Retinol Irritating Your Skin? Here's What To Try

If you know even the tiniest bit about anti-aging skin care, you’ve probably heard about retinol. After all, it’s the star of the show, the go-to skin care solution for looking younger and getting your glow back. But if you’re a member of the sensitive skin club, you might also know that retinol can be a bit of a frenemy. Sure, it does a great job of refreshing and revitalizing your skin, but it’s notorious for causing irritation too.

If you’ve tried retinol and found that it leaned more toward enemy than friend, don’t worry – you might just be able to save the friendship yet. Here’s some helpful advice about why retinol might be irritating your skin, what you can try to reduce the irritation, and, if that doesn’t work, what you can use instead.

Why Does Retinol Cause Skin Irritation?

Retinol doesn’t always cause skin irritation, but it does have that tendency because of how it reinvigorates your skin. Retinol’s main superpower is to increase cell turnover, which means that it helps your skin slough off dead skin cells faster and expose the fresh, undamaged layers of skin underneath. The issue is that this fresh skin might be a little too fresh, AKA sensitive, so exposing it sooner than it expected can cause dryness and irritation.

In a lot of cases, irritation just happens while your skin is getting use to the retinol, so it will eventually get with the program and play nicely with your retinol. But if you’re seeing this irritation from retinol, the best way to deal with it isn’t to just tough it out until your skin gets used to it. It means you need to dial it back and be gentler with your retinol use, working your way up to it instead.

Ways to Reduce Retinol Irritation

If your skin is sending you signals that your retinol use is a bit much, there are plenty of easy ways to slow it down and give your skin the gradual ramp-up that it needs.

Switch to a Lower Strength

Most retinol products will state what concentration of retinol they contain – 0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5%, and so on. Take a look at the retinol product you’re using and try swapping it out for a product that has a lower concentration.

Dilute Your Retinol

If you just cracked open a new bottle of your retinol and you’re not loving the idea of buying a new one at a lower concentration, there’s a DIY way to do it. Instead of applying the retinol directly to your skin, try using a smaller amount of it mixed in with your moisturizer.

For example, say you’re using a retinol serum that recommends using one pump of the product. Instead, put some of your moisturizer on your hand and mix in half a pump of your retinol serum. This dilutes the retinol so that you’re effectively getting a lower concentration of it, and because it’s mixed in with your moisturizer, it’ll be less drying too.

Another way to do this is with the sandwich method. Instead of applying your retinol and then moisturizer, you can apply your moisturizer first, then retinol, then another layer of your moisturizer. The first layer of moisturizer reduces how much your retinol penetrates into your skin so it’s not as harsh.

Change Up Your Retinol Schedule

Retinol typically isn’t an everyday product because of its tendency toward irritation. You can reduce your retinol reactions by stepping down your retinol schedule, only using it a few times per week or as little as once a week. Make sure you’re also using it on a different day than you’re exfoliating, even leaving a “rest day” between exfoliating and using retinol.

Take Stock of Your Skin Before Use

Sometimes keeping your skin and retinol friendly with each other means making a judgment call and giving them some space. If it’s a day when you’d normally use retinol based on your skin care schedule, but your skin is already a bit irritated, whether it’s because of dehydration, another skin care product you’ve used, a skin treatment, or your last retinol use, skip the retinol tonight. Pick it back up after your skin has had time to cool its jets.

Make Sure You’re Using Sunscreen

Sometimes what looks like retinol irritation isn’t actually from the retinol itself. Retinol is known to make your skin more sensitive to the sun because it’s exposing that fresh, vulnerable new layer of skin. If you’re not being religious about your sunscreen use, the redness and inflammation you’re seeing might actually be sunburn instead. You can prevent that by using broad-spectrum sunscreen every day as part of your morning skin care.

Talk to Your Dermatologist

If trying these tips above doesn’t work, retinol might just not be a good fit for your skin, and that’s okay! Talk to your dermatologist about ways to reduce your skin’s sensitivity, whether you might have a condition that’s causing the heightened sensitivity and irritation, and other recommendations for anti-aging that might suit your skin better.

Anti-Aging Options Without Retinol

If it turns out that you and retinol are just not compatible, don’t worry, it doesn’t have to mean that you just let wrinkles do as they will. There are still plenty of anti-aging skin care products that freshen up your face without using retinol. Look for these active ingredients as alternatives:

• Vitamin C – An antioxidant that prevents and repairs damage that makes your skin age faster, ultimately brightening your skin, reducing dark spots, and enhancing collagen production whether you use a vitamin C serum, cream, or other products
• Peptides – Chains of amino acids that are the building blocks of collagen and elastin, allowing them to firm your skin and reduce lines and wrinkles
• Bakuchiol – Potentially the most direct alternative to retinol, as a natural compound in the seeds of the babchi plant, working to increase cell turnover and stimulate new collagen
• Alpha Hydroxy Acids or AHAs – Chemical exfoliants that help slough away dead skin cells, reducing dark spots and fine lines, and while AHAs can also cause irritation, they aren’t as harsh as retinol
• Niacinamide or vitamin B3 – A popular antioxidant that eases dark spots, strengthens your skin’s protective barrier and reduces inflammation

If you haven’t had great experiences with retinol, there’s always hope, whether it lies in using alternative anti-aging products or just switching up your retinol routine. Either way, it’s all a matter of finding out what works for your skin and makes you look and feel like your best self.