What is retinol?
Retinol can be confusing so, the basics:
Vitamin A and Retinoids. Vitamin A is an essential nutrient that our body cannot produce. It comes in two forms,retinoidsand carotenoids, the latter works as an antioxidant – something we can get from our diet.
A retinoid is a term used to describe the group of chemical compounds that are a form of Vitamin A. (There are many different types of retinoids, for full details visit our websitehere.)
Our Vitamin A Game contains the retinoid calledretinol, a medium strength Vitamin A. Our bodies need to convert into retinaldehyde and then retinoic acid before it becomes active. These steps make it less powerful than other types of retinoids, but also makes skin irritation less likely.
What’s on the market?
Some people use the term ‘retinol’ to describe all retinoids, which is incorrect – so watch out and check the ingredients list of a product if you are unsure. Products range from 0.01% – 1% of retinol, although anything over 0.3% needs to be prescribed, and our Vitamin A Game drops contain 0.15%.
What does it do for our skin?
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Retinol encourages healthy cell turnover in our skin. This means skin cells are less likely to block up our pores leading to blemishes. Our skin gets revived, giving us a bright, glowing complexion. (Hurrah!)
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They block proinflammatory signals within our body, meaning pimples are less likely to develop. This is really important because inflamed blemishes are more likely to cause acne scarring, which can be very difficult to treat.
Like the Sony Walkman, Rubix Cube and Floppy Disk, using retinoids to treat acne has been around since the 1970s – it’s old school. So there are tonnes of clinical studies showing the effectiveness of retinoids in acne treatment. Even if you don’t have acne, Vitamin A can be really helpful in regulating our skin’s normal processes. We can’t guarantee you’ll never get another pimple, but we can rely on years of scientific studies showing that retinoids can help to fight blemishes.