Happy Wednesday, ladies! In today’s post I’m talking about a skin care ingredient I’ve been dying to try again! In high school and early college, I used Retin-A, a prescription retinol product, to manage my horrible acne. It’s kind of outrageously expensive though, so as my skin improved, I stopped using it. However, recently, I’ve wanted to try using it again for it’s other benefits. Through BrandBacker, I was offered the opportunity to work Valentia again and review their new retinol product, the Night Revive Retinol Serum. Obviously, I was on board in all of two seconds. So in this post, I’m breaking down the pros and cons of retinol and my feelings about this product in particular.

PROS / RETINAL BENEFITS

The Night Revive Retinol Serum, in particular, claims to do five things: diminish wrinkles, stimulate collagen, improve skin tone, manage breakouts, and condition skin. I’m going to talk about two of those the most because they’re currently the only major skin problems I’m dealing with enough to notice. The first is breakouts and the second is skin tone. I’m not really sure what stimulating collagen looks like and I’m not yet dealing with wrinkles (although I’m all for anything to prevent them!). As far as conditioning skin goes, I have a lot of other products that do something similar so I wouldn’t notice a big difference.

The main reasons I wanted to start using a retinol product is actually for the wrinkle preventing and acne healing properties. What I wasn’t aware was the skin tone benefits. My skin definitely gets a little red for whatever reason, but I have seen a marked improvement in the degree of redness since starting the Valentia Night Revive Retinol Serum. I really enjoy how thin this serum is because it soaks up so quickly and I don’t have to worry about it rubbing off on my pillow. The dropper also allows for you to get exactly the right amount of product every time.

CONS / WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR

For acne, I know retinol helps with acne. It saved my life in high school. However, what I also knew (and you’ll know if you’re an acne sufferer) is that any new product will cause a breakout. And when adding a new, powerful ingredient like retinol, you’ll have to make adjustments in your routine for awhile. So for the first month and half, I did suffer from a lot of breakouts as I was revising my routine to compensate for this new product. Over time though, your acne will clear up (see below to see how I used it to work for me).

Another thing to look out for is that retinol does make your skin a lot more sensitive to sunlight. A lot. So if you start using any retinol product, always wear sunscreen. In fact, just buy your foundation with sunscreen in it. I learned that the hard way in high school with the Rx-grade product!

WHAT WORKS FOR ME (AND MIGHT FOR YOU!)

With the breakouts in mind, I spent a few months testing this product before I would give a review. My skin has started clearing up again, so I can officially say I’ve figured out what works for me.

I use a Clarisonic every night to wash my face. My skin isn’t to sensitive, so I’m able to use it that often. But I’ve been taking a night off about once a week to give my skin a break. I also only use the retinol serum every other night. There are other products in my routine that I just wasn’t willing to give up so I scooted things around a little.  My skin also tends to dry out spontaneously in response to acne treatments and weather, so I keep my my moisturizer nearby.  I kind of just play that by ear. I always use a light moisturizer, but I layer on a thicker cream before bed when my skin looks or feels like it needs it. To sum up, the only changes I had to make were cutting one night of the Clarisonic and using the retinol every other day. Other than that, nothing changed because I’ve always needed an extra moisturizer on occasion.

IS RETINOL FOR YOU?

If your skin is acne prone, uneven, or you want some anti-aging benefits, retinol is definitely worth a shot. The Valentia retinol is a great price if you want to get started testing it out. It’s only $35 on Amazon, compared to $50+++ for the other retinol products I was looking at! My recommendation is to test it out on a small patch of skin, obviously. Then, only use it every other day or every two days. Step it up after a week or two, then decide if that works and you can try more, or if you need to slow down the frequency again.

You can also find Valentia on Facebook and Instagram.

What do y’all think? Have you tried a retinol product?

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