Trialling the Dermalogica Overnight Retinol Repair has been a bit out of the ordinary for me. The reason I say this is that when I initially read about how to use the product and how powerful the ingredients are I wasn’t really sure it was for me. The cream contains 0.5% retinol which is the highest ratio that you can get without a prescription. I read that it can cause redness and inflammation and I was questioning whether I really needed to apply something to my skin that might cause irritation when it’s not in bad condition for my age.
I took advice and discovered that if you use the retinol along with up to three parts of the Buffer Cream that is supplied with it then your skin becomes acclimatised to it and over time you can increase the ratio.
Now I have great faith in Dermalogica and have loved all the products that I’ve tried so far. They care a lot about their clients and know a lot about skin care so I after a bit of thought I decided to give it a try.
They say:
“Powerful treatment cream accelerates skin renewal and reduces the appearance of skin aging overnight. Active microencapsulated pure Retinol helps increase collagen production and cell turnover. Powerful peptides and antioxidant Vitamin C help fight signs of aging including uneven skin tone and discoloration. Formulated with a clinically-proven bioenergized Copper amino acid complex shown to reduce visible wrinkles and improve skin firmness. Includes a moisturizing Buffer Cream to help skin acclimate to this highly-active form of Retinol. Formulated without artificial fragrances, colors or parabens.”
I used it every other night for the first week mixed one part retinol with three parts buffer cream gradually increasing over two weeks to using it every day and just retinol alone. As you would expect my skin felt great, I didn’t see any effect at all the appearance of my skin at first but over time I did notice a little pinkness on my nose to mouth lines. It was never sore or dry. Then a few days ago I got a bit of reaction at the base of my neck. A bit of irritation and itchiness. I think it’s probably just below the area that I had been using the retinol/buffer mix and so my skin wasn’t acclimatised. I made sure not to apply the cream in this area for the next couple of days but it didn’t go away and so, even though I haven’t got to the end of the treatment I’ve decided to stop using it.
I took this decision because I remembered how at the beginning I wasn’t sure about using such a potent product and I felt that perhaps I should have gone with my gut feeling. I also think it’s probably advisable to use this kind of thing with direct and personal advice from a skin specialist in the Dermalogica store.
As you know, when I review products I just tell you about my experience of the product and how it was for me. My experience doesn’t mean that I think that it wouldn’t be suitable for others.
If you think this might be for you then I would suggest taking some advice from a Dermalogica store and you can find your nearest one here. If you want to buy it on-line you can find it here for £73.00.
Have you tried retinol before? How did you get on with it?
Hazel
This product was gifted to me for review but the opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.
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