Retinol: Anti-aging miracle or an absolute deception?

In recent years, when living standard of human beings has been enhanced, demands for beauty factors, especially anti-aging received much attention. Antioxidants, peptides, vitamins are the major active substances found in anti-aging products to reverse skin damages. Retinol has been mentioned regularly in most topics relating to anti-aging but the reliability of sources is not ensured. So, this blog will elucidate both positive and negative sides of Retinol as well as tips when using it by referring to academic sources.

Damaged by frequent sunlight exposure is considered as the most common type of extrinsic factors, accounting for 80 percent of facial aging (Friedman et al. 2005). When you are exposed to sunlight, UVA and UVB rays induces your cells to produce reactive oxygen species, contributing to truncated elastic fibers, insufficient collagen production. Its clinical manifestations are wide, such as thin and dry skin, rough-textured appearance, wrinkles, skin atrophy, and less elasticity (Beylot, 2019).

Besides moisturizing and sunscreen to protect the skin, it is also necessary to add ingredients that strengthen and stimulate the skin to increase collagen production. These active ingredients are found in Retinol and have very good anti-aging properties for the skin. Retinol will help reduce skin problems such as melasma, dark spots, freckles and especially protect the skin against negative effects from the external environment.

Retinol acts as a cell-binding ingredient, neutralizing free radicals within the skin. This means that it will affect other cells of the skin, penetrate into the skin and increase cell regeneration, stimulate collagen production, increasing the skin barrier function, and limiting trans epidermal water loss, thereby bringing back healthy and youthful skin.

In addition to treating dark spots and freckles on the skin, another outstanding effect of Retinol that many users recognize is its ability to treat acne. Therefore, when you have tried some acne treatment cosmetics that are ineffective, you can try using Retinol.

Retinol can remove the main acne-causing agents such as dirt, excess oil, and dead skin accumulated under pores, unclogging clogged pores and minimizing sebum glands, thereby helping the skin clear, effectively preventing acne recurrence.

Besides, Retinol also has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects on the skin surface, so it is very effective in treating acne and improving the skin acne problem you are experiencing. Therefore, if you have types of acne (such as acne, acne, blackheads, etc.) and have melasma, freckles, or other skin aging problems, you should use the active ingredient Retinol to overcome these problems.

Although benefits that Retinol brings back are undeniable, we should stop exaggerating its functions.

Retinol is a form of vitamin, belonging to a group of vitamin A derivatives also known as retinoids. In the 1980s, vitamin A was used to treat acne. Over time, many studies have proven that in addition to treating acne, vitamin A also improves skin aging. Since then, vitamin A has been widely researched and used in the skin care industry. Gradually, scientists created other type of Vitamin A called Retinol which has additional functions such as easily absorbed into our skin and less irritation. Albeit having some extra benefits, it is not significant. So, it is obvious that people have perceived and applied Vitamin A for a long time, not just recently. The reason why Retinol has gone viral currently is because of exaggerated advertising.

Tips maximizing Retinol functions.

Although the absorption of retinol from big skincare brands is quite good, there is still a relatively large amount of Retinol that cannot penetrate the skin when we apply it normally. A storage effect in the SC is often observed when retinol does not penetrate the skin due to its highly lipophilic properties (Essendoubi et al., 2021, Förster et al., 2011, Frelichowska et al., 2009).

There is currently little research on the role of massage in the topical or transdermal application of active ingredients (Hasler-Nguyen and Fotopoulos, 2012, Li et al., 2019). The current consensus is that aggressive rubbing methods resulting from prolonged processes, use of high pressure, or use of specific materials may disrupt the barrier function of the stratum corneum. Skin barrier function can be disturbed or even damaged, causing increased drug penetration into the skin (Nguyen et al., 2017).

Although these massage strategies could help Retinol penetrate skin more easily, they harm your skin barrier. So they are not optimal strategies.

On the other hand, recently, there are many microcurrent devices increasing skin elasticity and reducing wrinkles as well as other issues relating to aging skin. By using these devices as the supported steps when applying anti-aging serum can optimize the result (Caberlotto et al. 2017; Draelos and Akridge 2006; Draelos 2005). But please remember you should use water-based serum to ensure the effect of microcurrents on your skin do not be prevented.

Reference

Caberlotto E, Ruiz L, Miller Z, Poletti M, Tadlock L. Effects of a skin-massaging device on the ex-vivo expression of human dermis proteins and in-vivo facial wrinkles. PLoS ONE. 2017; 12(3): e0172624

C. Beylot. Vieillissement cutané — Vieillissement facial global : orientation thérapeutique

Ann. Dermatol. Venereol., 146 (2019), pp. 41–74, 10.1016/j.annder.2018.10.015

Draelos Z, Akridge R. Re-examining methods of facial cleansing. Cosmet Dermatol. 2006; 19: 671–675.

Draelos Z. Re-examining methods of facial cleansing. Cosmet Dermatol. 2005; 18: 173–175.

M. Essendoubi, F. Alsamad, P. Noël, M. Meunier, A. Scandolera, J. Sandré, M. Manfait, C. Gobinet, R. Reynaud, O. Piot Combining Raman imaging and MCR-ALS analysis for monitoring retinol permeation in human skin. Skin Res. Technol., 27 (2021), pp. 1100–1109, 10.1111/srt.13069

M. Förster, M.-A. Bolzinger, D. Ach, G. Montagnac, S. Briançon. Ingredients tracking of cosmetic formulations in the skin: a confocal Raman microscopy investigation. Pharm. Res., 28 (2011), pp. 858–872,

J. Frelichowska, M.-A. Bolzinger, J. Pelletier, J.-P. Valour, Y. Chevalier. Topical delivery of lipophilic drugs from o/w pickering emulsions. Int. J. Pharm., 371 (2009), pp. 56–63, 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2008.12.017

H.X. Nguyen, A. Puri, A.K. Banga. Methods to simulate rubbing of topical formulation for in vitro skin permeation studies. Int. J. Pharm., 519 (2017), pp. 22–33, 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2017.01.007