use of this product actually helps your rosacea so I want to bring attention to it for those people in particular I think it's a good one to to consider because of those reasons and Sarah B you
know they came out with this product after they merged L'Oreal L'Oreal has a long-standing track record of cosmeceutical our research and development they're right are fantastic and and you know L'Oreal they're gonna be the manufacturers of a lot of your more expensive medical grade retinol probably it's most likely the same retinol same retinol technology the same level of research and development what I like about about these retinols too is now these companies like L'Oreal and Johnson & Johnson they actually look they actually take these into the clinic on and perform studies with dermatologists on real
dermatology patients showing efficacy they also do diligence by their retinols in terms of the studies that they do on cell models and skin cell models as well as in people looking at the molecular markers of retinoic acid activity specifically there is a marker called crab p2 which stands for cytosolic retinoic acid binding protein this is something that is a surrogate marker of retinoic acid remember retinol your skin has to convert it to retinoic acid and the thing is companies don't have to show that their retinol is effectively converted to retinoic acid so retinol it has
to be stabilized there are a lot of there are a lot of hurdles around that how to use this again introduce it into your nighttime routine very very slowly this is a product that is not as moisturizing as you might need to get over the initial dryness and irritation that you might experience with it so I do recommend applying a moisturizer first and then applying this after the moisturizer has fully dried I do recommend using it at night time before you go to bad argument Lee one of the best is the Neutrogena rapid wrinkle repair
regenerating cream long name this is fragrance free they have one with fragrance in it I'm recommending the fragrance free wine Neutrogena is owned by Johnson & Johnson they have over 20 years of research and to retinols they have over 20 patents retinol patents and they've done many many many clinical studies on actual dermatology patients using their retinols and this product is amazing it's super moisturizing it can be used as a nighttime moisturizer to the face around the eyes just make sure you don't get it in the eyes and around the mouth as well as the
neck and the backs of the hands and the forearms this the SA and this stands for sustained action and basically it is a delivery system that allows for the slow release of that retinol to minimize irritation unlike the CeraVe product and that some of these others that I mentioned I will say that the Neutrogena product does sting when you apply it it even tells you it's going to do that on the label now I hate it when people make this blanket statement that in order for a product to work it must be stinging and that
tells you that it's working but with this product you certainly can't expect to have a little bit of tingling a tingling sensation and a slight warmth but that goes away right away it can be used again on the face the neck the forearms the hands and I find that this product works very well if you use it at nighttime cleanse the skin and rinse off the cleanser and apply it while your skin is just a little bit damp just as I always recommend you guys do with moisturizer again you will feel that tingling warm sensation
but the slow release is still slow release sustained action on this retinol it's not going to cause a kind of irritancy that you might expect say if you put adapt lean on to downscale it's gonna be very irritating but this it it's going to get into your skin very in kind of a controlled fashion so you don't have to worry about that as much and the vehicle is very moisturizing I know a lot of people will all be worried about the fact that this is a no jar but rest assured is very stable in the
jar packaging they don't leave the jar with a lid off you know on your countertop that would not be good but the retinol is table and this jar packaging and that's not something that you have to worry about with this product there is a study using this product in actual dermatology patients and Clinton a clinical setting showing that out they looked out to a year actually showing that patients continue to have ongoing improvement not only in wrinkles and fine lines but also in hyperpigmentation this product duels as a moisturizer and as an anti-aging powerhouse and
is particularly well suited for people who have sensitive skin and did not tolerate retinoic acid and the vehicle is like I said super moisturizing so that's an advantage in my opinion of this over over different a dappling gel is that it's kind of a it's kind of a single product that that that meets both needs of having a moisturizer and and delivering the retinol effectively so that's why I like it this product has Mertes leaf extract in it and what's interesting about that particular extract you guys know I am always like leery about a lot
of plant extracts but Mertes leaf extract actually has been shown to help in the uptake of retinol and the activity of the retinol and so it's a good ingredient and it's kind of part of part of their their patented technology is to have that in there what I like about it is that of all of these products that I mentioned well with the exception of the event product actually but more so with Neutrogena is just the formula is really ideally suited for for being a good moisturizer but also I know confidently because I've seen the
data that the retinol actually is delivered to the skin effectively and the formulation is very conscientious and that it really addresses the needs of the consumer to have effective delivery of the retinol with minimal irritation so in summary adapt lean is going to be the most active but of these is the one that's going to be more likely to cause irritation adapt lean is very well suited for addressing acne as well as issues related to acne like hyperpigmentation and oiliness it is going to be more drawing an irritating however and not everyone will tolerate it
well as far as anti-aging benefit we have some data with it but given that it's in its active state your skin doesn't have to do anything to it and we do have now a growing body of evidence showing that it is in fact helpful for improving the look of photo aged skin it's definitely worth considering I think the data for adapt lean is strongest as far as anti aging in terms of its ability to improve sun spots so I would say it's a good one for not only acne but for people who are interested in
improving sun spots like on the backs of the hands or the forearms or the face the event product is retinaldehyde so your skin just has to do one thing to it and so it's a more slow release delivery once you're less irritation and it's a product that you could consider pursuing to improve the look of crow's feet wrinkles around the mouth as well as we're Juvonen ech more so than an adapt alene which could cost too much irritation in those areas next in line is your retinols your skin has to do two things to them
but we have a lot of evidence that they can be helpful for acne as well as a lot of evidence that they are in fact helpful for improving the look of photo damaged skin through the induction and production of collagen improving wrinkles and fine lines removing hyperpigmentation etc and in the category of retinols i think that the CeraVe resurfacing retinol is an amazing product for people who have acne that heals with hyperpigmentation and or redness I think it's a great product for people and their 20s and 30s who are still especially who are still coping
with acne maybe they have sensitive skin maybe they call themselves combination skin but they also want some anti-aging and aspect to their skincare routine beyond sun protection which guys it's the most important thing I think this product it really packs a lot and by a lot I mean actually a few ingredients but the ingredients are are strong and so that's a good one and then lastly the Neutrogena rapid wrinkle repair regenerating cream fragrance free 20 years of R&D behind that very very very good very good moisturizing anti wrinkle cream for rejuvenating the look of photo
aged skin so I hope this video is helpful to you guys and kind of breaking down these different vitamin A products that I like and recommend and kind of the nuances of who they might be helpful for but comment below and if you would like a video on kind of the top retinol myths because there are several myths out there I'd be happy to to do that for you guys if you like this video give it a thumbs up share it with your friends and as always don't forget sunscreen and subscribe I'll talk to you
guys tomorrow bye [Music] you [Music]
