Skin Care Review: Spear Tretinoin Cream, USP

Rating
Excellent

Benefits
Prevents breakouts, shrinks pores, erases fine lines and shallow acne scars.

Drawbacks
Skin can get flaky, increased UV sensitivity, reddness.

Details
I stared using tretinoic acid (retin A) cream as prescribed by my dermatologist to treat persistent acne when I was in my mid thirties. I must have thick skin (I am a fair caucasian with brown hair and blue eyes) because despite the warnings of adverse reactions to retin A, I have been using the highest concentration available by prescription (0.1%) for the last 15 years (I'm 50 now) with only some minor flaking. My acne resolved quickly and I continued as maintenance. Only several years later did the news come out that retin A can reduce fine wrinkling. Well, at fifty I have no wrinkles except for one between my brows from frowning (I'm planning to get botox for that), my pores are smaller than when I was a teenager (genetically I'll never have poreless skin unfortuneately), and I've noticed a few acne scars have almost totally disappeared! So give the low concentration (0.01%) a try, rather than over the counter retinol, which may be too weak to bring about real results, and see if you can tolerate higher concentrations over time. As a prescription drug, especially if you have a drug plan (I'm not sure how much retin A actually costs because I've always had a drug plan) I bet it's still a lot cheaper than most of those pricey anti-aging potions out there. There are many brands of tretinoin cream; I've used lots of them over the years and they all preform the same. It may take time to get truely visible results, but heh, better to start sooner than later!

Conclusions
Scars, large pores, wrinkling? Try tretinoin rather than retinol.

Price (paid by reviewer)

Where to find it
prescription