Why retinal is the best form of vitamin A, and exactly how it works in skincare, especially in comparison to retinol and retinoic acid.Updated a year ago
Retinal is vitamin A in a form that’s especially ideal for the skin.
Its name is short for retinaldehyde, but don’t let the long, scary-sounding name fool you. Retinal is an aldehyde of vitamin A, which means that it belongs to a class of organic compounds with a very specific structure. There are plenty of aldehydes that exist in nature, like vanillin which is found in vanilla beans.
In fact, when we consume vitamin A, we naturally convert it into retinal (and then into retinoic acid), which allows our body to use it.