Tretinoin at low strength

[GreenLemonade]

I have now been with Skin+Me for a month. They have me on 0.006% tretinoin, 4% niacinamide and 4% azelaic acid, to be used daily. The plan is to increase tretinoin to 0.015% over 4 months, not sure what the plan is for afterwards.

I've had no side effects at all, no burning, peeling or redness, but I haven't seen any improvement either.

Am I being impatient, or are these strengths so low that I'm wasting my time? Is it normal to start at 0.006%?

If you switched to another provider, who did you use and were the results better?

Would love to hear experiences.

Would they speed things up if you asked them?

Skin &Me aren’t as good as Dermatica in increasing the strength I found.
Using It regularly and building up to every night is more important than the strength, but it does sound like you are tolerating it well and can move up in strength. Ask them and if they won’t maybe switch to Dermatica, they increased mine when I asked them and told them I wasn’t experiencing any problems.

I'm considering switching to Dermatica. I've been on Skin&Me for a couple of years and am still only up to 27% (had to ask to get moved upave le).
Like you, I'm getting no SEs and, while my skin is okay for my age, I'd like to see if it could be better.

Eta ? Is it normal to start at 0.006%?
I think it is. I started with 0.006% and S&M took me up every month in the beginning by 0.003% but would have left me on 0.015% if I hadn't emailed them.

Dermatica is much better. They go up to 2% and are happy to increase if you ask.

Tret is a long game and I wouldn't expect to see dramatic results in a month. I started with 0.025% three times a week in September and have titrated up to 0.05%. I'd say the effects were really noticeable by about three months in.

Thanks everyone! I’ll have a look at Dermatica.

I appreciate it’s a long game but at this rate it will take me until 2027 to even get to what others have as a starting dose. I feel a bit cheated.

@EgregiouslyOverdressed do you mind sharing where you get yours from? Thanks

@GreenLemonade I have a friend who regularly travels to a country where it's available over the counter, and she buys it for me.

0.006% is definitely low but it’s also pretty normal for services like that to start extremely slowly to protect the skin barrier and improve long-term tolerance. The fact you’ve had no irritation at all is actually a good sign because it means your skin is adjusting comfortably. Most people don’t see visible tretinoin changes in the first month anyway especially at starter strengths because collagen and texture changes take time. Maybe you can speak with them about moving forward in the process.

I’ve been on 0.025% since last August (bought some from pharmacy in Turkey) and only seen a small improvement. So going to get 0.05 when I go this year. A long time on a low dose hasn’t really done much