try a lower strength, maybe even retinol :-) Okay, that sounds ridiculously obvious, but it may not be, necessarily; I tried adjusting to retin-a 0.05% by using it only every two or three days. I also diluted it sometimes by mixing it in a good plain moisturizer and always waited an hour after washing my face to use it. I figured that the dryness/flakiness/tightness would subside eventually and they didn't. I finally got off my butt and went to the derm for a .025% rx, and huzzah! the difference is like night and day. I've been using it every night and don't even use a moisturizer, and it seemed to start working right away with no purging or other side effects. We're at the end of winter now where I live, but the air is still dry, so I don't think it's the change in seasons that's responsible for the improvement.Just wanted to share my experience. If you think that using a higher strength every few nights is comparable to using .025% every night (like I did), it's not :-) And I always thought that my ultimate goal of using retin-a would be to work up to the highest available strength to be able to see optimal improvement, but I think I might be wrong about that too! Going down to a lower strength has proven to be (for me, at least) not only more tolerable, but more effective altogether. I think some of us will never be able to tolerate a certain strength, but that's no reason to think that it's the drug itself that doesn't work for you. Anyway, I'm saying all this because retin-a has been amazing for me. It takes some time getting used to, but if your skin isn't adjusting to it one way, try whatever you can to adjust to it another way, because once you do, it's effects are incredible. Good luck!