Anti-ageing treatments for sensitive acne-prone skin

I am nearly 46 with oily, acne-prone, sensitive skin. It took me so many years to realise I was stripping my skin with harsh irritating products and now I'm trying to repair the damage with a more gentle, hydrating routine. This site is really helping me, so thank you for that.

My question is what would you recommend to smooth out fine lines and wrinkles, given that my skin reacts badly to anything harsh or rich? I have tried various retinols and retinoids with no luck, but have recently started using bakuchiol as a gentler alternative. However, I have also seen articles saying that the scientific evidence for bakuchiol is not quite there yet. #drsandy

SarahSmile

4 years ago

I'm 38 and have super sensitive skin and dry skin. Have you tried The ordinary Granactive Retinoid Emulsion? I've only used it for maybe 2 months starting once a week and now up to 3 nights a week and haven't had any irritation. Its my first step into retinoids and has really been easy on my skin. Sensitive skin sucks! I want to try ALL THE THINGS but have to be really careful.

Catherine

4 years ago

Thanks Sarah, I'll give that a try. I tried one of the Ordinary retinoids years ago but didn't like the squalane base - the emulsion sounds better though.

Yes I want to try all of the things too, it so often backfires though 😂

Dr. Sandy Skotnicki

4 years ago

We have a relatively new clinical study (from 2018) where researchers compared the effect of bakuchiol and retinol. The results are encouraging: a cream with 0.5% bakuchiol reduced wrinkles and improved hyperpigmentation in the same way as the 0.5% retinol cream (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjd.16918). It is still too early to say if backuchiol is as effective as retinoids, but if your skin tolerates bakuchiol well, it is a good anti-aging option. One word of caution though: backuchiol is compound extracted from seeds of Babchi plant. Other parts of the plant also contain coumarins that could cause allergic and irritant reactions. These compounds should be removed in the extraction process when backuchiol is produced, but it is a good idea to be cautious and stay away from products that include the Babchi plant extracts other than purified backuchiol.

As for other anti-aging ingredients, you could try niacinamide (you do not need the concentration to be higher than 5%) and peptides. Both rarely cause a reaction and have decent science to back their anti-aging claims. Lastly, plant stem cell products are not irritating, but are very expensive and the science for anti-aging is low.

Catherine

4 years ago

Thank you so much for this advice, much appreciated.