retinol making me look ten years older..

[kryptonfactor]

Looking for a bit of advice. I started using a retinol eye cream a few weeks ago, after about a week it started having a really unpleasant effect on my face. My under eye skin went very dry and rough and the fine lines under my eyes deepened and looked SO much worse, I don't exaggerate when I say I looked ten years older, probably more. I stopped using the cream and have been moisturising like crazy and it is improving, my face and skin look much more normal today.

Is this something I have to just ride out and then I will see the benefit? Or did the retinol just not agree with me? I'm really not vain but I looked so awful I got a bit of a fright. I have read about retinol causing some dryness or irritation but this seemed really extreme.

I wanted to add you really need to be careful with what you get recommended OP if it's going on your face... I saw sb here on MN talking about putting her makeup over retinol, which implies she's using it in daytime, which again implies she's not done her research, will likely end up here at same point in the future complaining about mysterious spots on her face and worst of all: she's out to give potentially damaging advice to people who are none the wiser.

One more thing: never apply retinol on damp skin! Wash skin before with warm water and fully dry your face. Hyal. ac. likes water but with retinol the face it must be dry.

I always use Tret on damp skin. Works well for me.

I heard that from a dermatologist way back when, but google churned out these:
www.byrdie.com/retinol-cream-myths
www.newbeauty.com/retinol-tips-for-dry-skin/6
Basically, retinol over water might be more reactive so people with sensitive skin shouldn't do it. I you're using tretinoin (the mother of all types of retinol) your skin's used to the vitamin A, whereas the OP is having trouble. I often used retinol over an hyal.ac. lotion but after being an id*iot and using retinol over glyc. ac. I decided to stick to the rules! My face was like this: bright red😡Thermal water and hyal. ac. saved me! I'm laughing now but I wasn't then.

You don’t put it on your under eyes or nose
you use alongside a good moisturiser

its having the opposite effect for me
I followed the advice of the dermatologist

@Davyjones That sucks but I'm glad you posted! I'd never heard it shouldn't go on the nose so it's good to know. I just knew about the eyes and the lips.

Girl, that’s literally part of the process with retinol… don’t worry you’re only going to look older for a few weeks. Everyone’s saying to stop using it or they stopped.. you can keep using it eventually all of that will go away. You’re going through purging. People have to educate themselves a little bit. That would ease them a little bit! Trust the process.

Are you using moisturiser?