7 replies to this topic

[astroxaun]

Hi all, i've been reading up a lot on the retin-a posts for the past few weeks as i was gona start on retin-a gel (started yesterday 1/1/08). I have to admit i felt really anxious and a bit scared after reading through a lot of posts from people claiming that they've been using for over 12 weeks and didn't have any improvements, and the initial breakouts that many were talking about freaks me out too..having tried so many things before, from oral antibiotics to proactiv to laser to roaccutane (8 months last year), nothing seemed to work for me and i really hope that retin a will somehow help to control my acne, i have moderate (to bad) acne - my condition now is i get new acne every morning when i look into the mirror, and they always develop into those white/green puss..very depressing.

A lot have said, use only a pea sized amount, i've done exactly that yesterday, squeezing out a pea sized amount on my finger and slowly dab small amounts on various parts of my face before smoothing them out evenly with my fingers BUT they absorb so quickly i was unable to smooth them across my entire face, especially the bottom of my jawlines where my acne are worst..so really, when you guys said small amount, how little? is it literally a pea sized amount (coz that wasn't enough to cover my whole face), or is it actually more than that?

Using 0.01% Retin-A Gel every second night.

Thank you for any help!

[momiji_girl]

Best of luck with the retin-a! It could be the thing that works best for you, right?

I'm NOT a retin-a user so hope some will weigh in for you. However, if a pea-sized dab doesn't actually cover your face AND you are gliding it over and not vigourously rubbing it in, I think it would make sense to use more. Like, just enough to cover your whole face. The topical has to reach the areas you want it to work on, right?

I think that pea-sized dab thing is a measure to keep people from using way too much and causing undue irritation. I also think that real retin-a users could give you the best answer. I hope people post soon for you. And again, best of luck.

[Siouxsie]

You want to keep it around a pea size / smallish blueberry. A big plump pea is okay , or at least that is what my derm showed me. That should cover your whole face. My face isn't particularly small and it's enough for me.
You do NOT want to use too much or it can do more harm than good. It can be very drying...

I too find that it can be hard to spread around though. Since I apply it at night, I wait a bit after washing (10-20 min) so my face isn't that "just washed" dry & a tiny bit of natural oil has come back, and so it spreads around more easily than on a super dry face. Sometimes squeezing tiny bits out and applying in sections is easier; just make sure it doesn't all add up to much more than a good sized pea.

[Helio]

This is the problem I had. I could not spread a pea-size amount across my face. Then I watched a video on applying retinoids and they showed moisturizing as the second step before applying the retinoid.

Moisturizing before applying Retin-A helped a lot.

I suggest you try that.

[Mattpd]

I mix mine with a little bit of moisturizer and then spread it on. I don't know if it is less effective this way but it is way easier to apply.

[Helio]

Mixing it will definitely reduce the concentration of tretinoin.

I'm curious as to how you mix it. Do you mix it in your palm? Doesn't it absorb too quickly?

[AsiaXiah]

I was on Tazorac, Retin-A, Differin, and now on Finacea, which all instruct to use a "pea-sized" amount.

Okay, let's be realistic. If you have a small face, it's great if you can cover your whole face with a pea-sized dab. But for a lot of people, they have bigger faces than other people, or longer faces, whatever, which means more surface area to cover.

So instead of going by that rule, this is how I do it:

I kind of go by "Zones".

So, Forehead, Temples, T-Zone, Nose, Cheeks, Chin, Jawline.

For every "Zone", I use a minimal amount to spread the medication (which is barely a paper-thin layer on my finger). The application layer should be minimal and very thin, so that it absorbs very quickly and you can barely notice it after it absorbs.

Doing it this way, you get much better coverage, you have less chances of missing areas due to the "pea" running out before you get to other areas.

I would recommend this application method to a lot of people (as long as you can control the minimal amount; I've seen people put a pea for every zone >.< that's bad)

[astroxaun]

Thanks for all your replies guys..that's basically what i'm doing now..apply by zone..i would squeeze out a pea sized amount n cover each zone little by little..n when the pea runs out..i'll squeeze out tiny bits to cover the remaining areas..this helps me to make sure that i don't over-apply..1st week over..still breaking out but less i think..hope this is no placebo...don't really have an IB (yet?)..we'll see how it goes!! POSITIVE!!!