Could anyone help me choose a retinol product?

[Notmenottodaynotever]

Off to Boots tomorrow, overwhelmed by the choices of retinol products. Some are only about £7 (they can't be any good can they?) while others are £30-50.
I suppose I just want something uncomplicated I can slap on at night, to start with at least.
I'm early 50s.
Thank you

The La Roche Posay range is very good and currently 20% off at Boots.

I'd sign up for Dermatica instead.

A good one to start off with is Indeed Labs Retinol Reface. I also used The Ordinary Granactive Retinoids emulsion to start and would recommend it.

The inkey list is good. However retinol has done a huge amount for my skin, moisturising serums are better for me.

Try the Olay night cream with retinol. (Don't use their retinol serum at the same time though!)

Skin & me! You get prescription level Tretinoin and they start you gradually so your skin doesn't react too much

After wanting to avoid anything scary for years, I'm debating too. Is it really likely to work though?

any issues with pigmentation - mixed race and if .i get any kind of reaction to something, it tends to leave a mark.

I’m loving all things Medik8 at the moment. Not cheap but effective.

Thank you all! I've made a list and am working through it. It's not very accessible though is it, I feel like I've fallen down a rabbit hole! One I looked at wanted me to apply four different things to my face at night (oh 6 actually, forgot the eye cream) and I'm just not going to keep that up.
strangely I'm also looking at acne related stuff for my teen at the same time and a lot of overlap in products!
@GettingStuffed what kind of serum did you end up using?

Looking at something like this maybe?

Over the counter retinol is a great place to start if you have never used it before, don't bother spending £50 on it, you are basically paying for packaging and/ or brand name. The Ordinary or Medik8 are great brands for starting off, not too expensive. Also, make sure you use sunscreen ever day when using it.

If you want to, you could look into graduating to tretinoin (prescription strength retinol) over time for best results. The reason there is crossover with acne creams is that tretinoin was originally trialled as acne medication in the 70s, and over time they realised that the effects of longer term use included improvements in skin tone, texture, and a reduction in fine lines and wrinkles, so it started to be used for anti ageing as well.
But it's not a quick fix and it is strong stuff (it's thought to be about 20 times stronger than the over the counter retinols) so you need to be careful using it as is quite harsh and can cause irritation and peeling, especially at the start.

It can also only be got on prescription, so either a dermatologist (expensive option), or if you are in the UK you could try Dermatica or Skin & Me - subscription services that provide it for a monthly fee. Or if you can get to Spain you can get it in pharmacies under the name Retirides, or some online pharmacies sell it (but can be a bit dodgy).

However many people are happy to stick to retinols as there is less irritation.

Also, you don't need eye cream. Keep it simple at the start. Don't introduce too many ingredients at once, your skin may freak out, and you have no way of knowing which of them caused irritation.
Start with one or two, the slowly introduce something else and see how that goes. Although you don't need 6 things on your face really.

Here is my basic routine - I use a cheap Vitamin C serum and cheap moisturiser.

Morning -
Vitamin C serum
Moisturiser
Spf

Evening-
Cleanse
Tretinoin
Moisturise

Occasionally I will use a glycolic acid for exfoliation, maybe every week or 10 days, at night instead of my tretinoin. But because my skin is sensitive, too much exfoliation only irritates it.

I also sometimes use a niacinamide serum in the evening before my tretinoin, but it's a 'nice to have' rather than essential.

@Farmageddon thank you that kind of practical advice is so useful, thank you for taking the time to post! And everyone who has contributed.
I've always moisturised but never been good at sticking to anything much more - I think I've got away with it for a long time with pretty good skin but something said to me lately made me realise I am looking older and would like to have a shot at improving this.

Does the sunscreen need to be any particular SPF? 25 ok or should it be 50?
Do you usually get this within a moisturiser or use it separately? (I know my current moisturiser has SPF 25).

@Notmenottodaynotever you should always use a separate sunscreen as you would need to use A LOT of moisturiser to get the full benefit of the SPF that’s included. I prefer to use SPF50 all year round.

Thanks @TattiePants so you mean something like these? In addition to a regular moisturiser.
sorry for all the questions but I'm off into town shortly!

Don't bother with OTC retinol, just go straight to Tretinoin. You can get it from Farmacia Andorra for fairly cheap and it's legit. If you want to you can also use Skin and Me or Dermatica, but from what I have seen they often seem to up the dose to quickly and also too often (every night from the start which is too much for most people). Plus it's a subscription so if you don't use all your product you are still paying for more. That's why I prefer getting Retirides online from Spain.

Join the Tretinoin and Retinoids group on FB, they have loads of advice, and watch some YouTube videos and most importantly start slooooow - a couple of times a week, possibly with moisturiser underneath to buffer to start with. And always start with 0.025. It takes months to see results but when the results start to come they are pretty amazing. You just aren't going to get the same kind of result with OTC retinol, its not strong enough.

God, I sound like some crazy lady! But I was very slow and careful with using tret as I was aware that I was putting prescription grade stuff on my face that I hadn't purchased from a Dr! And it has been so worth it, now I am in a proper routine with it and my skin is by far the best it's ever been.

I use this SPF. I was using La Roche Posay but its really expensive and when I realised I was going to have to use it every day of the year I needed something cheaper! This stuff is pretty much exactly the same apparently.

www.lookfantastic.com/garnier-ambre-solaire-ultra-light-sensitive-sun-protection-face-fluid-spf50-40ml/12564736.html?affil=thggpsad&switchcurrency=GBP&shippingcountry=GB&thg_ppc_campaign=71700000101117082&adtype=pla&product_id=12564736&gclid=CjwKCAjwzNOaBhAcEiwAD7Tb6Nm-phZZRRPh6XwhEz19BnKTo8MpY40CnSFhc3P1qFTQDidjX0fDixoCaj8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

The reason that most people don't get on with tretinoin is because they go in too quickly with it and it causes irritation. I got a tiny bit of peeling when i first started, but no irritation, but apparently if you start slow enough you don't even need to get peeling.

@Notmenottodaynotever yes a dedicated SPF like one of those. I’ve used the LRP one you’ve posted which is very good and also like the Ambre Solaire one linked above.

As other posters have said, start slowly and build up usage over a number of weeks.

God it all feels so complicated.. is this stuff to avoid botox?
I'm only 37 but my family have old skin 😂

I buy Tretinoin from the same Spanish pharmacy @Smilelesstalkmore mentioned. So much cheaper than a subscription, and it works. I buy several at a time to reduce overall postal charges.

I’ve been using Dermatica on subscription for a few years and it’s definitely improved my skin. You can change the delivery schedule from between 4 to 8 weeks so you should never find you have lots of bottles that you need to use up.

if you do want to stick with OTC retinol then I liked LRP’s Redermic.

Following this with interest. I do get Botox but that only helps mask the situation and it doesn't do anything for the lower part of my face obviously. I've been tempted by retinols but I've got sensitive skin and it all looks so complicated, I just don't know where to start.

Realistically I'm not going to stick with anything complicated, the Botox is really a lazy person's solution to wrinkles, I've never really done a skincare regime or anything.

I believe La Roche Posay and Garnier are both owned by L'Oréal, or at least the parent company of L'Oréal. So the formulas are probably near identical, it's just that LRP is a more luxurious brand so more expensive I guess.

I once read that they are made in the same factory, but on the LRP packaging it says made in France, and the AS one it says made in Germany so I don't think so...Anyway, both are good for under make up or everyday use.

As others have said OP, using a moisturiser with added SPF just doesn't give you enough coverage, unless you slather on a ridiculous amount.

That's Granactive Retinoid. You need to divide the 5% by around 10 to get the actual % of active ingredient in it. The Ordinary are buggers for this. (It's fine as an entry level retinol product, but won't do much and you'd be wanting to upgrade very quickly)
Watch Nadine Baggott's videos on different retinols (Granactive Retinoid, retinol, retinal, vitamin A/Tret etc) it's explained very clearly.
Most of the ones you find in the high street are going to be every grade and particularly if the % isn't mentioned (like on the Olay one) it's thought to lie at around 0.3%
The good thing about starting with a low grade is that your skin won't be irritated probably.
I've used a 0.5% Granactive, followed by the Inkey List one. Now I'm using 0.06% tret.