PRODUCT REVIEW: SKIN PROUD RECHARGE OVERNIGHT 0.5% RETINOL SERUM - BEST RETINOL FOR OILY SKIN, WHICH IS THE MILDEST RETINOL?
SKIN PROUD | RECHARGE OVERNIGHT 0.5% RETINOL SERUM
This review was originally part of my blog article titled, The Best Skincare Routine for Oily Skin: My Picks from Paula's Choice, The Inkey List, Glossier, Skinfix and More. You can still catch the full piece here.
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I realize that while I’d classify my skin as relatively normal on most days of the year, in July and August, I’m as oily as it gets.
And, ironically, that’s a good thing! I know that people with oily skin often manage acne breakouts, and that does really suck. If there’s one thing we can all agree on, no matter our skin type, it’s that oily skin isn’t fun. If you’re human and have any recollection of your teenage years, you likely struggled with oily skin and every oily-skin concern imaginable, the most frustrating of which is acne.
But the longer your skin produces oil as you age, the better. The trick is to get the oil under control and keep your pores clear to prevent acne blemishes. Again, that’s important for everyone, no matter your skin type.
Throughout the year, I try dozens (sorry, hundreds!) of skincare products that may be best for oily skin yet may not necessarily be appropriate for my own skin. But during the summer, they suit me just fine — and give me the opportunity to test their efficacy for skin that’s oily year-round.
What Is Oily Skin and What Causes It?
There’s an excellent article on the causes and behaviors of oily skin, and solutions for mitigating the side-effects of excessive oiliness, from the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team titled simply (and quite hilariously!), Help for Oily Skin.
It begins with an expression of true compassion that I find super cool:
If you struggle with the daily annoyance of a face that resembles an oil slick (something our founder Paula has struggled with herself for years), you know how difficult it is to get oily skin under control. Adding to the frustration, whether you know it or not, is the fact that that many of the products claiming to get rid of oil actually make matters worse because they contain ingredients that aggravate skin and trigger more oily shine. We’re here to help—armed with the research-backed facts for what really works.
I had forgotten that my muse, Paula Begoun, was herself an oily skin warrior in the early years of her mission to uncover the truth about skin, skincare and skincare ingredients.
An excerpt from the Paula’s Choice article on oily skin:
Understanding Oily Skin
Oily skin is hard to control because it's something we’re born with, kicking in sometime in our teen years or randomly as we age. Having oily skin is the same as being born with the predisposition for having thick hair or how tall you will be; you can’t stop those things any more than you can stop oily skin.
For those of us with super oily skin, it may be hard to believe a normal balanced oil flow from the pore does good things for skin. For example, it relieves dryness, maintains a healthy skin surface, and keeps skin pliable.
Oily skin obviously becomes maddening when too much oil is produced. This causes pores to become enlarged as they’re stretched beyond capacity to handle the amounts of oil being generated. It gets worse as the pore lining thickens, which blocks oil from getting to skin’s surface, resulting in blackheads and white bumps.
One myth to bust: Oily skin does not age less than dry skin. Oily skin may look less wrinkled because it is often less dry, but the cause of wrinkles is not something oily skin can stop or change.
If you’re curious, the article, Help for Oily Skin, goes into great detail including a recommendation on how to fix oily skin. Again, you can read the full piece here.
There are numerous products, too, that traverse skin type. Actives like Niacinamide and Salicylic Acid are for everyone with skin.
So I thought I’d pull together some of my favorite products that I consider ideal for an oily skin type — including the best toner for clogged pores, the best matte sunscreen for oily skin, and even the best Vitamin C serum for oily skin and blemish prone skin. Yes, there are forms of Vitamin C that are most beneficial for oily and acne-prone skins!
I’ve come up with a complete eight-product skincare regimen — from a cleansing gel to sunscreens for both face and eyes. For each product snapshot below, I’ve included important insights, key product and ingredient benefits, and the reasons why I think it’s ideal for oily skin (and the rest of us in summer).
Feel welcome to drop any questions in the comment section at the bottom of the article or you can DM me on my Instagram page here or TikTok channel here.
Let’s have a look at what I consider one of the best Retinol serums for oily skin, the Skin Proud Recharge Overnight 0.5% Retinol Serum…
THE BEST RETINOL FOR OILY SKIN
Skin Proud | Recharge Overnight 0.5% Retinol Serum
Essential to what I consider an ideal skincare routine to support healthy skin is what I refer to as the “ABC’s” – where A indicates Vitamin A (Retinol), B indicates Vitamin B (or B3, Niacinamide) and C indicates Ascorbic Acid aka Vitamin C.
At the heart of every pro-skin health regimen should be the ABC’s, the three vitamin actives in the form of a dedicated face serum – a product format that is lighter, easily layered and quickly absorbed by the skin. Whether your skin is oily, combination, dry or acne-prone, there’s a Retinol serum, a Niacinamide serum, and a Vitamin C serum for you.
When it comes to Retinol and oily skin, mild is best as the skin can be easily aggravated and sensitized. And, many oily skins also struggle with acne, a form of irritation in itself. IMO the best Retinol serum for oily skin contains the most gentle of the retinoids, Retinyl Palmitate.
This form of Vitamin A is created by combining Retinol, or pure Vitamin A, and palmitic acid – a saturated fatty acid derived from palm oil. Retinyl Palmitate is already naturally occurring in the skin. Because of the lengthy conversion process required within the skin, it’s the least effective of the retinoids. Yet as the weakest form, it’s also the most well-tolerated.
Retinyl Palmitate gets a bad rap and is on the clean beauty ingredient hit lists of both Sephora and Credo, meaning a formula that contains it cannot be classified as “clean”. So what! According to the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team, the claims that it’s unsafe are “based on a study from nearly 20 years ago that has never been reproduced or tested under real-life conditions such as how people use sunscreens that contain this ingredient.”
The Skin Proud Recharge Overnight 0.5% Retinol Serum is formulated with a 0.5% concentration of Retinyl Palmitate. The Overnight 0.5% Retinol Serum has a super lightweight texture and contains several skin soothers, including Bisabolol, the active component of soothing chamomile. There’s only a small amount of oil in the formula, making it suitable for oily skin.
And it’s just $14.50! The only drawback to Skin Proud’s Recharge Overnight 0.5% Retinol Serum is the inclusion of a small amount of fragrance. If your skin is sensitive to fragrance, give this a pass. I invite you to explore my top picks of the best Retinol serums and creams on the blog here.
What Is Retinol and What Does Retinol Do for the Skin?
It’s commonly accepted that Retinol and retinoids, more specifically, are the gold standard in anti-aging. Like Vitamin C and Niacinamide (Vitamin B3), the Vitamin A derivative has multiple pro-skin health, anti-aging benefits. Among them are the smoothing of lines and wrinkles, potent antioxidant defense and visible skin firming. As with Niacinamide, topical retinoids — as all derivatives of Vitamin A are referred to — can even minimize the appearance of pores and defend skin against aging environmental damage.
There’s a superb piece on retinoids by the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team titled, The Complete Guide To Retinol: The Anti-Aging (And Anti-Acne) Hero — which you can catch here. Here is what I found most salient:
Retinol is classified as a Cell-Communicating Ingredient, which means that it can tell a skin cell how to behave. Retinol ‘tells’ developing skin cell in the lower layers of the skin – called the dermis, to develop normally, instead of a sun-damaged or genetically malformed skin cell. This is how, over time, Retinol can address multiple skin concerns.
Another way Retinol works is also by telling the older cells in the upper layer of skin to die quicker which in turn allows the newer, healthier skin to surface faster. This quicker skin cell turnover rate, paired with cell communicating abilities is what makes Retinol such a superstar!
There are many derivatives and strengths of retinoids available in both over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription products today. The term “Retinol” is the name of the purest form of Vitamin A, and used most often to refer to the non-prescription version of Retinoids.
However, Retinol itself is not active. It has to go through a conversion process in the skin to get to the active form which is then usable by the skin.
Retinyl Palmitate –> Retinol — > Retinaldehyde –> All-Trans-Retinoic Acid (Tretinoin)
RETINOL, RETINOIDS, RETINOIC ACID PART ONE: BEST RETINOL SERUMS, BEST RETINOL CREAMS
What I like about it: The Skin Proud Recharge Overnight 0.5% Retinol Serum is not a perfect Retinol serum. If you’re looking for something really potent, this isn’t it. But if you’re looking for a gentle Retinol serum for oily skin, this baby may be ideal for your skin. I love its 0.5% concentration of Retinyl Palmitate — the gentlest of the retinoids. If Retinol tolerance has been a concern in the past, a Retinol serum or cream like this one is bound to be effective for you.
Why it’s best for oily skin: It contains only a tiny amount of oil and, with the gentlest form of the retinoids, won’t irritate oily skin or make sensitized skin even worse.
SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the Skin Proud Recharge Overnight 0.5% Retinol Serum for $14.50 here.
SHOP THE BLOG
The Inkey List Salicylic Acid Cleanser
Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant
Skin Proud Recharge Overnight 0.5% Retinol Serum
Paula’s Choice 10% Niacinamide Booster
Glossier Super Glow Vitamin C + Magnesium Serum
Skinfix Skin Barrier Restoring Gel Cream
The Ingredient List of the Skin Proud Recharge Overnight 0.5% Retinol Serum:
Aqua (Water), Propanediol, Trilaureth-4 Phosphate, Polyglyceryl-3 Diisostearate, Retinyl Palmitate, Phenoxyethanol, Polyacrylate Crosspolymer-6, Polysorbate 20, Tocopheryl Acetate, Betaine, Bisabolol, Benzotriazolyl Dodecyl P-cresol, Rosa Canina Fruit Oil, Propylene Glycol, Caprylhydroxamic Acid, Farnesol, Parfum (Fragrance), Methylpropanediol, Citric Acid, Sodium Hyaluronate, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Tocopherol, Bakuchiol, Iris Florentina Flower Extract, Benzyl Salicylate.
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