the Ordinary retinoids

[archanachinn]

Hello,

which one of the ordinary’s retinoid products is the strongest? 

[WinglessOne]

Hi @archanachinn ! You should ask The Ordinary directly at their site; they’re usually responsive to customer questions. I’m curious to see if they’ll tell you which one of all their vitamin A products is strongest. 

Meanwhile, I’ll ramble a bit about what I know of TO’s retinoid products: 

The Ordinary offers 2 kinds of retinoids: retinol and Granactive Retinoid (hydroxypinacolone retinoate, aka HPR). Among their retinols, their 2% is the strongest. Among their HPRs, their 5% is probably the strongest. But as for which is strongest among all their retinoid products (retinols and HPRs combined), well… HPR’s kinda complicated. HPR is an ester of retinoic acid. Do you already know how retinoids work, and how our cells must convert retinol to retinoic acid before it can activate and do its thing? HPR supposedly doesn’t need conversion. That means it can get straight to work, just like tretinoin does, so it should work faster than retinol. And it’s less irritating than tretinoin. (So is retinol.) In my own experience, HPR was even less irritating than retinol. 

But that doesn’t mean HPR is a one-for-one substitute of tretinoin. HPR is made of 10% retinoic acid ester and 90% solvent. So whenever you see a % of Granactive Retinoid, the true amount of active ingredient is 10% of what’s listed. Example: The Ordinary Granactive Retinoid* 2% Emulsion 1 oz/ 30 mL actually contains 0.2% retinoic acid ester. The highest % of tretinoin available (in the US) is 0.1%, if I recall correctly. I highly doubt 0.2% retinoic acid ester (2% Granactive Retinoid) is the same strength as 0.1% tretinoin, but I’ve seen no reliable strength conversion charts from a cosmetic chemist or board certified dermatologist so I could be wrong. I can’t even tell you what strength of retinol is equal to 2% Granactive Retinoid. That’s why it’d be interesting to hear what The Ordinary says about it themselves. 

HPR is a relatively new retinoid that’s still being studied. There’s far less clinical data about it than retinol and tretinoin, which have been much better and longer studied. So you’re kinda acting as a guinea pig when you use HPR. Eh, I’ve used it before with no adverse effects, and the products I used seemed effective. I’ve since moved on to retinaldehyde, which gets me a step closer to tretinoin without tret’s legendary side effects. 

[CorgiMommy]

@archanachinn the higher the percentage the stronger the product