Help! Burnt my face with retinol - when will the redness and peeling stop?

[feesh]

Like a bloody eejit, I rather generously slapped on a sample of 1% retinol cream the other night. (I had already been using a 0.3% every night and had recently started using some new stuff without any issues, which I thought was 1%, but maybe it wasn't.....).

Anyway now my face is burning up and peeling and it looks AWFUL! It started either yesterday morning or the day before, not entirely sure.

When will it stop? I can't put anything on it as it hurts too much, even my son's eczema cream. I look weird and red and puffy and like I have face dandruff!

I feel like a right idiot. How long until I look normal again?!

I had the same reaction a couple years ago OP, I was given an otc antihistamine at the pharmacy. It took a few days to go down and a bit longer for the texture to return to normal. Be sure to use sunscreen when using retinol, even in the winter!

This is a life saver for highly sensitised skin.

www.laroche-posay.co.uk/toleriane-ultra

I was given it when my skin reacted to the sun due to medication.

It takes as long as it takes I'm afraid. You are wearing an SPF aren't you?

La Roche-posey Cicaplast Baume is great for irritated, sensitive skin. Very soothing.

Was it retinol or the prescription tretinoin? Which brand?

Yes to lots of spf.

It won’t take long to settle down - the worst of it should be over within a week max, then you’ll be left with sensitised skin which you’ll need to treat very gently. Ie no more retinol at all or any harsh cleansers until your skin has completely recovered.

If you can’t handle any products, something like Aquaphor might be gentle enough. It will act as a barrier for your skin and keep it soothed and hydrated until you get over the worst of it.

Your skin is peeling, but don’t feel tempted to exfoliate the dry skin off. You need to take your skincare back to the basics and use very gentle products.

I had this redaction to 1%. Lasted a couple of days. I read that you once the peeling had finished you should continue to use it so I did apprehensively and I’ve never reacted since.

Same happened to me before Christmas. I looked as though my face was really sunburnt 😲 but once it calmed down, with very gentle skin care and high spf, my skin was amazing! Still is. I'm too scared to try the retinol again though! It took a about a week for the worst of the redness/flakiness to go, but a good month to look fully recovered, but although it looked ok, it was still very sensitive.

I second cicaplast- I've recently upped my tretinoin to nightly applications and it's keeping the peeling at bay/ heeling the small patch that is prone to peeling

Thanks everyone. It’s a bit better this morning. I did try LRP Cicaplast last night as I had some for my son’s eczema, but even that burnt like crazy to apply!

I do religiously wear SPF 50.....except on Monday and I remember being out in the sun watching my daughter horse riding and thinking, this is really stupid because I didn’t apply my SPF today! Although it was 4.30pm, the sun was setting, and the sun is pretty weak here even during the day (we are in the Middle East, but the dust in the air makes the sun surprisingly feeble here, believe it or not!).

So maybe it is sunburn, although I think it’s more likely to be the sample cream I used being too strong for me.

Anyway thank you for all the advice - have taken it all on board and found it very helpful.

Out of interest OP, was it the drunk elephant sample in last months space NK birthday bag?

Only because I did the same thing and had the exact same reaction!

It took about a week to go away and I was cursing the word retinol the entire time. Once my skin recovered, it looked so lovely and glowy that I ended up buying a 0.5% retinol from the ordinary and adding it to my routine!

So don’t despair! It’ll be fine soon!

Yes it was!!! Looking forward to the glowing skin!

I actually think it’s a bit irresponsible to give 1% retinol away as a sample. I mean, I am an experience retinol user and was already using 0.3% and it did this to me. There might be other people who have never used retinol before and wouldn’t necessarily know that you have to work up to using 1% and that it needs to be diluted with moisturiser etc first. Plus, it doesn’t really work as a sample concept anyway, because the results take weeks or even months to be seen.