Look, tretinoin and different prescription-grade retinol merchandise may be extraordinarily useful for some folks, particularly these scuffling with persistent or inflammatory zits. But that doesn’t imply that over-the-counter (OTC) retinol is ineffective.
To perceive the distinction between OTC and prescription-strength retinol merchandise, you’ll need to be acquainted with the retinol hierarchy. From “weakest” to “strongest,” the order goes like this: retinyl esters, retinol, retinaldehyde, after which retinoic acid.
Those “weaker” types of retinol merely take extra conversions to achieve retinoic acid, which is why they’re gentler on the pores and skin—because the checklist grows nearer to retinoic acid, they take much less conversions. For instance, retinaldehyde1 is just one step away from retinoic acid, whereas prescription-strength choices have the next focus or retinoic acid.
Some folks may even see this as a draw back (specifically, these merely searching for the strongest method on the market) nevertheless it’s truly useful to start out on the backside and work your means up, particularly in case you’re susceptible to sensitivity.
So sure, it’s true that retinoic acid is a famous person kind that does many of the heavy lifting, however the different retinol types do convert to it will definitely. Both choices are nice, however once more, prescription-grade merchandise aren’t universally match.