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The Ordinary Retinol 1% Review

Hi everyone

About 5 or 6 weeks ago I ordered The Ordinary's Retinol 1% (from either Cloud 10 Beauty or Beauty Bay, sorry I can't remember). I was hugely excited and wrote a blog post with some info on retinols/retinoids and my prior experience (Paula's Choice Super AntiOxidant Serum with Retinol, fail). I promised to use The Ordinary and come back with a review so here I am!

I'm going to start off by admitting that I used this for just less than a month and here's why.

*After two uses (every third night, mixed with serum) my skin was itchy, red and flaky

*Even so I persevered, and went down to using it every fourth night, with an even smaller amount,  again mixed with serum

*After just over 3 weeks of this my skin was like that of a snake. I kept it smooth enough for make-up by gently exfoliating with a flannel and balm cleanser at night, but when the dryness spread down to my neck and was worsening on my face I basically just said 'F@ck this' and threw the damn thing in the bin. I do want to get into using retinols, but as I said in my previous post I wish I had gone for something more gentle - this was just too much. If you are a seasoned retinol user then this might be up your street but for a newbie like me it's over-kill.
That said I'm not by any stretch done with Vit A/Retinol products, I am currently researching a better option and will probably end up going with the La Roche Posay Rendermic or Indeed Labs Retinol Reface, both of which I've seen good reviews and both of which don't seem to irritate your skin as much as this one.

One other thing about The Ordinary Retinol - please change the packaging, people. It's exactly the same as the High Adherence Silicone Primer which I own and love and on more than one occasion when travelling I almost used retinol as primer - something you don't want to do, especially with this retinol!

Have any of you had any good/bad experiences with these types of products? Any recommendations?

Have a fab day!
A x

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