My Retin-A Journey - Walnut Creek, CA

I am 43 years old and starting to notice fine lines around my eyes. I have received my first prescription for Retin A trenitoin cream in 0.025% strength, for a generic cream version. I will document the evolution of my treatment here to pay it forward :) thank you to all who have posted their reviews so far.

5 years ago I first tried retin a for overall brightening... except that instead of going through a medical professional I bought the cream from an overseas online pharmacy. I didn't really know what I was doing and overapplied - resulting in bad skin burns around the mouth area. You really shouldn't mess around with retin a unless you are under a doctor's care, I learned that the hard way. The burns took 3-4 months to resolve using Cicaplast, thankfully I had no permanent scarring from my misadventure. I pretty much stayed away from retinoids and relied on AHAs until I moved to California from a Northern climate where there was little sun; the intense CA sun has definitely shown its presence on my face, compelling me to try trenitoin once again.

At the moment I am slowly easing into application every 2 nights; I wash my face and let it dry, then apply a thin layer of vegetable squalane. An hour later I apply the trenitoin cream. So far with this method I have not experienced any stinging or pain; a slight warmth at best. My skin is starting to feel very soft! Last night I applied with the buffering method 2 nights in a row and it was a positive outcome. Once I can reliably apply every night I will start to remove the buffer layer, and apply it on top instead.

For a.m. care I use a light glycolic serum, followed with a Vit. C ester cream and an SPF 50 physical sunblock.

So far so good, no irritation to report as long as I apply the squalane first. I have now started applying it every night. I do feel a little irritation when I wash my face in the am and apply my Blue Plasma but it goes away quickly. I have noticed more crinkling under my eyes but I've read that this is the dead skin coming off from the retin-a... that's why I'm keeping the blue plasma in the am hopefully to accelerate the turnover and get rid of the crinkles sooner rather than later. My forehead has a tendency to get congested and it's feeling and looking super smooth since I've started retin-a yay! I have now decided to try retin-a with a copper cream on the lax skin below my tummy to see if it will help with tightening. retin-a in the morning, copper cream at night (it kind of smells).