The skin around your eyes is going to be the first part of your body to show the earliest signs of premature aging. Thus, you should prioritize skincare in those areas early on if you want to look young for a long time. One method is to use eye cream that has tretinoin. What is tretinoin, you ask? Well, let’s find out with ILLUME eMAG.
Tretinoin
Tretinoin is a type of retinoid (the umbrella term for all vitamin-A derivatives). Tretinoin is also known as retinoic acid. It’s the generic name for synthetic vitamin A. Tretinoin is a topical cream or gel that requires a prescription. Acne, sun-damaged skin, and fine wrinkles are the most common conditions treated with it.
Tretinoin has the ability to shorten the lifespan of skin cells. It causes them to divide and die more quickly, allowing fresh, healthier cells to take their place.
Why not just straight up use facial skincare products under your eyes?
It turns out the skin around your eye functions differently than the skin around your face because of its delicate and thinner structure. Thus, it needs a separate type of product that focuses mainly on this area. Some problems only happen on the skin around the eyes and not on your all-over complexion.
Therefore, to achieve your skin goals, you can’t ignore either of the product types.
Tretinoin under your eyes
Although tretinoin is a stronger prescription medication compared to retinol (also a retinoid, over-the-counter product, gentler, and less potent vitamin A derivative), it can be used in the pursuit of smoothing over under-eye wrinkles.
You should get your skin used to tretinoin first. This might take anything from a few weeks to several months. You may start thinking about applying it beneath your eyes once your skin has adapted.
After your skin has acclimated, you can start training your under-eye area. Apply tretinoin to your face as usual, and at the very end, tap on whatever is left on your fingers under your eyes and to the sides of your temples. Do this only a few times a week, to begin with, and as your skin tolerates it, increase the frequency.
After a while, if your skin is good with the “tapping,” you will want to kick it up a knot by using the buffering method. This allows you to apply more tretinoin under your eyes. However, rather than using products with a 0.1 percent tretinoin concentration, products with a 0.025% to 0.05% concentration are preferable. Before you put your tretinoin on your face, put a small layer of moisturizer under and around your eyes. Apply your tretinoin as usual, but now start dotting a tiny amount on your under-eye and crow’s feet areas. The moisturizer will act as a buffer between your skin and the product.
Because our eyes can’t make their own oil, using tretinoin along with products like moisturizer is recommended. In addition, when applying tretinoin under your eyes, you mustn’t put tretinoin on your eyelid or too close to your lash line.