Tretinoin (Retin-A, Retisol-A) Reviews

I have had persistent acne for about 10 years now. My dermatologist prescribed Retin-A gel along with two oral antibiotics; Doxycycline and Dianette. Together they cleared my face completely, and even years after stopping the two antibiotics the Retin-A continued to work wonders by itself. It did make my skin dry and burn on application, but after a couple of seconds the burning stopped and as long as I moisturized and kept my skin supple this wasn't a problem. If I could feel a cyst like spot coming (the ones where the skin starts to swell and feels very tender), with Retin-A it wouldn't go beyond that. No spot/cyst would ever form. I was also reassured that if I had a spot, with Retin-A it would be guaranteed to be gone in three days. A severe break out would be gone in a week. Also over time (say a few months) it fades marks on darker skin tones. I had to stop taking it when I became pregnant, and recently suffered some raised Liver enzyme levels on a repeat course of the same combination of three. Now I can't use any because of the effect they had on my liver, though I think it was the antibiotics to blame for this, as I never experienced raised enzyme levels with just Retin-A alone. I thoroughly recommend this product and like the doctors say (yawn) with all acne medications you have to be patient and persistent.

I posted on this site a couple of weeks ago, when I had been using Retin-A Micro .04% for only 3 weeks.
The boils/burns/massive peeling have gone away, leaving me with much nicer, clearer skin. I am still experiencing minor peeling, but the breakouts have stopped, and my skin is much smoother and more even-toned. It may not work for everyone, but I think it has begun to work for me--even though I was very dubious and miserable to begin with.

i use obagi with retin a .025% at night,i mix it with the blender, and i use differin in the daytime with my obagi blender instead of the exfoderm glycolic step. the combination is fantastic. retin a does bring up spots pretty quickly, but using the differin in the daytime seems to calm the inflammation a lot, i don't peel at all anymore, but i am using a much lower strength of retin a than my derm recommended. mixing retinoids with blender, and using a full sunscreen in the daytime has both cleared my acne and the dark marks.

This stuff is horrible! I used it for over 6 months and all it did was break me out even worse, give me awfully dry skin and made my face look constantly sunburnt! I think Retina A chemically burned my skin even though I used sometimes even less than the recommended amount. I swtiched to Differin, which started to work for a while. I've been on that for about 2 months and it just quit working!!!

This stuff freakin' sucks. I was on it for close to 2 months and it made my face extremely dry and red. It was a very irritating medication and is completely useless.

used in with tetracycline. good results, but i was really dry. my prescription ran out and i didnt get it refilled. now i use over the counter washes and benzoyl peroxide, and it works fine.

yeah been on it for a year now, nothing, should've done something by now, but no. same breakouts and blackheads and all that fun stuff.

Retin A was the worst thing my doctor could have ever perscribed me! I used it about 3 years ago and did exactly as I was told with it but it mad my jaw/ chin area look like I put paint stripper on it instead of acne medication! It was awful!

I've been using Retin-A Micro .04 for 3 weeks now, every night. It is severely drying out my skin in patches everywhere except for on my nose, even though I am using less than a pea-sized amount. I've also developed painful red boils under my skin from the medication. I've read that it gets worse before it gets better, so I hope that I'm nearing the end of the "worse" bit. I will try this for a few more weeks, and then post the verdict...

do not use this if you have sensitive skin. i was left with burning skin....redness flakiness peeling ...it was not a pretty sight...it felt like i had a painful mask on that i could just rip right off..trust me its not worth ur money or ur time...trust me u will suffer if u choose this product!!!!!