All the hot girls are flaking

Dermatologists celebrate Tretinoin as the ultimate skin panacea, so why isn't everybody doing it?

If people are capable of loving Jack Russells unconditionally, your friends will not exile you for shedding your epidermis. 

My foray into skincare started inexpensively, with a $15 Lush facemask that was, essentially, a serving of chilled instant oats. That innocuous honeyed mush of banana porridge was a gateway drug to the luxurious, bloated, and addictive world of beauty. I needed more. In time I was forking out $150 for a Drunk Elephant to give me something called a ‘Baby Facial.’ 

After years spent pissing money down the drain, and putting my skin through the wringer of dozens of products and excruciating routines, it was time to admit defeat.  The seductive millennial pink minimalism of Glossier is no match for cystic acne. 

I bit the bullet and booked in with a dermatologist. The most expensive 20-minutes of my life passed and I walked out with a prescription for Roaccutane — the Faustian bargain of skincare.

Roaccutane works. Those that have made it to the other side are rewarded with poreless, orblike skin. And yet, the road to glow is paved with side-effects.

The noteworthy repertoire of adverse Roaccutane reactions include: dryness, fragile skin, change in colour of the skin, peeling palms and feet, itchy skin rash, increased susceptibility to sunburn, sweating, sexual dysfunction, gynaecomastia, nosebleeds, tenderness or stiffiness in bones, tiredness, headache, hair loss, excessive hairiness, and hoarseness. That’s not even touching the bogeyman mental health issues. 

It begs the question: what miserable lows are we willing to sink to in the name of achieving good skin? Are peeling palms and excessive hairiness a better alternative to the cottage cheese-like lumps swarming under our foundation? Probably not. Back to the drawing board. 

Enter Reddit, the only trustworthy social media platform. A climate in which the beauty industry’s slick marketing cannot survive. There is no clout or social cachet to Reddit, it’s an autonomous zone where people are free to be ugly, divulgent, and informative.

Deep in the hallowed halls of r/skincareaddiction was a product touted as the holy grail: Tretinoin. 

What is Tretinoin?

Tretinoin (Retin-A) is a prescription-only topical medication used to treat acne. It’s the don of Retinoids — the umbrella term for a class of compounds derived from Vitamin-A (retinol, retinoic acid, retinyl palmitate, retinol adehydle, are all part of the family.) A tube of the stuff will set you back around $60 and last six months. Vitamin-A is the body’s key nutrient for boosting cell turnover, and Tretinoin, a synthetic derivative, is Vitamin-A in turbo mode. 

It was first discovered in the ‘60s by Dr. Albert Kligman, and was FDA approved as a prescription-strength treatment for acne in 1971. Further research has found that off-the-label effects include reducing fine lines and wrinkles, fading actinic keratosis spots, and evening pigmentation. 

Tretinoin works by irritating the epidermis and speaking up the life cycle of skin cells. Those cells will divide and die faster, and newer, healthier, superior cells will take their place. 

Dermatologists celebrate Tretinoin as the ultimate skin panacea. So what’s the catch, and why isn’t everybody doing it? 

Why Tret isn’t a bigger deal in Australia is a mystery. A313 (a pharmaceutical-grade vitamin A cream) is one of the grail over-the-counter products in France. We could do with taking skincare notes from the French. With all due respect to the genetically blessed hot girls of Instagram, clean living is boring. The French do not cower from life, they eat cheese, smoke cigarettes and glow. We deserve that too. 

Perhaps Tretinoin isn’t so popular because there’s nothing glamorous about it. It comes in a clinical metal tube, rocks the same consistency as Savlon, and smells like nothing. It’s wholly useless in a flatlay. 

There’s also the dreaded ‘Retinoid Uglies’. Whilst your skin adjusts to the medication, you may experience the ‘purge.’ The oil, debris, and junk hiding underneath your skin will be conjured to the surface. Pus-filled pimples will rise and transform to scaly corpses.

Week 3 on Tretinoin

After the purging comes the flaking. ‘Flake’ feels too generous, it’s more of a moult. It’s vile, just remember, if people are capable of loving Jack Russells unconditionally, your friends will not exile you for shedding your epidermis. 

You will want to give up, I did. Don’t. In a few weeks (typically 2 to 6), your skin will acclimatise to the medication. The peeling and purging will end.

In the meantime, find solace in Reddit’s Tretinoin support group. Pore over the before and after shots. Know that your pain and patience will be rewarded with supple, baby-smooth skin. If all else fails, we hear balaclavas are in?