Is adapalene or OTC retinal 0.2% better for facial anti-ageing?

[meelee20119]

Hi

I am currently using OTC retinal, 0.2%, would adapalene be more affective for anti anging ?
I know the gold standard is Tret and I hope to get there but I have a tube of adapalene that I got for body acne and just wondered if it’s worth trying on my face too but read that whilst it’s better for acne than OTC retinal in terms of anti aging OTC retinal is better ????

Thanks
Marie

Hi Meelee. Cosmetic consultant here. Retinal and adapalene are both retinoids but they work quite differently and for anti-aging specifically, retinal at 0.2% is genuinely the better choice over adapalene. Retinal (which is retinaldehyde) is significantly more potent than retinol & much closer to tretinoin in terms of efficacy for collagen stimulation and cell turnover. Adapalene on the other hand is a synthetic retinoid that was specifically designed & optimized for acne and is excellent at regulating pore lining & reducing inflammatory acne, But in anti-aging it's less pronounced (compared to retinal or tret). So for your goal of anti-aging I/d suggest to stick with your retinal 0.2%. Let me know if this helps!

Thank you that is helpful, but confusing too if I’m honest.
I was watching YouTube and a couple of dermatologists videos said basically if you have access to Differin gel spend you money on that over an OTC retinal for anti aging, they said whist it doesn’t have the level of data for anti aging as tret does ( by a long way) it’s still a better option that any OTC retinol or retinal you can purchase

So this is wrong?

Retinols has been beneficial to me so I can recommend that definitely. So here goes my routine after a reseach:
Morning:
Using water to wash your face,
Sebamed clear face gel,
Garnier spf
Evening:
Cerave moisturizer,
Tretinoin (0.1) from skinorac
Sebamed clear facial gel