Gentle cleansers: Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil, followed by KraveBeauty Matcha Hemp Hydrating Cleanser or Peter Thomas Roth Cucumber Detox Foaming Cleanser. I also tried out a Dermaenergy cleanser during my tretinoin “induction phase” and it worked pretty well. I always use gentle cleansers, so no change here.
My Routine for Starting on Tretinoin (Retin-A) Cream
Gentle exfoliants: I’m usually quite gung ho with acids, but I decided to step it down and stick to lower percentages (like Pixi Glow Tonic or KraveBeauty Kale-lalu-yAHA). Physical exfoliants were limited to peeling gels only (I’ve been using It’s Skin Citron Peeling Gel), and with minimal pressure (more on exfoliation in my Exfoliation Guide).
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Humectant toners: My skin is dehydration prone with or without retinoids, so I kept using the most humectant-rich ones I had: Jurlique Activating Water Essence and Klairs Supple Preparation Toner.
Sunscreen: Sunscreen is a must while on retinoids, so I slathered up every day with my usual sunscreen, Ultraceuticals Daily Moisturiser. It’s alcohol-free, so it didn’t cause any massive stinging.
My Routine for Starting on Tretinoin (Retin-A) Cream
Moisturiser: Bucketloads. I used a mix of oils and anti-irritant moisturisers: Huxley Secret of Sahara Oil Light and More, rosehip oil (I used Freezeframe’s rosehip blend), Stratia Liquid Gold, Dr Jart+ Cicapair Cream and Bioderma Cicabio. The two “cica” products contain the popular skincare active Centella asiatica, which I’ve written about before – it’s supposed to help healing, so I thought maybe it would be good for dealing with tretinoin irritation.
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My Routine for Starting on Tretinoin (Retin-A) Cream- buy tretinoin gel 0.1 online
Make-up: I found that when I was peeling, foundation made everything look a lot worse, so I switched to just concealer after a few days. I also found that my usual starch-based powder was too drying, so I started diluting it with another powder.