Does retinol exfoliate?Updated a year ago
No, retinol doesn’t exfoliate… Technically.
By definition, exfoliation is the process of removing dead skin cells from the surface of the skin, and that’s simply not how retinol works.
Exfoliation can be done physically, with rough cloth or scrubs (note that this method can be very irritating to the skin). It can also be done chemically with keratolytic agents like AHA that work on the surface of the skin to break down the adhesion of dead skin cells.
So how does retinol work?
When retinol hits the skin, it converts into retinaldehyde (i.e., retinal, the key ingredient in our Enzyme-Active Retinol Serum) and then into retinoic acid (RA). Once that happens, the retinol interacts with receptors in the skin, to trigger and regulate the way new skin cells form and differentiate. It speeds up your skin’s renewal process while ensuring it behaves in a healthier way in general.
One of the things the skin does naturally when it’s in good shape is “desquamate”, meaning that it sheds dead skin cells all by itself. In other words, healthy, youthful, and thriving skin can exfoliate itself just fine.
Retinol helps the skin reach its healthiest state, where desquamation happens regularly and evenly, which is why it’s able to help reduce blemishes and clarify the pores. In some cases, especially at the outset, it can also lead to some visible flakiness as the skin reaches a new equilibrium, but this will usually stop within a few weeks or months of usage.
So in that sense, retinol does help with exfoliation, despite not exfoliating the skin directly.