Tretinoin

I have sensitive skin so I got a mild rash initially which is now gone. It stings, burns, itches and dried out my skin which then flaked off. It was quite painful. I had to take painkillers. Disclaimer: I started using 2.5% salicylic acid wash and clindamycin solution at the same time per my doctor

great product, I have very high hopes based on the improvement I have seen in only 1 week. Maybe one day I'll be able to leave my house without make-up on!

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wendiez

October 10, 2010

Pros:

- works on acne and acne scars.
- clears out pores
- increases cell turn over rate
- softer smoother skin
- not as harsh as Benzoyl Peroxide!!!
- stops break outs

Cons:

acne will get worse before it gets better so be patient. It will dry out your skin but no more than any other topical acne med and also makes your skin a bit sensitive so moisturize to conbat irritation.

THIS WORKS. It will take some time. For me the first sign of releaf came at about the 3 week mark, but I am also on antibiotics. I REALLY recomend you start on some antibiotics when you start using this to keep the intial break out to a minimum, mine wasn't that bad. DONT stop using. Your ance will inprove dramaticly only with consistency... trust me! My ance was bad I had whiteheads, blackheads and deep painful cyst and nothing worked. My doc gave me a prescristion of Doxycycline and Tretintoin .025% cream and this super combo work amazingly attacking my acne from the inside and out. Its been about a month and my face is much clearer and is contiuning to improve. I also see my scars and flesh colored bumps slowing fading. It usually takes as long as 3 months to see an improvement on scars. But for me after only a month I see a small improvment. For those of us who have scars we know how big a difference even the smallest improvement can make and it reassures us that it is working even if its at a slow pace. Also if you start this while your breaking out your current acne will have to heal so give it time.

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carolynngyn

October 9, 2010

Pros:

I guess it reduced the redness a little. but my pimples were still highly noticeable

Cons:

it severely dried my skin and so made me peel like crazy! it looked like i shedding like a snake. i could literally brush my face and flakes would come off. gross. and the severe drying happened within the first three days i started using retin a. if i wasnt peeling (which was a daily thing for me with retin a) my face was inflamed. i was so blotchy and looked like i got badly sunburned. i tried hiding it with makeup, it just made me look tanner than kanye west. and im asian, so not good.

I'm 15 and have had acne since about 6th grade. and it is badddd. I've tried everything, netrogena, cetaphil, clarasil, aveeno, blah blah blah. everyone says its just puberty and it will go away when i get older, but that's years away, and i can't deal with acne till then. i bet retin a would have worked if i was more patient with it (i heard the full affects of retin a happens takes about 6 months to happen) but i was in the middle of the school year and just couldnt deal with any more peeling. so i quit. right now im trying benzoyle peroxide (i think thats how u spell it) i just started this week, and from the first wash i did with it my face felt clean and, weirdly enough, glowy. smooth too. so im hoping there are no downsides to benzoyle peroxide, but just in case i have my fingers crossed :) hope this helped.

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fenway58

October 6, 2010

Pros:

I saw some results very quickly
Easy to apply
Goes on smoothly
Havent seen many 'initial break outs'
HELPS WITH WRINKLES!
This is the *only* thing i've tried that does anything to get rid of white heads and flesh colored bumps

Cons:

-Causes some dry/red/rough patches
-Causes some skin peeling (almost like after a sun burn) but is easy to get rid of and hasnt been severe.
-Makes skin EXTRA sensitive and fragile, so much so that even pressing my fingernail lightly on my face leaves a red mark.

I really like this prescription so far. I have only been using it for a month. The first 2 or 2.5 weeks I only used it every other night and on the nights I wasn't using it i'd sometimes use Clindimycin/BP combo cream, but that stuff makes my face SO DRY I've pretty much stopped using it except as a spot treatment (but I haven't had many pimples). Now for the last few weeks i've been using it every evening. I've noticed a big improvment. I've always had the habit that when I'm bored or something, i'll lean closely to the mirror and squeeze my blackheads/clogged pores. The last week or so when I've gone to do that, there really havent been any blackheads to squeeze! In addition, I get a bunch of fleshcolored/white bumps on my chin and a few other areas. I think they're white heads but it seems alot of people have different definitions for what a white head is. Anyways, they aren't inflamed. Just clogged. For so long, NOTHING i tried would do much for them. But now that i've been using this, the white bumps are finally going down! I haven't been breaking out at all really for the last 10 days or longer. I never had a HUGE breaking out problem, my issues are mainly blackheads and white heads. But i always break out on my period, and I didnt for the last one. Plus the small pimples I get regularly havent shown up. Finally, I have 2 pretty bad smile lines and I swear to you, they've already started fading! My mom even noticed. The cons so far have been increased skin sensitivity, some peeling and some (one in particular) dry/red patches. The peeling for me has been pretty easy to get rid of. I just apply Clinique Clarifying Lotion 2 (which exfoliates) and then apply moisturizer. I will write again in a month or two but so far I am VERY HAPPY. :)

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kostonred

October 5, 2010

Pros:

CLEARS SKIN
STOPS BREAK OUTS

Cons:

TAKES FOREVER

after about 2 months or so this started kicking in and i started seeing results and after about 3 months my skin was completely clear. but whatever u do DONT stop using it no matter what after my skin cleared i ran out and thought that i wouldnt get any more pimples but after a week i started breaking out and a week after that i got some more of this stuff its been 2 weeks now and my skins almost clear again so yea dont stop using

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Danielle

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! :-)

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fourfivesix

September 30, 2010

Pros:

- promotes cell turnover, leading to smoother skin overall
- really purges out your pores
- clears skin over time
- breakouts that form take less time to heal

Cons:

- dries out skin + makes it extremely oily
- I experienced all the side effects! (itching, redness, flaking, stinging, etc.)
- takes a long time (in the meantime, you have tons of breakouts and raised bumps)
- initial breakout phase

I used tretinoin cream 0.05% for four and a half months before calling it quits. It took about four months for my skin to even begin getting used to the medication - my skin is extremely sensitive and this is a harsh medication. I never quite got to the point of applying it every night because my skin simply couldn't handle it. For the first two months or so, my skin was the worst it had ever been, but after four months, I started to see some improvements. I've had consistent breakouts for a few years (never a clear day), and while I was using this medication, I had a few, which was enough to keep me going. One thing it DID do was clear up all the flesh-colored bumps on my forehead. It was never really something I minded since there was no discoloration, and I could cover it up with my hair, but it cleared up within a month or so and my forehead was soooo smooth compared to before! (Unfortunately, my problem area became my jawline/cheeks, which had lots of underlying plugged comedones). In the end, I did have lots of hyperpigmentation from previous breakouts, but my skin was somehow more manageable, since any big pimples always went away within a day or two without my touching it or popping it. Plus, I no longer got cystic acne (just the wide/red/painful ones, which don't scar as easily). Eventually, my dermatologist and I decided to change to a different retinoid (Differin) - simply because it's a less harsh form. I do plan on going back to the tretinoin in the future because I believe it will be more effective. However, when I do end up trying it again, I'm going to use the gel form because although it's more drying, it doesn't have the comedogenic ingredient found in the tretinoin cream. (I don't know how much this factored into my breakouts, but I'd rather err on the side of safety)

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sus

September 30, 2010

Pros:

Only *slightly* irritates skin, it's nothing compared to other meds. No peeling.

Cons:

Leaves kind of a greasy sheen in the morning
Requires only a dab, goes on *so* much quicker than Dan's BP regimen. Felt like I got my nights and mornings back.
Have been breaking out for 3 months now

Brief history: on Accutane 2x, then Dan's Regimen which worked mostly consistently but I ran into issues when I was dealing with perioral dermatitis (on Oracea for that). Derm told me to stop the BP and put me on the Atralin version of Tretinoin. I've been on Atralin for 12 weeks now, and I think my skin is the worst it has been since I was a teenager before my first round of Accutane. I have tiny bumps on my forehead, down by my temples, blackheads on my nose, tiny bumps all on my cheeks, and my chin continues to get these postules that popup (assuming that's the perioral dermatitis but it's so hard to tell for sure). The only thing I don't actually have - for the most part - is the big inflamed cystic type acne. In general my skin just feels terribly textured - when I wash all I feel is bumps *everywhere*. Just when I think it can't get worse, it does. The bumps start forming into real zits, or it spreads to a part of my face which used to be clear. Based on what i've heard, this sounds par for the course for Tretinoin - it brings everything for the surface. What I'm wondering though, is will this end? I've read many reviews and commentary on this medication saying stick out the 3-4 months, suddenly you'll see a clearing. I was hoping that at month 12 I'd see improvement but I seem to be at my worse. It's so hard to continue on with something that is so discouraging. The only reason I'm going to stick it out another 4-6 weeks (maybe more?) is because if I do stop then at least I don't have to always wonder if the issue was that I just didn't stick it out a lot. I've heard reviews of people who say this med doesn't work but they have stopped before the allotted time -- what I'm curious is if anyone has experience with this medication that has been on it for 5-6+ months and *didn't* see worth it results? If anyone has thoughts or is going through this same process, would love

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Phlourchild

September 28, 2010

Pros:

Gets rid of whiteheads and heals skin fast! Nice glow to skin.

Cons:

Takes a looong time to work. MUST be patient! First two weeks I had peeling and dryness. Broke out like crazy! Got new zits I thought i never had.

Ive been using the .025% retin A cream for 5 weeks. I've been semi religious with it, putting it on every night except for a few missed days. I'm still purging but all the whiteheads I had under my skin (and boy did I have a lot!) are nearly gone. The only thing I'm gonna say is that you may need to go on an antibiotic while you're on this. I had persistent acne, hard nodules and itchy clusters of cysts along my jawline. My derm put me on solodyn and this seems to be significantly calming down the breakout stage. So now I feel like the retin A is just working on the visible acne I have. Have lots of red marks from the acne that got brought up and could not help but pop and pick at. Again its only been 5 weeks, so hopefully if I keep using it it will help with that as well. Oh and for some reason, the cream version seems to make my skin oily when I make up in the morning. Not sure why. Best of luck to you all. This also shall pass!!

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und3adjok3r

September 20, 2010

Pros:

clears up skin 100%
works on scars and dark spots
cheap

Cons:

drying
redness

Ive tried every OTC acne medication you can think of.. from proactiv, acne free, BP, to oxy. nothing worked and most made my completion worse (anything with BP). when i first got retin a i only used it for a few days and stoped due to the redness and ib(or so i thought). Anyway about two weeks ago I decided to give it a try, i mean I didnt have anything to loose! The first few days I didnt see any results.. Around the fifty day my face was so dry and red i looked like a lobster shedding.. lol I decided to tough it out and by my 2nd week im almost completely clear! I still have to use moisturizer day and night but if thats the cost for clear skin i can live with it. I used a pea sized amout at bed time, wait an hr and use cetaphil an hr later. The cetaphil really works on the flaking skin and redness, its two oily looking to use in the day time so i use biore with 15spf during the day. NOTHING has ever given me the results that this has, I only wish I had have used it earlier! Oh ya and the IB wasnt really a breakout at all for me, more so of the acne under my skin coming to the surface! If your put on retin a tough it out, the results are amazing!!

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