Retinol

[sumaiyahusseinn]

Spoiler

Very long post ahead!
Hello everyone! I’m a new Beauty Insider and I have a few questions.

My sister just turned 25 and I’ve read in many places that mid-20s are the best age to start using retinol. We literally got new skincare products today and I realized now would be the perfect time for her to start using retinol, she has quite a few darks spots on her face and has hyperpigmentation. Her skin is dry and sensitive and looks dull. 

She purchased a few new skincare products today for the spots in her face and she wants to get rid of them badly! Should she stick to her normal routine or should we start looking for ways we can add retinol to her skincare routine? 

Her skin isn’t prone to having acne, she has clear skin but her skin tone is not even either. Retinol has so many benefits besides being anti-aging,

I think it would help a lot with her hyperpigmentation and dark spots...

But here’s the thing, we don’t know what kind of retinoid she needs or which brand to look in to.

It would mean a lot if you guys could recommend brands/retinoids for my sister to use. 
We both have the same skincare routine but if she starts using retinol then there’s going to be some difference in her Am & Pm routine. So here are my other few questions: 

1) Can she use vitamin C serum and hyaluronic acid on both morning and night routine along with retinol at night? Or does she need to use vitamin C only in the morning and retinol at night? 

2) Can she use the The Ordinary AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution with retinol in her skincare routine even though they are not going to be used on the same day? 

*She also started using The Ordinary Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG all over her face and not only in her under-eyes. She was told that she can use it all over her face with a moisturizer. Is that fine to do with retinol in her routine?* 

If you made it this far in to the post then thank you so much for taking your time to read this!!
Please do not hesitate to suggest retinol products or any skincare products for her and we would love to hear back from you guys. We would really appreciate the help! Thank you!! 

[WinglessOne]

Thanks for the tag, @curlychiquita ! 

Welcome to Sephora's Beauty Insider program and BIC, @sumaiyahusseinn ! I also have hyperpigmentation and mostly dry skin (I call it mostly-dry combo), and my skin's sensitive to various ingredients. I didn't start retinol until 2 years ago, and I'm in my late 40s. Many teens start tretinoin or adapalene (2 types of retinoids; retinol is a member of that family) for acne control. So I'm not sure there's really a best age to start retinol. 🙂 No matter your age, if you think a retinoid can help your skin issues or skincare goals, go for it. 

Two recommendations for your sister, before I go any further: 

Spoiler

Introduce new products one at a time: since your sister has sensitive skin, she should hold off using retinol and the 30% AHA peel until her skin’s adjusted to all her new products. Introducing new products one at a time helps skin tolerate their ingredients. If she has a bad reaction to her new routine, it’s easier to pinpoint which product may have caused problems if she staggers their intro to her routine—perhaps 3-4 weeks apart. 

Sunscreen: there's no point using any product that lifts hyperpigmentation and fights signs of aging if you don't also stop the sun from undoing all that product's hard work and causing even more damage. Do you and your sister already use a broad spectrum sunscreen with minimum SPF of 30? Apply it each day your skin's exposed to sunlight (whether outdoors, indoors near a window, driving/riding in a car, etc.), all year long, regardless of weather or season. And reapply every couple hours. We should all do this regardless of what we use on our skin, but it's especially important when using AHA exfoliants: they make your skin more sensitive to the sun. 

My longwinded answers to your questions: 

1) Hyaluronic acid can be used anytime with pretty much anything. That ingredient’s in many skincare products, including some vitamin C and retinol serums. 

As for vitamin C, in your sister's case: 

Spoiler

Though many people can layer vitamin C and retinol on the same night (or morning), your sister shouldn’t do that—at least not right away—because of her sensitive skin. The safest bet is to use the vitamin C and hyaluronic acid serums for a few weeks without The Ordinary 30% AHA peel or retinol. I recommend she use the vitamin C serum only once a day until she’s sure her skin’s tolerating it; then she can decide if she wants to increase usage to twice a day. (Really though, once a day is enough.) She’ll get the greatest benefit from vitamin C if she uses it in the morning, so it can protect her skin from daytime pollutants and help her sunscreen work better. 

After a few weeks of vitamin C, she can introduce either the 30% AHA peel or a retinol product to her routine, and I advise she use it at night so as not to layer it with the vitamin C serum (because she has sensitive skin). Whether she picks the AHA peel or retinol, she should start low and slow with it: use it just once a week for a while, then gradually increase frequency. She might want to limit the AHA peel to just once or twice a week. Retinol can be increased (sloooowly) to nightly, if her skin will tolerate it. But every other night is also effective. 

2) Yep, she can use the 30% AHA peel and retinol on different days. But again, I recommend she doesn’t start them both in the same week. Pick one of those 2 products to start, use it for a few weeks to build up tolerance, then introduce the other product and slowly introduce it the same way. 

The Ordinary Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG: Yeah, it’s probably fine for her to use this on her whole face while she’s also using retinol. I don’t know of any contradictions between retinol and caffeine, and that serum might be a good extra hydrator for your sister’s dry skin. And she’s already using it on her undereyes, so at least part of her skin’s getting used to it already. If the caffeine serum works well for her, she might not even need the additional hyaluronic acid serum: the caffeine serum contains hyaluronic acid, plus urea which is a good hydrator. It does contain lactic acid which is an AHA, but this serum’s pH is too high for it to effectively exfoliate—so this AHA’s probably here at a very low % as a hydrator instead of an exfoliant. 

Retinol products to consider: It's easy to get caught up in the dosage strength game with retinoids, and some folks claim retinol's ineffective compared to prescription strength tretinoin. But that's not really true: 

Spoiler

Over-the-counter retinoid family members like retinol, retinaldehyde, adapalene (like Differin), and even granactive retinoid (which doesn't have much clinical data yet to back its claims) can definitely be effective. They just don't work as fast as tretinoin and/or work a bit differently. Plus, even tretinoin's not an overnight miracle: all these retinoid ingredients require lots of patience before you start to see results. I use a retinaldehyde product that's a fairly high strength, but I didn't start there. I began with lower strength retinol serums and listened to my dermatologist's input. 

Anyway, retinol's been shown effective in clinical studies at strengths as low as 0.01%, so you don't necessarily need to start with a high percentage. I'll list some low strength options that might be good starting points for your sister. 

• First Aid Beauty FAB Skin Lab Retinol Serum 0.25% Pure Concentrate 1 oz/ 30 mL 
• Paula's Choice RESIST Barrier Repair Moisturizer with Retinol 1.7 oz/ 50 mL - this 0.01% retinol doubles as a moisturizer, so it's 2 products in one 
• Paula's Choice Skin Balancing Antioxidant Concentrate Retinol Serum - 0.03% retinol, not sold at Sephora, but if you buy direct from Paula's Choice, you can get the travel size to try before committing to a full size tube 

Here are a couple on the lower end of moderate strength: 

• The INKEY List Retinol Fine Lines and Wrinkles Serum 1 oz - a blend of 0.5% granactive retinoid and 1% RetiStar retinol. This amount of granactive retinoid is equal to 0.05% retinoic acid (aka tretinoin), and 1% RetiStar retinol works out to... crud, I don't remember right now. Let's just say it's not as strong as it sounds, but it is still effective. I used this serum for over a year. These days, I use it under my eyes and on my neck once or twice a week, while using a different retinoid on the rest of my face—and I do that only because my skin's built up quite a tolerance of this product. 
• The Ordinary Granactive Retinoid 2% Emulsion for Wrinkles and Uneven Texture 1 oz/ 30 mL or The Ordinary Granactive Retinoid 2% in Squalane (available at The Ordinary direct) - 2% granactive retinoid is equal to 0.2% retinoic acid (aka tretinoin), which normally I'd say is too strong for sensitive skin—except this is granactive retinoid, aka HPR, which seems to be far less irritating than tretinoin. 

I hope some of this rambling is helpful! 

[curlychiquita]

@sumaiyahusseinn I use retinol every night. When I use Vitamin C products, which isn't often, I use the Vitamin C product in the morning and the retinol at night.

I own the Drunk Elephant Baby Facial mask, which is similar to The Ordinary Peeling Solution you mention. I would definitely not use this and a retinol on the same day. I would do the peeling solution and wait at least 24 hours if not 48 hours before using a retinol product again.

I use a prescription retinol because of my bad acne. My favorite retinol that I've tried from Sephora is the Drunk Elephant A-Passioni™ Retinol Cream 1 oz/ 30 mL, but I haven't tried many others. @WinglessOne may have some other good recommendations.