CLINICAL 1% Retinol Face Treatment with Peptides | Anti-Aging Face Serum with Vitamin C & Licorice Extract for Fine Lines & Wrinkles, Fragrance Free

I was introduced to this product by a friend who has similar skin/complexion. She looks fabulous so I decided to give it a whirl. Things you should know: 1. My beauty routine consisted of occasionally washing my face. And by occasional— I mean rarely. 2. I was always fortunate to have ‘good’ skin it didn’t break out or have big pores BUT it was super sensitive. 3. I’m lazy and will not do anything that requires a lot of work. 4. I’m 50. The pictures are in order of progress — blue top was day of first application —the next 3 are from the first 10 days and the last one is as of tonight. With all that said — I was instructed in detail about using the product. 1. Start slow — every other night 2. Keep it away from your eyes. 3. Use sunscreen and be very careful going out in the sun after a treatment. I started slow (2 applications following the instructions) and did not put it ‘near’ my eyes. I stop at my brow and just below my darks circles. It burned my skin off as if I was in Chernobyl when it exploded. It was AWFUL and it took 10 days to heal. (See pics) What I realized was with my sensitive skin I really should have put more time between applications. So once I healed — I then waited 6 days between applications as I had some dryness and a little sensitivity on my cheeks. I’ve been using the product now for a little over 3 weeks only had 4 applications and I’m already seeing marked improvement. My “11s” are much less obvious (see pics). My skin looks brighter and healthier. Lastly it’s a smooth as a baby’s rump — I suspect that has a lot to do with burning off the top 4 layers of skin, but I digress. This product is intense but effective. It will burn if you don’t ease into using it. Also — when they say don’t put it on your eyes — what they mean is anywhere near your eyes. Give a wide birth or else you risk having your face look like mine did. My eyelids were literally burned and I never touched them with the product that’s how strong it is. Now I keep it focused on my cheeks and a very tiny amount on the side of my eye for those dreaded crows feet. Other things of note: this is part of a very simple routine. Morning 1. Wash face 2. Use hyaluronic acid serum 3. Use Vitamin C serum Evening 1. Wash face 2. Use Retinol (slow at first - then work up to the right cadence for you) 3. Use moisturizer I use Beauty Counter products for the serums I use in the morning. I use Verse for my sunscreen and moisturizer. Obviously, PC’s retinol Cerave Moisturizing Face Wash I purchased everything except the Beauty Counter products through Amazon. I love all of the products and will continue using them. Hope this helps you make good decisions.

Ok, so to clear up some issues most often mentioned by reviewers. Yes, this product can be completely ineffective, but only if you don't properly clean your face. It literally can't work if there is a layer of something already there. It also doesn't work if you wash your face throughly, wait two hours, and then put it on. It needs to go on a freshly cleansed face. Wash, dry, apply, it's that simple. The second complaint I see is that it burns your under eye area, and this is also correct. The area under your eyes is more sensitive than the rest of your face, the skin is thinner, and chances are pretty good that you will have some type of a reaction. I know because I did too. I used this product three days in the row, and by the end of the third day, the area under my eyes was swollen and sensitive, the skin felt raw, and trying to cover it up with make-up resulted in pain and showing of approximately a dozen more wrinkles than I had in the first place. The day after that, small sections of the skin began to peel. The recover process in all took about three days. I still washed my face regularly, and applied a light layer of bacitracin mixed with A&D ointment under my eyes afterwards. Yesterday was the first day that the skin under my eyes didn't hurt, and it looks WONDERFUL. Some of the older skin had come off, the area under my eyes is actually even with the rest of my skin tone, and now barely has any wrinkles at all. The corners of my eyes where I had also applied the treatment and which went though the same painful process looks the way it did when I was twenty years old. It's absolutely incredible. I mean I've been watching these tiny crow's feet forming for a few years now, and dreading each new one, and they've literally disappeared in a space of a week. I'm now in process of doing another small section of my face, and I'm going to give my under-eye area another week to recover before I treat it again. Is it a painful process? Yes. Will you have a reaction? Probably. Is it worth it? 100% I'm thirty years old, and in the last year or so I've tried many different products. All the women in my family start showing wrinkles early in life (and gray early, but that's a whole other issue) and I've literally tried everything I can think of to slow that process. This is the first product I've tried where I'm actually seeing results, to the point where even my husband was surprised. I'm more than willing to put up with a little bit of discomfort to see real results, and this product definitely delivered.

PROS: great product! I have large pores, I’m prone to blackheads in my T-zone area, and also have always had horrible redness in my T-zone and within a week of using I noticed a slight difference in the appearance of my pores, my blackheads have gotten a tad better and my redness was almost completely gone. My face looked noticeably brighter and less dull. My husband said my skin was glowing! It’s light on your skin which is great because I have extremely oily skin and most products make me so oily I end up having to wash it off. This however did not which I loved. CONS: The bottle is sooo small. By the time you start noticing a change it’s empty. I realize there is a bigger bottle but I can’t always afford that one as they are quite pricey. Overall, I do really enjoy this product. I had no reaction to it and it was my first time using any kind of retinol. FYI, I did put a light moisturizer on right before I applied to create a barrier for the first week or so, after that I started applying without and had no issues. I will continue to use this product as I am pleased with the results but I will branch out and try similar products that may be less expensive 🙂

Ordered this after reading reviews on top quality Retinol cream. It is very smooth, a small/pea sized amount can cover my whole face (not under eyes), I've had no reactions or sensititivy to this. I've been using it about a month now and my skin texture has improved. I layer it, starting with a thin layer of my night cream, then the Paula's Choice Retinol (one pump), and then another layer of night cream, and I do this every other night (alternating with another top quality Estriol product). It is now part of my routine and I will continue to re-order. For reference, I'm 63 and wanted top line skin care products... skin feels clean and smooth, love it!

This product is amazing., First you must know using retinol will cause side effects. Redness, dryness, peeling and burning is NOT uncommon. I have excess oily skin so this only affected me the first week. Note…I did not buy my bottle here.

Want to look 10+ years younger? This miracle cream IS a miracle and here's why: 1) it does work as it gently exfoliates dead skin while you sleep; 2) vitamin C brightens; 3) my skin looks SO much tighter and looks firmer and younger; 4) skin look dewy, healthy as if you had a facial or BBL; 5) I love that it's a pump so that the formula is not exposed to air which keeps the potency stable. I call it a Super Hero - just use at night and don't forget your SPF!

Purchased this product in late Oct (on amazon but directly from Paula's choice) with high hopes based off of the ratings. I'm in my early 30's and looking to improve my skin regiment by adding a preventative. I have never in my life had acne issues, even as a teen. I'm not oily, if anything I have sensitive and dry skin. I've been using Ultra Repair Cream from sephora for years now for hydration (with great results) but was looking to add an anti aging cream to it. I started using this product as directed and got a huge cystic pimple on my chin. Assuming it was hormone related (as that's where most women get hormonal acne) I didn't blame the cream. The next use I got another cystic pimple on my jaw line. Ok, odd...? The next time I got one on the lining of my lip. I waited over 3 weeks before touching the stuff again, to give this cystic acne a chance to go away. The one on my lip is what took the longest to go away and required my doctor to look at it, and "pop" it, as it had created such a deep and hardened puss pocket that wouldn't go away without extraction. If walking around with a giant zip on my lip wasn't embarrassing enough, I then had to walk around with an extraction mark on my lip that looked like a herpes. Humiliated. I went online to start researching what could be causing this and read the retinol treatments can cause acne but if you stick it out, and keep using it, your skin will adjust and the breakouts will stop. I already spent the money and figured I should give it a try again. This time I started using just half the amount and mixed it with the hydrating moisturizer I've been using for years with no reaction. Again, broke out in a cystic zit on my cheek, next one was on my jaw line again, next one I had them in both eyebrows, and now (currently and as I speak) have one taking up a quarter of the left side of my nose. I know I read that I should stick it out for a month before I give up on a retinol cream but at this point I'm scared that I'm going to end up with a face full of painful cystic acne and scaring (two of them have left dark circles that wont go away and I'm praying aren't going to be scars.) I would suggest people who want to try this get a very small amount first. That way you're not stuck with a cream that ends up making your skin worse than it was before. Acne has never ever ever been an issue for me. Large pores and blackheads, sure, but not acne. This may work wonders for some people, but it's pretty clear I'm not one of them. This was my very first time trying a retinol cream and I don't know if my reaction was because of this particular formula or if my skin simply cannot handle retinol in general.

I received this product 4 days ago I was so excited knew it had to be good stuff by the price and someone telling me about it , well I used it once Friday i didn’t really look at reviews or anything just read use 3 times weekly I guess so your skin could get used to it well I used it as soon as I got it, everything was fine then I decided I was going to use it Sunday two days later then wait 3 days before I used it again for my 3rd time but I haven’t made it there yet , I may have used to much when I applied and to soon together I used a daily wash no burn I used my pore cleaner and it burnt like hell and then I used some night cream and it burnt like hell omg my face was so damn red on my cheeks it gave me bad anxiety I didn’t know what I was using that was causing it then I started to take a few steps back read the reviews on this and seen I wasn’t the only one experiencing burning I wish the bottle would say that instead of skin irritation it says everything but that which I guess that’s what it means but it should pacifically say burning/redness may occur as of many people have experienced this burning and red sensation my face has been on fire for an hour now but the redness is starting to go away but my pores are freakin huge it seems like I guess from the irritation, I tried to put on some hydrating lotion only for it to feel like my face was being burned off , I’m going to say this is my fault as I didn’t read more into this before I used it I’m going to take a few days on putting anything on my face like at all besides cold water then start all over with a very little amount and only twice a week for a while and see if that helps with my pore cleaner and night cream issue I also started using acne cerava wash hoping I’d be able to still use that for my black heads but idk will see how my face feels in the morning as it is slightly still burning and keep in mind this is a 24-48 hour side effect I’m experiencing yes I see it said to test it the first 48 hours on a part of your skin I did not see that until now I’ve never had this problem with skin product but I should of known with how expensive and my lack of knowledge for retinol but the product it self when using did not feel like this at all , it’s everything I’m using on top of it it’s the pore cleaner I used and night cream I used that caused this flare up and i know it’s this product because I’ve used the other products before and have been for a while and nothing like this happened before I need to see the ingredients and if I can use all of my other cleaners together with this product , I’m sure there’s one I cannot but I am definitely starting my journey over and going to be more precautions & I will come back here and let yall know how it worked out for me on the other hand I really hope this redness and burning feeling is gone by morning or I’m going to the doctor .I just want to share my experience so the next person who’s thinking about using this for the first time takes extra precautions I did not know this product was so strong !!

The price is too high

Good Product, but only last a couple of days.

استخدميه يوم بعد يوم يعطي نضارة

I am 52 and people regularly comment on how beautiful my skin is. This was not the case when I was younger and only started to happen after using Paula's Choice products from age 46. I am so glad I found this product line. Wrinkles are minimized, and my skin glows and looks radiantly younger. Blemishes are no longer an issue and old scars are clearer and almost gone. The Retinol has made another significant difference in the healing of old scars from large pores and acne. I no longer worry about blemishes as soon as they begin I treat them with a strong BHA product and they are gone by morning. The Retinol can be strong so I take a break for a day or two until skin feels better than start again. My skin is building up and feels less and less sensitive to the Retinol. I love this product and won't be without it. It's expensive for me but it does last a good long time.

Muy bueno, a pesar de ser pequeño, dura bastantes meses.