How to add tretinoin to your routine

 Welcome! So you are ready to enter the mystical and magical world of tretinoin. If you are unsure of what tretinoin is, please check out my earlier post about the basics of this wonderful active ingredient.

The following post will break down in a week-by-week basis on how to add tret but please know, your skin will determine the speed and number of steps to take. The important thing is that you don't go to slow (otherwise your skin will never get used to it) or too fast (or you risk compromising your skin barrier).

Week 1-4: 

Your dermatologist will start you at a low strength, something around .01 or .02. If you are getting it with a prescription, go with a low strength so that your skin can get retinized or adjust to this new ingredient. Again, too fast or too furious will mess up your skin unnecessarily and remember, you do not need to purge or have a reaction to know if the tretinoin is working. 

Do not apply everyday. You derm or online provider (Curology, Apostrophe, etc.) may say its fine but I would not start everyday. This is potent ingredient and you want to make sure your skin has time to adjust. I would recommend starting at 2x a week for 2 weeks, 3x a week for 3 weeks and so on. I did this for about a month and when I noticed I had zero reaction, aside from some tightness near my nose and mouth, I felt comfortable proceeding with daily application

Simply your routine. If you are exfoliating or using any other actives or acids, STOP. You will mess up your skin and regret it.

Do not apply on wet skin. Wet skin is wonderful for absorbing ingredients deeper, so a great thing for essence, hylaronic acid and other skincare steps. If you are new to tretinoin, allowing it to permeate deeper can increase the chances of irritation. That being said, I do apply it to wet skin now because I am able to handle it so please proceed with caution. The suggested amount is 30 minutes drying time before applying 

Do not use too much product. More lotion does not mean more results. You will likely just end up irritating your skin and wasting product. A pea-sized amount should be sufficient.

Consider buffering your skin. This means applying lotion to skin after applying tret. Buffering has been shown to not reduce the impact of tret and does help reduce post-application irritation. I like Vanicream Lite, in the tub, but if you have a moisturizer that you already like, feel free to use it!

Week 5 - 8

So, you've been slowly increasing the frequency of application, buffering and  getting more accustomed to the tret. If you are still experiencing purging, there may be a number of reasons for this:

1. You are going too slow

If you go too slow, your skin will not get enough time to adjust and get used to the tretinoin. By this point, you should be up to 5 to 6 times a week at least

2. Your skin is sensitive

This may take longer but if you can handle it, push through. Purging brings your new skin to the surface so much faster that it brings all the other acne to the surface.

If you are not purging and are adjusting well, you may want to consider increasing in strength. This is not required and some people do just as well with lower percentages. It took me about 8 months to get to the highest level of .14 but I went up with every prescription bottle which was every 1.5-2 months. Tretinoin is a medication that will need to be continued in order for you to continue to see results. This means that you can reduce the frequency if you just want to maintain your results but stopping entirely may have you return to your original condition.

You likely won't see results until about 6 months in but stick with it. The amount of research that supports the efficacy of tretinoin is significant and it can make a huge difference!