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

For facial sunscreen I love the AS SPF 50.

This is great advice. I also use Farmacia Andorra and get Retirides. I only had issues once with ordering quite a few tubes, and them not filling out a customs form properly or something, so my package was returned to them. I got a refund (minus the postage fee, which is about €20, which was annoying). I now only order 2 or 3 tubes at a time, which is more expensive but I think it goes a bit under the radar. They always mark it as toothpaste on the packaging 😀

It costs about €20 per 30ml tube, plus postage and even with using it nearly every night, a tube lasts me about 3 months. After 3 years I am now on a higher strength of 0.05%, but I used 0.025% for about a year or more before upgrading (and started out using it once a week for about 2 months, then twice a week for a while etc.)

I don't think I'm going to bother upping to 0.1% because I have gone through the purging and irritation stage and don't want to risk it again, plus I have gotten good results already. As Smilelesstalkmore says, slow and steady is key. If used consistently and properly, your skin will look much better, but its an investment and not a quick fix.

Also, sorry I mentioned Medik8 as a starting brand earlier, must have gotten it confused with something else as it is quite expensive. There is no need to spend that much.

Geek and Gorgeous, The Ordinary are good starting brands for retinol or retinaldehyde before graduating to tretinoin.

Just wanted to say, if you are talking about the lower part of your face and you mean jowling or sagging, tretinoin isn't going to do that much to help I'm afraid.

It does brighten and improve skin texture, and over time it is supposed to increase collagen production and slightly thicken the deeper layers of skin, all giving a plumped up effect, but not enough to counter significant sagging or jowling, which are to do with the fascia and muscle in your face rather than your skin.

I have been on 0.025 for about 18 months and have been thinking of going up. But I have been reading quite a lot and apparently when used long term, the strength doesn't really make a difference. And I get on so well with 0.025 now, I use it on a freshly washed face (it is recommended to use on completely dry skin to start as damp skin absorbs more) every other night and I have no problems with it at all, just lovely skin now! So I don't want to mess things around by upping the dose, and I think I will just stay on 0.025 for life.

I have neither the money nor the inclination for Botox, plus I feel like it's just kicking the can down the road. I would much rather have a naturally ageing face with nice glowy skin, than 'no wrinkles' or not being able to move my face properly etc. I am seeing more and more women my age with obvious Botox and fillers who talk about how they just want to look 'fresher' and 'tweak', but already it looks like more than a tweak. Lots of women do really like botox, it's just not for me.

I can't find it on the farmacia andorra site, can anyone help?

Do a search for 'Retirides' in the search bar, that's the brand name for it. You can change the language to English on the site also.

Irritation? purging? getting cold feed now!
Thanks for the more hard-core suggestions but I really do need to ease myself in here
Have been to shops and come out with a haul of Indeed Retinol Reface, a vitamin C moisturiser and La Roche-Posay 50+
Would have preferred to spend less on the sunscreen but there was actually very little of it in the shop, wrong time of year I suppose.
I'm going to look for a YouTube video about application in case I put it too near eyes etc. Tonight will just be a patch test I suppose.

Smilelesstalkmore
I have been on 0.025 for about 18 months and have been thinking of going up. But I have been reading quite a lot and apparently when used long term, the strength doesn't really make a difference. And I get on so well with 0.025 now, I use it on a freshly washed face (it is recommended to use on completely dry skin to start as damp skin absorbs more) every other night and I have no problems with it at all, just lovely skin now! So I don't want to mess things around by upping the dose, and I think I will just stay on 0.025 for life.

I agree, and will be sticking to the 0.05% as my skin tolerates it well. I have read a summary of the clinical study which compared the results after one year of use of 0.025% and 0.1% and the difference was minimal - there was no statistically significant difference in the visible results from those who used the higher strength, but they did report more irritation. Like you said, it's more about consistent use over time.

It's here, you want the 0 25 one in the lighy blue packaging. It does disappear from time to time, I got really worried a few months ago but it is back on there again. It took me ages to pluck up the courage to buy it from there, and I was shitting myself that it was a scam, and the website isnt the most efficient either, but it was all fine, it took a couple of weeks to arrive. I almost couldnt believe it when it actually landed in my postbox! 😂I have ordered 3 times from them now, I buy 2 or 3 tubes at a time to save on postage.

www.farmaciaenandorra.com/shop/retirides-crema-tretinoina-30g?search=retirides&description=true&category_id=0&sub_category=true

The irritation and purging are from prescription strength stuff - you shouldn't get much irritation from over the counter retinol.

"Just wanted to say, if you are talking about the lower part of your face and you mean jowling or sagging, tretinoin isn't going to do that much to help I'm afraid.

It does brighten and improve skin texture, and over time it is supposed to increase collagen production and slightly thicken the deeper layers of skin, all giving a plumped up effect, but not enough to counter significant sagging or jowling, which are to do with the fascia and muscle in your face rather than your skin."

Ah this is good to know, thanks! Yeah it's more sagging than anything else, I'm in my 40s and quite thin, I'm also a runner (the first think my Botox lady asked me was 'do you run?') and I think I have the face to show it, if you know what I mean. Not sure what the answer is then except a face lift or something and I'm just not doing that.

What is runners face?

Quick question, so I've been using The Ordinary retinol for the past 3 years and now want to think about tretinoin. What should I use?

There's an idea that running can have a bit of a sagging effect on the face, because of the constant motion.

But apparently it's not really a thing, but sun exposure and low body fat don't help - www.healthline.com/health/runners-face#skin-care

If you are in the UK, you can subscribe to Dermatica or Skin & Me, they send monthly doses of tretinoin (and other added ingredients depending on your skin type/ needs).
Or you could buy from Farmacia Andorra, they are an online pharmacy that sell it under the brand name Retirides.

You would want to start at the lowest strength 0.025%, as even though you have been using retinol for a long time, tretinoin is many times stronger so you may still have peeling or irritation when you use it. I would start slowly, once a week at first and then increase over time.

For the sagging, it may be the fat pads in your cheeks dropping which happens as we age anyway. Apparently filler in the cheeks can help to give a slight lift, but you might not want to go down that route.

Just to say, I've used Tretinoin from Dermatica for 2 years and I've never had irritation or purging so don't assume that's a given. I started at 0.025, then 0.05, now I use 0.1 nightly. Before that I had used Medik8 for a year but it got too expensive for me.

It actually simplifies your routine a lot, I have no need of exfoliates. Just use a nice balm Cleanser, Tret, moisturiser then vaseline over.

If you want cheap Spf next time, altruist face fluid is great off Amazon. Or beauty pie do a good one too but you have to be a member.

If anyone does want to try Tretinoin and Dermatica here is a discount code

www.dermatica.co.uk/referrer/Y2K0NE

(I get a reward, not totally altruistic of me! But I am a big fan of it)

Some good advice on here, I agree don't bother with OTC just start with a low 0.025% tret I get mine when on hoilday in Spain, I will check out the online shop mentioned

After putting the retinol on, do you use moisturiser or wait until morning?
I've only done a small area for tonight.

Yes moisturise. You can moisturise before aswell if you suffer any dryness it's called buffering

Thank you. Just did my forehead last night and all is well so far. Going to moisturise and then sun block, that seems to be the order recommended on this thread. And then make up? It feels like a lot! Don't want that sun screen slipping off!

It's entirely personal but I find my Spf very moisturising and I use a rich serum before so I skip moisturiser. I just wear vit c from Medik8, ultra violette/altruist/beauty pie/ Dr Sam Spf - I have those in rotation then Erborian CC cream and lip balm. I don't often wear make up anymore

I've used my retinol twice now and all good so far - remembering the sunscreen is hard but I haven't missed it yet!
I'm wondering if it's still ok to remove facial hair - I usually veet every fortnight or so, with a cream - I could switch to wax if that's better but I have to do something every so often or I feel very hairy indeed!

No you can't wax with Tret as far as I'm aware