Hi, I’m Chad Hartmann, a board-certified dermatologist with U.S. Dermatology Partners, and today I want to talk to you about how to use retinol if you have sensitive skin like me.
When starting retinol especially if you have sensitive skin, it is not uncommon to get an irritation to the skin sometimes referred to as retinol burn and this is due to the fact that if you introduce retinol too rapidly it can cause rapid exfoliation of the skin resulting in irritation and sometimes people will see the skin becoming red, flaky, dry, itchy. It may even sting a little bit there but there are several things we can do to help reduce this.
First, I normally recommend that my patients introduce the retinol gradually. I’ll have them apply the retinol every third night for the first two weeks, then every other night for two weeks if they're not too dry and then after that, if they're not too dry I’ll have them apply it nightly. I’ll tell them to apply the retinol after they've gently cleansed the skin and patted it dry and I’ll tell them to just take a small pea-sized amount on the fingertip, apply it to a few areas on the face, and then smooth that in to form a thin layer.
Another thing they can do to help reduce irritation is to mix it with a little bit of a lotion, a process sometimes referred to as buffering. In buffering they'll take a little small amount of the retinol, mix it with a small amount of moisturizer and apply that to the skin. As they become tolerized to the retinol from using it they can gradually decrease the amount of moisturizer that they add to the retinol and also increase the frequency at which they apply the retinol.
For patients with sensitive skin who want to use retinol, my favorite product is AlphaRet by SkinBetter Science. It's actually the product I use on my skin because I have sensitive skin as well.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to enter those below the description otherwise if you're interested in purchasing a retinol product you can do so at any of our U.S. Dermatology Partners locations or online at DermSkincare.com.