Vitamin A isn’t exactly anything new. But being new doesn’t always make it better. Vitamin A is certainly the one to watch because it’s a proven ingredient to repair signs of ageing.
So if you are late to the party or just want to know a little bit more then keep reading.
Forms
You’ll come across vitamin A in many forms such as; Retinal Esters, Retinol, Rentinal and Retinoic Acid. Retinal Esters are often very weak and don’t work so well. They pretty much give up by the time they get to where they need to work. Retinol is most common. Retinal is harder to stabilise but is 11 x stronger than retinol. Finally Retinoic Acid is the strongest.
Benefits
Most importantly for some it’s going to give your collagen and elastin a boost. Boosts your skins radiance by exfoliating and speeding up your cell turn over. It helps acne too as it prevents dead skin cells clogging your pores leading to break outs and black heads. Fights free radicals.
When To Use
Slow and steady wins the race. Do not go in with a high level every single night. Especially if you’ve never used vitamin A before. Night time is when you want to add it into you routine because it is broken down by light. Depending on the form you have your vitamin A in will depend when to apply. More often than not you’ll have some form of retinol/retinal serum. In which case, cleanse, tone, Vitamin A, any other products, moisturise, SPF. If you’re going to use Retinol please use SPF. Why go through all that hard work to let the sun damage your skin.
Usage
Every 3rd night for 2 weeks, every other night for 2 weeks, then finally every night. If you go in full pelt you run the risk of peeling, irritation, dryness and redness. When you’re in your 20’s your cell turn over can be every 28 days. Hit your 40’s and you are likely to be at a 45 day cell turn over. Once you reach 60 things are slowing right down to a cell turn over of 90 days. Retinol works into you basal layer and encourages cell turn over. Going in too quick and strong will hit your skin too hard. Less is more.
Pregnancy
It’s always better to be safe than sorry. Although to my knowledge there isn’t any evidence as to not using it during pregnancy. After all you’re not gonna set up a load of testing on ladies who are pregnant. But your skin can be all over the place due to your hormones and so the advice is always to avoid during pregnancy.
I hope that gives you a little bit more of an incite. If there is anything else you’d like to know leave me a message. I one don’t want to bore you or two confuse the hell out of you. Do be aware that although this is an amazing product as with everything it may not suit everyone, but if you follow the rules you should love it.
Products mentioned are used at Rachieroo Treatments.
Rach xx
