ABOUT RETINOL
Retinol is a cosmetic asset that has become fashionable relatively recently in the cosmetics sector. Surely you have heard of it, but you might have missed its variants and benefits for the skin. So how much do you know about it? Let’s discover Retinol.
ABOUT RETINOL
Pure retinol is the most active form of Vitamin A, a powerful ingredient to treat all the manifestations of photo aged skin. Vitamin A cannot be synthesized by the body; hence it needs to be supplied to the body.
Retinol is a retinoid precursor of retinoic acid. Retinoids are very well known to influence a variety of cellular processes, such as cellular growth and differentiation, cell surface alterations, and immune modulation. Many of their tissue effects are mediated by their interaction with specific cellular and nucleic acid receptors. It accelerates skin cell renewal promoting epidermal growth that leads to a brighter and fresher skin. It enhances cell mitosis, increases some enzymatic reactions, and normalizes keratinization, increasing water content in the epidermis, soothing skin texture and improving its quality.
With antioxidant and regenerating properties, it is essential to the maintenance and repair of the dermal tissue, inhibiting enzymes that break down collagen and preventing from lack of skin elasticity. Retinol prevents and reduces the depth of wrinkles and scars by increasing the synthesis of collagen and reducing levels of metalloproteinases in the dermal matrix, protecting the structural integrity of the skin.
It is also an effective depigmentation ingredient. It lightens hyperpigmentation by inhibiting melanosomes from being transferred from the melanocytes into the keratinocytes, regulating the proliferation of melanocytes and modulating the hyperactivity of altered melanocytes. With exfoliating, anti-bacterial, keratolytic, antiseptic and astringent properties, Retinol promotes a clear skin complexion, free of imperfections.
It renders the bacteria involved in acne appearance (Propionibacterium acnes) inactive, accelerating the shedding of pigmented keratinocytes from the skin surface promoting and even skin tone.
On the other hand, there’s encapsulated Retinol technology, which is a natural delivery system that redefine patients’ expectations for retinol-based products, offering maximum stability, bioavailability, and lower irritation potential. It releases retinol into skin slowly over hours, maintaining its effect for a prolonged time and decreasing the irritation caused by short-time, high level exposure.
Encapsulated retinol keeps light and oxygen away from the active ingredients until the formula is applied to skin which means it’s more stable. This will help ensure potency of the product until each dose is used. Retinol is encapsulated into natural wax-based capsules that enables high retinol use levels, improved skin bioavailability and enhanced stability.
But which type of Retinol should we look for?
It is more suitable one type of Retinol or another depending on the main objective we want to achieve. If we are searching for a long-term treatment to achieve progressive results of increase of collagen and elastin (with a home treatment), it is more suitable encapsulated Retinol, as it is less irritating and don’t produce a continuous skin desquamation.
Encapsulated Retinol is used more for creams and home daily treatments. As the raw material used is encapsulated, it is not pure (2-7.5% Retinol), results are expected in the long run.
To get significant and practically immediate skin improvement, professional treatments usually use pure Retinol (in high %) to completely renew the skin (removing the uneven upper layers of skin with spots, wrinkles… etc).
Pure retinol acts at different skin levels, accelerating the rate of cell renewal and replacing damaging tissues by new and healthy ones. The effect is very quick and evident from the very first sessions.
So, there you go, a complete guide on retinol. Useful as it is, always check with a professional to get the best product for your skin.