Does Retinol Help With Wrinkles? Here’s the Deal

Share this:

Does retinol help with wrinkles? Retinol is touted to be one of the best anti-aging skincare ingredients of all time. Wrinkles are one of the aging signs that develop on the skin as your skin’s way of reminding you that you are growing older. 

Since retinol is known for its age-defying benefits, it works to help wrinkles. Most dermatologists swear by it and recommend it to their patients. This is because retinol works effectively to treat skin concerns to help you achieve flawless skin.

Retinol helps to rejuvenate your old skin cells to help them behave younger. When you are still young, your skin cells produce adequate collagen and elastin fiber to your skin to ensure that your skin repairs quickly on its own. 

However, there is a decrease in the production of these two protein fibers as you age. This results in the formation and appearance of aging signs such as wrinkles, fine lines, and so on. Read ahead to find out more information about using retinol on wrinkles. 

Does Retinol Help With Wrinkles?

Retinol is one of the best treatments there is for wrinkles. Using retinol will help to significantly reduce the appearance of wrinkles and other aging signs on your skin.

Starting from the age of twenty, you may start losing your skin’s elasticity due to reduced production of elastin and collagen—which occurs as you age. This leads to the appearance of wrinkles on your skin. 

Although the development of wrinkles is normal, it does not look pleasant on the skin. The best thing to do is to hop on using retinol in your skincare routine to help boost the production of elastin and collagen in your skin cells. This will help to restore your skin’s elasticity. 

Several studies and scientific research have revealed retinol to be effective in treating aging signs such as wrinkles. 

A study reveals that retinol formulations are capable of treating wrinkles. Researchers discovered that using retinol as a wrinkles treatment will result in significant improvements after 12 weeks of treatment.

What Does Retinol Do to Help Wrinkles?

According to Dr. Marisa Garshick, MD, a board-certified dermatologist, “retinol is a vitamin A derivative that belongs in the category of retinoids. Retinol works to reduce aging signs and other impurities on the skin.” 

“When you apply retinol to your skin, it converts to retinoic acid and works on your skin to improve the production of elastin and collagen in the skin. It also increases the rate of epidermal turnover in the skin,” she explains further. 

The increment in the production of collagen and elastin in the skin cells will help to improve the tone and texture of the skin.

Can Retinol Prevent Wrinkles?

Retinol helps in the development of new skin cells, as well as the production of elastin fibers in the skin. Incorporating the use of retinol into your skincare routine can help to prevent the development of wrinkles on your skin. 

When you start using retinol on your skin before you start experiencing the formation of aging signs on your skin, retinol will assist in keeping your skin smooth and healthy. 

Retinol will continue to boost the production of collagen and elastin in your skin—which prevents wrinkles from appearing on your skin. Using retinol to treat aging can also prevent the wrinkles on your skin from increasing.

How Does Retinol Help Wrinkles?

Retinol works by penetrating the epidermis to stimulate the production of the necessary fibers that the skin needs to stay young and healthy.

It also enhances the epidermal turnover rate to encourage the development of fresh, young skin cells to replace old skin cells. The production of elastin and collagen in the body will help to firm the skin as well as smoothen it to clear off impurities such as dark spots.

Retinol is quite popular for its anti-aging benefits. Lindsey Bordone, MD, a Colombian dermatologist says that “retinol increases the rate at which there is a turnover in the skin; to treat wrinkles and reduce the appearance of wrinkles on the skin.”

How to Use Retinol in Your Skincare Routine

Even though retinol is touted to be one of the best age-defying ingredients in the skincare world, it does come with several side effects ranging from mild to severe. 

To avoid these side effects or to lessen the risk of getting them, you need to learn to properly use retinol on your skin to treat skin concerns. Below are a few things to always take note of—to assist you in using your retinol serum to treat wrinkles. 

1. Do a Patch Test

A patch test is a very important step you have to take before you begin to use any skincare product on your skin. This will help to confirm if retinol is safe for you to use on your skin to treat or prevent the appearance of wrinkles on your skin. 

To carry out the test, apply a tiny bit of the retinol product on your wrist and wait for 24 hours to check the result. If you are allergic to using the product, you will experience allergic reactions such as swelling, hives, and redness on your skin. 

If you do not experience any of these, you can proceed to start using retinol to keep your skin ageless. 

2. Choose the right retinol percentage to treat wrinkles

Retinol is available in skincare products of all kinds, ranging from gel to serum. It also comes in different percentages and levels of concentration. You do not need to get a retinol product with a high percentage of retinol just to treat wrinkles. 

If you are looking to prevent wrinkles from appearing on your skin, you can stick to using a low percentage of retinol on your skin. 

The ideal option for you is between 0.3% retinol and 0.5 percent retinol. If you are hoping to reduce the appearance of wrinkles on your skin, you can use up to 1% retinol on your skin. 

However, if you are new to retinol and if you have sensitive skin, a low percentage of retinol is the ideal choice for you to use on your skin to help reduce or prevent the appearance of wrinkles on your skin.

3. Ensure that your skin is clean before applying retinol 

The number one step to begin a skincare routine is the cleansing of the skin in preparation for the application of skincare products. This is mainly because you cannot apply your skincare products to unclean skin. 

Applying products on dirty skin not only stops the product from working efficiently on the skin, but it also adds up with the dirt on the skin to clog your skin pores.  

Before you begin to start applying skincare products to your skin, cleanse your skin with soap to remove dirt and dead skin cells from the surface of your skin. After which you can dry your skin with a towel and proceed to apply your retinol product.

4. Always moisturize after

Moisturizing your skin after using retinol on it is a must. This is particularly because retinol causes the skin to become dehydrated. The only way to restore hydration to your skin is to use a moisturizer to seal in moisture on your skin. 

Ensure that the moisturizer that you choose to use does not contain any irritant or exfoliating properties. This will help to avoid irritating your skin while trying to prevent retinol’s drying effect on your skin. 

5. Protect your skin using a sunscreen

It has already been established that retinol shouldn’t be applied to the skin in the morning due to extreme sensitivity to the sun. Therefore, retinol is best applied to the skin at night. Even at that you still need to use sunscreen in the morning to protect your skin from being burned by the sun. 

Apply a broad-spectrum sunscreen of SPF 30 as a layer of protection on your skin before leaving your home in the morning.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should you use retinol? 

You can use your retinol as often as every night. However, this is on for those whose skin can tolerate frequent usage of retinol. Aside from that, the strength of the retinol product you use also determines how often to use it on your skin.

If you have just started using retinol on your skin to treat skin concerns such as wrinkles, you must start slowly. This is because retinol also comes with side effects that occur when your skin is just getting to acknowledge the ingredient. 

Can retinol make wrinkles worse?

No, it can’t. Retinol cannot make wrinkles worse, instead, it reduces the appearance of wrinkles on the skin.

Retinol is known to be the most effective anti-aging skincare ingredient in the skincare world. Since wrinkles are an aging sign, therefore, retinol will help in reducing the appearance of wrinkles on your skin. 

When should you use retinol on your skin?

Retinol is best used on the skin at night before bed. This is because the body is known to rest and repair itself at this time. Using retinol at night will assist your skin to rejuvenate after a long tiring day. 

Also, another reason to use your retinol at night is the increased sensitivity of the sun that retinol causes on the skin. Therefore, it is best to use retinol at night to avoid sunburns and other environmental damage.

Conclusion

Retinol is a gold-standard ingredient that is recommended by dermatologists to treat skin concerns such as aging, acne, uneven skin tone, and so on.

Wrinkles are a natural development that appears on the skin as a result of aging. Although this is very normal, it doesn’t look pleasant on the skin. Using retinol on your skin is an effective way to reduce the appearance of wrinkles on your skin.

It also works to prevent the development of wrinkles on the skin in the first place. This can be achieved by incorporating the use of retinol in your skincare routine early in your 20s. This will help to maintain the production of collagen and elastin in your skin cells.

Thanks for reading.

Visit Serum101 for more enlightening articles to guide your way through the incorporation of your skincare products into your skincare routine.