Anyone just not get on with tretinoin?

[Hillsaremyhappyplace]

I started with the lowest percentage 0.015 - through one of those online prescribers. I tried once a week then upped to twice. Then every other night. I did this over a couple of months. I was up to every night so I increased the percentage to 0.025 which was not a good idea as I got red and spotty cheeks/rosacea. Tried buffering cream/sandwiching. I went back down to my original low percentage but I was still getting red and spotty. I’ve given up now and my skin looks a lot better!

Anyone else? Do you try retinol/retinal instead? Thanks.

I think I started even lower than that and I got up fo 0.03 at around a year but it was too strong I dropped down to 0.027 then 0.024, I stayed on that for about 18 month maybe longer, I've just gone up to 0.027 again and I'm doing fine on that but will probably stick to that strength. Stronger doesn't always mean better.
www.dearbrightly.com/are-higher-strengths-of-tretinoin-always-better/

Yes, I persevered with it for most of last year but found it too much of a problem. It affects my eyes no matter what methods I use. I also missed being able to use a wider variety of skincare because you have to be careful what you pair it with.

I just use a retinal now. I've been using a Geek and Gorgeous one with no issues and I'm trying Medik8 next.

Yes my face and eyes puffed up terribly and took ages to recover .
I jumped on the bandwagon of putting my refer a friend code on here at the very start and now have a couple of hundred £££s on credit with the company and they will only allow you to use it for tret and not their skincare range . Lesson learnt !

Me- completely damaged my skin barrier. Kept getting weird rashes and stuff. While the internet said it was purging and to keep going I actually went to a dermatologist. He immediately told me to stop. Gave me a very boring gentle routine.
Lesson learned.

Me, I find it gritty and it makes my skin dry and dull. My skin’s looking great at the moment because I’m on a moisturising mission.

Yep it made me constantly itchy and uncomfortable and honestly, fuck living like that. Until men are forced to feel so bad about aging that they will literally burn the top layer of their skin off, I’m not doing it.

Yep it made me constantly itchy and uncomfortable and honestly, fuck living like that. Until men are forced to feel so bad about aging that they will literally burn the top layer of their skin off, I’m not doing it.

Yep it made me constantly itchy and uncomfortable and honestly, fuck living like that. Until men are forced to feel so bad about aging that they will literally burn the top layer of their skin off, I’m not doing it.

Me. Used Skin & Me and came out in a rash on my chin and around my mouth. Skin & Me told me that this sometimes happened with tret and gave me an alternative regime for free. I have now got rosacea too. I'm not sure if it's a coincidence or not.

I am now using a sensitive skin regime which seems to be improving things very slowly. Previously I could put anything on my skin with no ill effects. Not now.

Me - I’ve tried it twice from skin and me but it just makes my skin dry and flakey despite being on a very small dose. It’s very strange because I never react to anything and can pile on the retinol etc!

Sounds like I’m not alone! Thanks everyone. It’s weird as I can tolerate it on my neck it’s just my cheeks. But it did also make me dry despite slathering on cream!

Im with Skin &Me and just going up to 0.012 after 3 months. I had horrible cystic spots for a bit but they seem to have calmed down now.

The worst thing is my lips go incredibly dry and sore each time I move up to a higher strength. Vaseline sorts them out eventually but if that preserveres, I might give up tret and go back to retinol.

Ohh not. I just got my first delivery from Dermatica; getting a bit worried. Maybe I should leave my face alone and cancel the susbscription. Haven’t tried it yet

I tried tret a couple of times. The very low doses were OK, but any increase gave me very dry lips and a breakout on my forehead. I also found it made my skin a lot more sensitive in general, so when I had my eyebrows waxed, the wax strip took off a layer of skin with it and I ended up with some rather startling scabs under my eyebrows. Obviously I wasn't even applying the tret there so I have no idea why that happened.

I am thinking about trying again on the low dose and just not increasing it as I have some in my cupboard...but maybe not after reading this thread!

Yes. It is just not suitable for my skin - I have dry skin, with rosacea, which is not usually visible, but the tret really brought it out. It also caused peri-oral dermatitis all around my mouth and chin, then even all around my eyes. I presumed at first that this was acne and a "purge" so kept going! It got worse and worse. When I saw my dermatologist I was immediately put on antibiotics and a series of creams. And told that tret or any kind of retinoid was not for me.
I have found, actually, that dryness and inflammation (redness) makes my wrinkles look more pronounced. If I address that - with good, gentle skin-care, plus in-office treatments (I get Genius and "Vampire" laser treatments) I can live with my wrinkles.

I gave it a good go for over a year, but gave up last summer after I got sick of dry flaky red patches on my cheekbones and all over my neck. If I caught the edges of my lips with it by accident, they'd 'fray' around the edges for days to weeks before I could get them right again. Mine was from Skin & Me.

I started Boots Future Renew last month and my skin looks loads better already.

Plenty of people use it with no problem and have excellent results. (Obviously not discounting the experiences of people on this thread). Like everything, it’s individual as to how you will react. The best thing you can do is to build up slowly and use very gently skincare and no other actives until you see how you get on.

I would start by sandwiching it - moisturise, wait 30 mins, apply the Tret, let sink in and then moisturise again. And only use about twice a week at most in the beginning. It can cause purging at first, and that usually takes the form of acne but it doesn’t always happen (didn’t for me).

It can also cause dryness in the beginning but it usually passes quickly. I use the Avene Cicalfate+ as an everyday moisturiser now and don’t get any dryness or peeling, even when increasing dose, which I’ve done recently. I’ve been on it for about 5 years and was on the lowest dose of 0.015% for most of that, then this time last year ish I increased to 0.025% and then recently up to 0.05%. I use it primarily for acne and it’s been a game changer for me after suffering for nearly 30 years. Obviously I have the added bonus of the anti ageing effects too.