Skincare Review: The Ordinary Advanced Retinoid 2%

This is the product I was the most excited for from The Ordinary. As you know, I had rather bad hormonal acne on my chin for about 6 months. Although somehow it went away by itself and I don’t have huge cystic acne there like I used to, I still have very clogged pores there and a fair bit of texture. It bothers me for sure. So I was hoping Retinoid would wipe it clean and make my skin baby smooth again.

EDIT: Update as promised here, with before and after photos!

Sorry for the blurry pic! Also, HOW FANTASTIC IS MY NAIL COLOUR.

Ingredients:

Aqua (Water), Glycerin, Ethyl Linoleate, Propanediol, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Cetearyl Isononanoate, Bisabolol, Hydroxypinacolone Retinoate, Retinol, Tasmannia Lanceolata Fruit/Leaf Extract, Dimethyl Isosorbide, Inulin Lauryl Carbamate, Glyceryl Stearate, Ceteareth-12, Ceteareth-20, Cetearyl Alcohol, Carrageenan, Xanthan Gum, Acacia Senegal Gum, Cetyl Palmitate, Sucrose Laurate, Polysorbate 20, Behentrimonium Chloride, Potassium Citrate, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Disodium EDTA, Dehydroacetic Acid, Benzoic Acid, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin.

Of course, with retinoid, you expect lots of purging to happen. (For a nice guide on purging vs breakouts, read this handy guide by Lab Muffin!) Because retinoid increases the rate of cell turnover. your skin is going to look way worse before it looks better. So, you should give the retinoid about a month, at least, before expecting results.

I can say this is definitely my experience. My skin is SHIT now. it’s bumpy and gross. I have lots of minor whiteheads in areas I only occasionally get whiteheads in, like my forehead and my cheeks. I hate it. I’m going to give this until mid-end April to work its magic and pray to god it works.

True to the Ordinary, it is packaged in a boring dropper bottle that is UV protective. Fine by me. Anyway, this is a milky, runny liquid. It doesn’t spread super well, so I usually use like, 3-4 drops for my face. I try to concentrate it over my problem areas like my chin.

The good thing about this formula is that it’s not very irritating nor drying. I find that the suspension that the retinoid is in is fairly moisturizing in itself, and my skin doesn’t peel excessively or feel dry the next day, unlike traditional tretinoin routines and all. Of course, that doesn’t help the shittiness of my skin, but at least I’m not scratching endlessly at it.

Right now, I am using this roughly every other day only at night. One reason why my skin is especially shit, I think, is because you’re not supposed to use BHA with retinoids, and I think I have been suffering for it. You can pry my BHA out of my cold, dead hands. Since I use a nice gentle BHA, I should still be able to use BHA and retinoids without overexfoliating, so I’m going back to using BHA especially on days I don’t use retinoid.

Hopefully, I will update this blog in end April when I have amazing, baby smooth skin. Until then…. Urgh. D:

EDIT: Update as promised here, with before and after photos!