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Side Effects
Tretinoin is a vitamin A derivative called a topical retinoid. It helps clear acne by promoting skin cell turnover.
Tretinoin is usually applied once a day around bedtime.
Used Tretinoin? Rate It:
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September 8, 2009
Cons:
It takes time to work. Red, peeling skin for the first week and a half. Easily sunburnt.
It works. Give it 2 months and see for yourself. You will hate your skin the first two months, as huge, cystic acne will show up on your skin, but those would have shown up regardless of the medication, it was just a matter of time. Stick with it, use every other day if the side effects are too harsh on you. Use a sunscreen as you WILL get sun damage.
Don't get discouraged if it doesn't work quickly, it is not meant to work that way. Most importantly, enjoy your perfect skin :)
August 3, 2012
Pros:
Got rid of most of my comedones.
Smoothed appearance of skin.
Helped with fine lines.
Cons:
Drying in the first month or two.
Expensive if you're uninsured (still worth it).
Takes a lot of time.
I will never stop using this product. I bought a 45g tube of %0.05 Tretinoin in March (5 months ago) and am still using the same tube. Here is my routine: AM: Cetaphil Daily Cleanser for oily skin, followed by 1-2 minutes of my Clarsonic. This is totally necessary because the Tretinoin is super drying, and especially around my chin, I flake a lot. The flaking has definitely decreased as my skin as gotten used to the tretinoin, but it still happens occasionally. I apply make up on any small pimples (at this point I get maybe 1 small zit per week), blush and eye makeup. PM: I use Neutrogena Make Up Removing Foaming Cleanser (in the blue bottle). It's pretty drying, which is good for my oilier skin. I put CeraVe PM lotion on my nose and around my eyes (really, just anywhere that feels dry), a pea sized amount of tretinoin on my cheeks and chin, go to sleep, repeat. Reading these reviews was the only thing that got me through the months of flaking, burning and breakouts. It is so hard at first to feel like this medication works. Some people reported success as early as 10 weeks, but it took my skin about 3-4 months until it responded the way I had hoped. I still get a couple of comedones every now and then... but nothing compared to the 15-20 I'd get every week previously. All the picking and poking was really hard on my skin and now that I'm using tretinoin, I not only have less things to pick and poke at, but the rapid skin layer turn over caused by the medication is helping with any hyper-pigmentation I had previously. Another bonus is that the medication turns soft white dormant comedones into blackheads pretty quickly, and those are so much easier to extract manually (as you may know). I wrote a review for this medication after 10 weeks, and it was very negative. My dermatologist insisted I continue on this routine and I did... and boy am I glad I did! I know how emotionally painful acne can be. Trust your doctor. I haven't had this much confidence in y
July 7, 2012
Pros:
Leaves skin smoother and brighter
Doesn't take too long to work
Free on prescription in the uk
Fades scars
Controls excess oil
Cons:
Dries out skin, can make it flakey
Skin will feel burny while putting this on, or even when putting on makeup
may leave pinkish tint to your skin
I have had acne for the last 7 years and have tried countless pills, creams, gels, face washes, moisturisers etc to keep it under control but nothing worked. About 6 months ago I had servers cysts and spots all over my face particularly cheeks, neck and chin. I also had pink, bright scars everywhere. I started this 4 and a half months ago on the lowest strength everyday for about a month and noticed my scars fading so asked for 0.05 strength as I noticed lower strength seems to stop being as effective after a while. In this time i never really got the "initial breakout". Skin can be flakey if not moisturised and although the packet says don't exfoliate I reccomend doing it once a week to stop dead skin cells from the skin peeling off overnight staying on the face clogging it up for whatever you're putting on your skin. I used 0.05 for 2 months and skin really continued to improve then it ran out and I went on holiday so there was about 3 weeks I didn't take it, in this time the pinkish tint this leaves your skin (I am EXTREMELY pale) left too. I have been on 0.1 strength this month and still getting good results, skin sometimes burns when putting it on but I am very happy with the progress. Use simple face washes/moisturisers without chemicals and perfumes. I also barely wore makeup during this time which I think has helped as sometimes when you put it in your skin looks flakey and dry then you need to moisturise even more. I have also just started taking dianette to keep new spots under control/as a contraceptive but I don't get spots as frequently as I used to anyway - about 4 in the last month, 3 are from the last 2 weeks as Ive been very stressed. Don't hesitate to try this, it has faded my scars so much so quickly and my skin looks so much better, smoother and healthier. If you think it's drying out your skin too much just don't take it for a day and moisturise during that day, highly reccomended, only thing that has worked for me!
June 29, 2012
Pros:
I have not had any
Cons:
Red skin
Peeling skin
dry yet super oily skin
Made my skin worse by ALOT
okay so im only 14 and as many of you guys have probably experienced the whole derm process, i started with epiduo, and differen. To control my mild to moderate acne. Then i went to the derm to try something else they gave me retin-A micro .04,i was very hope full that this would help alot with my acne. I read many reviews on this website, and when i read there is an initial breakout they were right mine started the second week, and it is now 2 months and 2 weeks into it and my acne is worse then ever, add 5 new pimples every 3 days then all of the marks from the past ones. My acne went from mild to severe. i just got prescribed accutane and i hope it helps me. So i would not recommend this for people that get really emotional about their acne, becasue it is seriously a horrible thing to thorugh becoming distant from all of my friends beacause i am embaressed of my face. This product may work well for some, but i just wouldnt take the risk of it completely purging your face to the point where make up cant cover. also my face is super oily now. i kept telling myself it is going to get better and maybe it will since im going to wait a month before accutane. well goodluck i know this is not anything you would want to read, but im honestly posting this to warn people who are sensitive to embaressment due to acne, because i wouldnt want anyone to go through what i am and have to do accutane to fix my face. ill repost if in a month retin-a all of the suddon helps my acne, but with the way things look i dont think so.
June 18, 2011
Pros:
None for me
Cons:
Caused more breakouts (and we're talking after the initial 4-6 weeks)
Caused redness and sensitivity
If you don't have good insurance, it's going to be expensive.
I have always had light acne, but when I moved to a bigger city it got worse for whatever reason (worse than when I was a teen actually). My Dr. put me on the lowest strength of Retin-A. For several months I used it with no change and so she increased my strength. I began breaking out more (which is expected initially), but then it never got better. She increased my strength again and then I still continued breaking out and I also began to have redness and sensitivity. All this happened over the course of at least a year. So I'm not someone who used it for 2 months or something and then gave up; I really gave it a try. I decided to stop using it and my skin improved as far as breakouts and redness/sensitivity go. I know this works for many people, but it definitely didn't help me.
April 21, 2011
Pros:
Starting to clear
Brings stubborn ones to surface
Cons:
Dries out skin
Flaky
IB (Extremely bad)
Still have white head (early days though)
I started using this Tretinion 0.05% back in FEB but after the initial breakout, I freaked out and stopped using it. I had huge, massive ones and they just didn't want to pop. I was only using it for a week before I stopped. I discovered this website and started reading most reviews. I must say the reviews have helped me get back on it. One week back on it and I must admit that the stubborn ones are quickly finding their way to the surface. My skin is still very rough and bumpy at the moment but I expect that at early stages. Morning skin is flaky and has redness, I assume this is due to sensitive skin. Routine: At night,after washing face with gentle cleanser and I wait for 20 mins. Then I apply a small amount of the gel all over face and jawline (wait for 20 mins). Then wash off. Apply generous amount of moisturizer and go to bed. In the morning, wash face with gentle cleanser and moisturize daily. So far there are still are few stubborn ones (Cystic ones), skin is still blotchy, little bit itchy, dry, redness and scabby. Fingers crossed they these will all disappear in time. I can feel my face tightening up and some places are really feeling smooth. Any suggestions would be great.
January 17, 2011
Pros:
-evens skin tone
-makes skin soft
-reduces pore size
-so far it seems to be working
-cheap if insured.
Cons:
-increased redness first weeks
-can be somewhat irritating
-initial breakout
I've had enough with my acne a few months ago and I went to the extremity and ordered a bunch of unnecessary garbage that didn't work for me and in between those months my face went from light-moderate to SEVERE I mean pimples galore! all over my cheeks and jaw lines, painful cysts. The whole works. So I went to derm and I was prescribed Retin-A, Clyndamicin, and some doxycyline pills. So for Retin-A seems to be doing it's job and I have noticed improvement overall but I made the mistake of playing soccer without sunscreen! So my face has been red and itchy these past few days but either way the creams seem to be working and I only have two weeks so I'll make another review in two more.
October 2, 2010
Pros:
It gets rid of mostly all acne types. works pretty quick. covered by insurence.
Cons:
no cons from me...yipeee!!!!
The bottom line is it is a great product and does what its suppose to. But I would recomend using minocycline. ( its a pill) Minocycline works from the inside out to ge t rid of bacteria and the tretinoin work from the out side in so that way your able to get the inside and out side at the same tome instead of just one at a time. Hope these products work as well for you as they did for me! :-)
June 18, 2010
Pros:
-At one week I can already see a noticeable difference
-Most of my pimples are already gone
-skin looks smoother and more radiant
-smaller pores!
Cons:
-DRY DRY DRYNESS!
-I feel like my face is peeling off
-Applying moisturizer, while helpful in the long run, burns like all hell
I've decided to review so early because of the success of this product ALREADY. Today is day seven, and I can see my face clearing up before my eyes.
The ONLY drawback is the severe peeling and itchiness that comes with that. My recommendation is to use this long before you have any special occasion or a lot of public outings because you will look like a red blotchy, flakey mess unless you constantly apply moisturizer. I wish I had started this sooner! My dermatologist told me to use Cetaphil antibacterial soap morning and night, the cream before bed and gave me a prescription pill. All of this combined is working wonders!!! Tip before use: Make sure you get a moisturizer for SENSITIVE skin and start applying morning and night the moment you start using this. I didn't start peeling until the 3rd day, so I ignored the moisturizer and am severely regretting not knowing this!!! My doctor said it was very important to keep up the regimen "even though you're face is going to feel like it's peeling off". My assessment so far: WORTH IT!
March 2, 2010
Pros:
none that I experienced
Cons:
I broke out worse than I ever did in my entire life. It never really cleared up my skin.
I used Retin-A Micro for about a year. I was bracing myself because I knew it would get worse before it got better. Within a week, my entire face was inflammed and covered with cystic acne. I went from being moderately severe to extremely severe for about six weeks. It did go back to being moderately severe, but never really improved past that point. I was extremely disappointed. One dermatologist told me that I needed to stop using if I went on vacation where I was going to be out in the sun. When I stopped, my oil production when into overdrive and my face was very oily. I broke out really bad on vacation. The next doctor told me that it was okay to use (for my skin) in extended sun exposure, but I just needed to be very careful applying sunscreen every couple of hours. Finally, after one year, I decided to stop using. It did not seem to be exfoliating my skin, decreasing the oiliness or decreasing break outs.
Pros:
Will get rid of ALL of your acne. Gives your face a nice, toned, blemish-free look. Best thing out there, this is coming from someone who has been on Accutain among other medication.