BEST RETINOL FOR YOU | Doctorly Favorites

What's wrong with everyone? We're back, Dr. Maxfield, Dr. Shaw, and welcome back to our channel, Dr. Lee, where we talk about all things skincare and dermatology. Today we are going to talk about a monstrous topic. We actually think of it as, oh, this has it. It needs to be talked about so today we're going to talk about some of the

best

retinol

s you can buy yeah and this is something we talked about rentals a while ago it's been a long time since we did a video on

retinol

and so In fact, I have never done our favorite retinol product video and like all videos, my favorite retinol will not be the same as your favorite retinol, it will not be the

best

retinol for you, so we divide everything into categories like which one is best for a To start with, what is best for acne?

What is best for dry skin? So we're going to do retinols by category here we go here we go okay so if you're new to this channel we have to bring back our old graphic on retinoids in general. so retinoids are the family within this family, you have retinol, retinol must be converted to retinaldehyde or retinal and then it must be converted to retinoic acid for it to be active in the skin, so they all fall under this vitamin, a derivative umbrella called retinoids and then you have other generations of retinoids which are adapalene and tazerotine and this is basically what our retinoids are, what they do, they do a lot, that's why we always come back to retinoids in some way, they are a base and almost like a building block necessary for the treatment of acne, they also cover almost all the bases when talking about anti-aging or photoaging for skin care and they do it in almost all forms, like if you talk about hyperpigmentation, they actually act on almost all.

Of the steps involved in hyperpigmentation is the same for acne and it's the same for photoaging, so they do pretty much everything there is to do in skin care, so if you can tolerate a retinoid, I honestly think that After sunscreen it is by far the best. The best ingredient and that's why you hear dermatologists talk about this ingredient all the time, so it has a lot of benefits. It will improve the texture of your skin. It will reduce fine lines and wrinkles. It will reduce dark spots, hyperpigmentation and melasma. Basically, break up. It increases those little skin cells, making it a great acne treatment now that we've said it's surprising what our favorite retinols are for someone looking to start with a retinol.

In fact, this is so important that I don't know how, but I feel like there are still a lot of people who get into the retina space and I guess it makes sense as people get older, but I think this is a category that It's talked about all the time and the reason there's a category for starter retinols is because Dr. Shaw is talking about that irritation, so when we look at the ingredients here we want something that's a little bit gentler, a little bit more tolerable. and it may not be the most effective, but it's supposed to really help you get into the retinoid space, so for me.

Actually, the first thing I'm looking for is retinol, because retinol is what needs to be converted to retinoic acid. In general, it is the smoothest. This is not always true. There are percentages of exceptions. All these kinds of things that come into play. but in general retinol will be less irritating than retinoic acid. Our goal with these initial retinols is that they will have supporting ingredients that will be hydrating, they will be in lower concentrations so that they are not like irritants and eventually the goal is that you can use that particular product forever or these particular products forever or basically you could escalate to something that's a little more effective over time and there's some magic that happens with retinols too, we talked about this. behind the scenes before, but retinol is actually absorbed and then stored in the skin cells when there is too much of it, so if you have too much retinol in your skin, much more than your skin needs, the skin cells they actually store it and then save it for later. when retinol levels are low and they can actually release it and that's one of the reasons it's believed to help minimize irritation as opposed to something highly effective like retinoic acid tretinoin that just floods the system, you can't turn it back on. to be converted, it cannot be stored.

And that might be why that's more irritating, so we have the mild retinol and then along with that, I think intrinsically we think of sort of a mild carrier or something in the carrier or product to again offset the irritation, so with those two things in mind. I think that covers our selection of gentle retinol products, so let's start with one of the basic retinols. One of the first retinols I tried. Cerave rejuvenating retinol. This is a great product because it uses an encapsulated form of retinol that is slowly released. the day and that makes it much more tolerable and then it is supported by other ingredients that help calm the skin, yes it does and not only that, but it has licorice and niacinamide, both are excellent complementary actives, they help with hyperpigmentation, acne and niacinamide practically. it does a little bit of everything so collagen growth also increases retinoid so it has these calming ingredients and they're also always backed up in ceremony products by ceramides that help restore the skin barrier so I think if you like I don't know, I want something that's a cheap retinol.

I don't want it to irritate my skin too much. I would say this is a really good starter retinol, so let's move from that to another one that is a little more expensive. it's kiehl's retinol that came out this year now kiehl's been around for like 150 years and it took them like 150 years to come out with retinol um and that's how you know it's going to be good they created this new retinol serum which I really loved . I probably used it for several months without any signs of irritation and it smudged my eyelids. It didn't irritate me, which is fascinating for me because I have very sensitive eyelids, but Kiehl's retinol. it's a microdose retinol formula so it uses small percentages of retinol that release slowly over time so you don't have that irritation but you still get the effectiveness that you would see with retinol yeah and then in these two there are peptides .

Which I think peptides are a great complementary ingredient, especially when it comes to retinoids, because they are very well tolerated, but they also have some similar benefits for reversing photoaging and, like cerave, it also contains ceramides, which will help to restore the skin barrier, it will hydrate and basically protect your skin while still enjoying the benefits of retinol, so I think this is one that I started using this year, I really loved it and then for people looking to get it. in retinols who are familiar with kiehls, kiehl's has a cult following so if you like kiehl's products you tend to like other kiehl's products so this is one of my

favorites

and I think the cerave is great.

It's also an option to start with, so those products have the gentle retinol, the complementary ingredients, the calming properties and along with this idea of ​​minimizing irritation, you have dry skin and therefore dry skin sometimes matches sensitive skin, so let's now talk about the best retinols. or retinoids or dry skin, so we actually have retinoids that are moisturizers, they are retinols that are in a moisturizing vehicle, so the vehicle is really important because you can have gels, you can have lotions, you can have creams, you can have serums, but the creams. They tend to have complementary ingredients that also help hydrate the skin, so if you're someone who has sensitive skin or dry skin, you're like, "Well, I don't want to try retinol, this is a really good option for you." a moisturizer that contains retinol like the ones we are going to talk about now, yes, they basically take the trick that we presented, like mixing a moisturizer with retinol or diluting it in any way, but yes, this comes pre-formulated retinol moisturizer, one of the ones we will talk about about regeneration, I swear, if you google retinol, this is one of the first to come up every time it's in that pretty purple packaging that catches your eye, but the good thing about this one is that it has peptides that are talks like a great complementary ingredient, it has a good moisturizing carrier and then it also has niacinamide so it has a similar calming profile with a good calming moisturizing base and this is a product that has really stood the test of time, I mean, a lot people use this, it is very effective, very moisturizing.

I think olay is a brand that probably doesn't get enough publicity on social media, especially among the younger generations, but it has been a staple for a lot of people. whole lives, so this is really a great product, they come with fragrance and an unscented option, choose the unscented one, I mean I think it has the same effective ingredients as the fragrance with the reduced risk of irritation. and allergy and in my opinion, if you could choose between the two, I would always choose not to use fragrance and I will say this again and again if you have a product that has fragrance and there is no other alternative, I keep thinking. would the fragrance be fine in those scenarios, yes that's like going back to our great fragrance debate but I think realistically there are things that you know right now that can be irritating and if they don't irritate you, they don't irritate you . so enjoy it and you can skip the moisturizing step if you use this, so cleanse, apply at night, go to sleep.

Another one worth mentioning in this category for dry skin is the rock retinol corrective cream. Now it's also hydrating, it's like 24 hours maximum. hydrating moisturizer similar to olay, I just like to rock when it comes to retinol because they were the first over the counter brand to stabilize retinol, so tretinoin was invented at the University of Pennsylvania by Dr. Kligman and then it was a recipe and it was over. it became retin-a and then it became retinol, which was available over the counter and the first company to stabilize that form of retinol was rock and they have stood the test of time, you know, over 50 years in formulation, so that this is a moisturizer from them again, they have one unscented and one with fragrance, go with the unscented, those are two titans, two excellent options.

Next up is the best body retinol, so if you use retinol on your face, see those same benefits using it on the body, crepey skin texture, uh, hyperpigmentation, discoloration it will have all those benefits and it will even have benefits for polar keratosis, yeah , it has them, I mean, I think this is so neglected and we've actually gone a little bit out of our way to highlight these areas recently, but the neckline and all that is just photodamaged skin that I don't know, we just ignore it, we like it focus on our face and then I think we see a lot in the clinic. of people who obsess over areas that they didn't pay much attention to growing up, so I think this is a really interesting category because we both agreed and decided on an item here, a product, um and the reason why It's because I used to recommend it and still recommend it.

I think it is a great product that has many great ingredients. It's Paul's body retinol of choice. Now the reason I no longer include it in this category is because retinol in verse. It just came out and weighs six ounces, so it's larger than the polish choice option and it's less expensive, so it will have similar effective ingredients as Paula's choice, except it's a lower price and a larger size. Yes, I remember I was browsing. Internet, I think when this first came out, I was, you know, early in the morning, looking like I was shopping. Oh, you came from an Instagram ad, that's what drew me there and I thought, oh, this is actually really good and since then I've loved it, there actually needs to be more body retinols available.

People get body acne all the time. Also, since we're talking about the anti-aging part, there's also body acne, so in theory you could mix your retinoid vitamin A into a moisturizer. help put it on that big surface area, but this versed is like a great starter option, so he just called it versed, which is not the brand name, the brand name is busted, it's actually like a pre-anesthetic. it will knock you out, it's called midazolam, they use it in anesthesia, so every time I say the name of the brand verseda on social media, all the doctors, nurses and anesthetists always comment like I thought you said I thought it was called verseda , which is an anesthetic.

So it's not the same, but I think it's a great option as a body moisturizer at a reasonable price and in addition to having retinol, it has hobo oil which we really like as a body oil or skin care oil and it also has squalane, which we love, a great option, affordable price, I think you should use retinol on your bodyand wear sunscreen, you absolutely should, I almost guarantee almost no one includes me and I understand why the next big category is the best. retinoids for acne, okay, that's how retinoids started in the first place, so when dr. kligman was doing his experiments and we'll probably make a whole video about how ethical those experiments were, he was really trying to create an ingredient for acne and as a result of those studies they found that it really helped with wrinkles, so a lot of people who had conducted the initial studies they did not want to stop using the retinoid because they were seeing many benefits in skin pigmentation and wrinkles and eventually it began to be marketed as an anti-wrinkle cream, but it all started with acne, so let's talk about acne .

So why is it great for acne? So, we talk about this all the time. It is related to oil production, which leads to pore occlusion. pores, leading to overgrowth of bacteria that causes inflammation, so retinoids decrease oil production, they actually increase skin cell turnover to help normalize keratinization and decrease poor clogging. They don't decrease bacteria directly and this is like another fun little warning. I really wanted to put this little caveat here: they alter the ph and the actual environment and make it inhospitable to bacteria, so they don't kill them, but they actually make it harder for this propionibacterium acnes to live on the skin and then they modulate and they decrease acne inflammation, so of all the causes of acne, retinoids solve 98 of those causes of acne and that's why it's the most effective over the counter ingredient for acne and the ingredient in general for acne.

I mean, accutane or isotretinoin are based on this vitamin derivative, for exactly the same reason, so let's talk about I think the most effective ingredient available over the counter for acne is a dapoli, yes, adapalene, I mean, it really is Without a doubt, this ingredient was prescribed. It is now available without a prescription and has been comparatively studied with tretinoin and has demonstrated comparable effectiveness. It is also more stable. It can be mixed and used with benzoyl peroxide and is quite affordable. There is just so much positive to say about this. The ingredient in the acne space, the first product that came out, which was an adaptation product, it was a different gel, it was the only one that was available and it was approved by the FDA for the treatment of acne, very, very, very effective and then you also have the option to use it. the one from la roche roche-posay that has very similar ingredients, find the one that is available to you.

I don't really have a preference between the two, but they are all more affordable wherever you live and available wherever you live. I think they'll both be amazing. Acne Options If I could choose a retinoid for acne that is available over the counter, I would choose one of these too and I would be remiss if we didn't recommend prescription acne medications. I mean, first of all, we have much more effective ingredients and when you go to a dermatologist, it's really important that you see a dermatologist for your acne, especially if you've tried a lot of these over the counter products and they don't work, so I think my two favorite retinoids that are available in prescriptions are tretinoin and tazeratin, there's almost no question about that just because of the large number of studies, especially that have been done on tretinoin in this space, and we talked about there are some thoughts that perhaps, as with anti-aging, perhaps retinols are just as effective in the long term, esp. for anti-aging compared to tretinoin, maybe not, but for acne just from my personal experience and I would dare say that's not entirely true when we have a person using a low potency retinoid, even low potency retinol. power, and says They've hit a wall or a ceiling, it's like they haven't gotten to where they need to be.

I mean, time and time again we increase that strength a little bit and they hit that mark, so I'm very committed to the idea. that these prescription, stronger retinoids have a higher limit, unfortunately, than some of the over-the-counter ones and I think tretinoin is a very good start and that's where I start most of my patients who have acne and I think in actually I think in my opinion teseratin is more effective in my experience using it so I think deseret is a little more effective but a little more irritating and tretinoin is a great starter that most people respond very well to. okay and we have multiple concentrations of this and you may want to start with a lower concentration and then move up to a higher concentration, but this is something you want to discuss with your dermatologist now being said, how do you get tretinoin if you can't See your dermatologist?

I will always maintain that if you have access to a dermatologist it is better to see him because he will be able to guide you maybe trying it with no one is not the best option for you maybe you will benefit better with something else maybe that is better Chemical peels are better for you or such Maybe an oral antibiotic is better for you or there are so many different options for acne treatment and anti-aging that in my opinion it is always important to see a dermatologist, but if you can't. you see one or you don't have access to one or you need a tretinoin refill or something like that.

I really think the best option as far as telemedicine to be able to access tretinoin but not see a dermatologist in person is apostrophe.com That was like a very carefully constructed statement and I completely agree with every last detail, like the value of seeing someone was absolutely there. I think establishing the correct diagnosis and having something tangible in front of you is very underrated these days. I'm totally behind the apostrophe in space. I think telederm telemedicine is here to stay. It is necessary for certain people in certain areas and it would go to them. Well, the last category is the best overall retinols.

You don't have anything specific. that you're trying to treat more than just anti-aging pigmentation, in general, what are the best retinols that you could use in your arsenal for whatever, yeah, we were looking for a while and I was like, how are we doing? to measure them and we are actually all over the place because some are expensive, some are cheap, some are straight to the point, some are luxurious, so we decided that Paula's choice gets the first nod. Paul's choice is one percent retinol, which makes this one. I think what's special is the lack of complementary ingredients in this, so of course he uses a solid concentration of one percent retinol, but It also has a lot of good supporting ingredients, its peptides, its third ascorbate, which is a form of vitamin C, it has oats. which is calming and soothing, we really like that it has willow bark, which is where salicylic acid comes from in the first place and therefore has many complementary and supporting ingredients that make it overall a great retinol for someone which doesn't have One of these specific issues that we talked about earlier, okay, I have a confession to make.

I actually proposed it to him that way because I knew it would do a better job with the ingredient list, like just leaving him the bat he's so good at. I recite lists of things and trip over them every time, so I did it that way. Well, I'll take the brunt of it and then, okay, the next one and we mentioned it in our expensive skincare video in In the past, this one is a little pricey. I don't know if you can buy it online. You may have to go to a medispa or a dermatologist's office to get it, but it's not a prescription, so this is the best science for your skin, it's called retinol. alpha rhett the reason I like this one is they've done a lot of studies on it so it has data behind it but I also like that they use very interesting ingredients they use glycolic acid in addition to retinol they used a combined form of retinol and lactic acid, so it exfoliates and it has the benefit of retinol and it also has a lot of other ingredients, so it has calming and active ingredients like ceramide, squalane, licorice and glycerin, so overall it's very moisturizing.

Supporting ingredients such as antioxidants, exfoliants and retinol. Now it may be a little irritating but I think you should take it every other night and it will be very effective, a little expensive but I actually think the studies behind it make it worth it. Yeah, and I think when you look at the ingredients list, that's in this, well, not all of them, but most of these ingredients actually have a specific purpose, there's another thing about the ingredients list, like I see a long list. of ingredients, I immediately become skeptical. a little scared, but if you dig deeper and see that all the ingredients are directed at the main ingredient in this case, the retinol, in that purpose, that's actually a big win, so that's where it almost comes into play and I mean, i guess. you earn it you earn the maintenance uh with that long list and then to summarize this entire list, we've already mentioned these two in the past, but I think it's better in retinoids overall, I think adaptolene even though it was initially marketed . as an acne treatment, I still think it will do all the things we mentioned: pigmentation, anti-aging, affordability, tolerability, so mottling will definitely fall into this space and of course prescription tretinoin, which I think is the goat, I mean, I think that's the one that, if you don't know, is the one that I start people with usually at .05 if there's no other contraindication to starting at that point and I think that, in general, that's probably the best. for every person who is just starting to consume retinoids.

Obviously big fans of retinoids, as many of you know, we'll put some links below so you can shop, but ultimately, I think if you can tolerate a retinoid, you should definitely consider it in your skincare routine and probably We'll do a deep dive into tretinoin one day, yes, one day, but it's worth it, it's the best of the retinoids. Thank you all so much for tuning in, like, comment and subscribe, yes we appreciate you, always thank you for being a part of this journey with us, we'll see. you in the next video