Myth or Truth: Is Retinal really 10x more effective than Retinol?

Retinaldehyde or Retinal (with an A!) has become the latest, buzz-worthy retinoid on the natural skincare market since two large corporates launched their Retinal products last year in the natural skincare market. And many followed...

Many seasoned retinoid users are honing in on the fact that in the process of retinoic acid synthesis, Retinal would be the more efficient (aka more potent) cosmetic retinoid compared to Retinol in getting those anti-aging benefits. You might even hear Retinal claims such as “10x more effective than Retinol” or even “tretinoin strength without the tretinoin irritation.” or "11x faster than Retinol". 

Remember; Retinal isn’t the newest kid on the block and it has been around for a millenium and was discovered in the 19th century. However, its entry into skincare feels like was only yesterday. But is Retinal really that much more effective than Retinol? And if it is, why has it not been introduced sooner and only made its outing in recent years?

In this Retinal guide, we’ll go over the following points:

• What is the difference between Retinal and Retinol?
• What is Retinal?
• What are the latest development? 
• Do these claims have any merit?
• What next? 

What’s the difference between retinal vs Retinol?

Think of your family tree. Retinal and Retinol are basically related and are key molecules in the retinoic acid synthesis pathway. If retinoic acid is your grand-dad or grand-mum, Retinal or also called  Retinaldehyde is your mum or dad and Retinol the child and so on...

Retinal is one step away to convert to retinoic acid, while Retinol is two steps away to convert into retinoic acid. Why is this important to understand? Because your skin has retinoic acid receptors which can then interact with the active and kick of the benefits that either of these actives deliver and promise.  

Why is Retinal the latest buzz word in the skincare industry when it comes to efficaciousness?

As Retinol takes two steps to convert to retinoic acid. Based on this, people jump to the conclusion that in theory, as Retinal only needs one conversion to turn into retinoic acid, is more effective than Retinol.

However, as always, skincare and skin science is complex and it has its caveats. 

You might be wondering...

If Retinal were so much better than Retinol, why have we all bothered with Retinol in the first place? Why would Retinol be the industry star while Retinal be the hidden gem, we all have been waiting for? Something basically as effective as tretinoin which you can only get prescribed from your dermatologist. And now available over the counter in the form of Retinal?

The skincare industry insider secret, that brands conveniently leave out when talking about Retinal that Retinal is notoriously unstable.

Retinol with an "o", is already tricky to formulate with, however Retinal is even worse.

Previous clinical studies, would run tests on a 24 hour timeframe. As Retinal was notoriously unstable to get any data. It is basically more unstable than your L'Asorbic acid. This basically means that Retinal would neither survive in a jar, nor be it effective in a jar for 2 to 3 months of product use.

As mentioned, Retinol can be challenging as well but it is stable enough for experienced chemists to formulate beautiful formulations and ensure Retinol products can deliver the skin benefits of it and also last in a jar or bottle for product use. 

Recent advances in encapsulation

However, as every industry, the skincare industry continuously evolves and discovers new advancements such as encapsulation technology. And with this new development, Retinal's stability is slowly changing and opportunities are slowly opening up. There have been a few papers that demonstrate that different types of encapsulation help to stablise a Retinal skincare product long enough for skincare applications. These encapsulation technology can get really complex. One research group in Korea published a study in 2022 where they synthesised not only one layer but two layers of encapsulation and found Retinal being significantly more stable by double-bubble-wrapping it than the eu natural version.  

For me, it is exciting to see these advancements but it isn't still demonstrating and still challenging the argument that Retinal is 11x times more effective than Retinol. 

So before we hop on the Retinal hype train, we need to dig and look a little further.

Is Retinal really 10x times more powerful and 11x times more faster than some skincare beauty brands are claiming? How does Retinal compare to tretinoin or Retinol? 

What concentration of Retinal do you need?

In a research study, 40 volunteers were split into two groups. One group used a 0.05% Retinal cream for 3 months, while the other group used a 0.1% Retinal cream for 3 months. Every 4 weeks, the volunteers are evaluated for TEWL (transepidermal water loss), fine wrinkles, melanin index, and skin roughness.

For both groups, the creams were effective at improving all parameters, though not to a statistically significant degree. This could be due to multiple factors such as size, timeframe and other factors. What is notable is that the 2 groups (0.05% & 0.01%) performed on par with no statistical difference between the two. The only parameter where 0.1% Retinal had definitively outperformed the 0.05% group was in melanin index.

It demonstrates that Retinal with an "A" does something. But does it perform 10 x more effectively than Retinol and 11x times faster? 

Is Retinal more effective than Retinol?

Luckily, I was able to find one paper published recently in 2021 that performed a 1:1 comparison of Retinal to Retinol. A Korean research group had 23 subjects apply Retinal on one side of the face and Retinol on the other side of the face for 2 months. For the first 4 weeks, volunteers used 0.05% Retinal and 0.05% Retinol. Then, from week 5 to 8, the concentrations of Retinal and Retinol were increased to 0.1%. Subjects were evaluated at the 4 week and 8 week mark for key skin parameters such as wrinkle depth, skin hydration, and skin elasticity. 

However! Keep in mind that 0.05%/0.1% Retinal was tested to be on par with Retinol at the exact same percentage. This is a far cry from the claim that Retinal is “10x more effective than Retinol”, and the comparison to Retinol isn’t the most applicable since Retinol is typically used between 0.1%-1.0%.

How to find the best Retinal serum for your skin?

At NAYA, the clinical research available doesn't make us jump out of our seats of excitement. We have been experimenting with actives including Retinal that are exclusively available to us but we are still not convinced of its efficaciousness. I have used it for multiple months at a percentage of 0.1% and have seen no difference on my skin. 

As we are, you should definitely take the claims such as "tretinoin-level efficacy" and "10x better than Retinol" with a pinch of salt.

That said, if you are still curious and you want to try it yourself, you should go for it. However, in the natural skincare industry, there is not a single brand I can recommend. As either, they are not using encapsulation technology making the Retinal extremely unstable and it won't last the application period. On the other side, brands simply haven't done their own clinical studies to demonstrate the efficaciousness of their formulation.

Retinal is notoriously tricky and formulation-dependent, and even chemist with a century of experience will struggle with a Retinal that isn't encapsulated and make it magically more efficacious. 

What if the Retinal in the product isn't encapsulated?

There aren’t enough antioxidants you could add or airtight packaging you could use that could save a non-encapsulated Retinal from its fate of rapid degradation. What makes things even more complicated is that it can be really difficult to scan an ingredient list to figure out if a Retinal is encapsulated or not. For the untrained eye, even impossible. Look for mentions of encapsulation in the product description, or you can simply ask the brand directly! Although most brand founders have a sales and marketing background and are not into their science and heavily rely on their labs. As most brands having launched Retinal at this stage in development, it was for SEO tactics and not to launch an efficacious product. There is a reason why one of the brands, have launched Retinal only in a 10ml bottle. Hoping that it will last the few applications before its expiry date. 

What % Retinal do I need?

Based on studies so far, you should target a serum with at least 0.05% Retinal. If your skin has a history of tolerating retinoids well, you can even aim for a 0.1%. There aren't studies that more Retinal will do more. At this point, we aren’t able to equate any Retinal %s to Retinol %s quite yet and if more than 0.1% makes it more effective as there aren't any studies out there to confirm this. 

Will NAYA launch at Retinal product? 

I have been working with my lab for more than a year with a natural Retinal ingredient. However, none of us have been convinced of its efficaciousness. I have been trying it for a period of three months and had little to no results. I must admit, that I did demonstrate it at  Press Day earlier in the year; however, since then and further research, I have decided with my lab to stop further development for now and keep an eye out for innovations and convincing studies in this space.

Since Day 1 efficaciousness is NAYA's key priority. And we don't hop on an ingredient wagon for SEO tactics. Our main goal was always to formulate efficacious everyday skin health care products to target a skin problem to provide you with a skin focus. And that will remain our main objective. And not tricking our customers into purchasing something that yet has little to no evidence when it comes to its efficaciousness. 

 

 

References

Lidén, M., & Eriksson, U. (2006). Understanding retinol metabolism: structure and function of retinol dehydrogenases. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 281(19), 13001-13004.

Pechere, M., Pechère, J. C., Siegenthaler, G., Germanier, L., & Saurat, J. H. (1999). Antibacterial activity of retinaldehyde against Propionibacterium acnes. Dermatology, 199(Suppl. 1), 29-31.

Bailly, J., Crettaz, M., Schifflers, M. H., & Marty, J. P. (1998). In vitro metabolism by human skin and fibroblasts of retinol, retinal and retinoic acid. Experimental dermatology, 7(1), 27-34.

Ha, J. H., Choi, H., Hong, I. K., Han, S. K., & Bin, B. H. (2022). Study on Stabilization of Retinaldehyde using Drug-in-Cyclodextrinin-Liposome (DCL) for Skin Wrinkle Improvement. Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea, 48(1), 77-85.

Kwon, H. S., Lee, J. H., Kim, G. M., & Bae, J. M. (2018). Efficacy and safety of retinaldehyde 0.1% and 0.05% creams used to treat photoaged skin: A randomized double‐blind controlled trial. Journal of cosmetic dermatology, 17(3), 471-476.

Kim, J., Kim, J., Jongudomsombat, T., Kim BS, E., Suk, J., Lee, D., & Lee, J. H. (2021). The efficacy and safety of multilamellar vesicle containing retinaldehyde: A double‐blinded, randomized, split‐face controlled study. Journal of cosmetic dermatology, 20(9), 2874-2879.