Avene A-Oxitive Night Cream / Retrinal 0.1 Cream
🔎 What is it?
An anti-aging night cream, containing 0.1% Retrinal, to help firm the skin and reduce the appearance of wrinkles
🔬 Main ingredients
Avene thermal water, retinaldehyde (anti-aging), relastide (pro-elastin peptide), pre-tocopheryl (vitamin e, anti-oxidant)
💠My thoughts
After I build up my retinol tolerance, I wanted to take it up a notch. After browsing through Dr. Dray’s retinoids videos I came across this one from Avene. Instead of retinol, this contains retinaldehyde. Retinal only requires one conversion step to its active form, making it more effective but also more irritating.
This cream comes in two different strengths, 0.05% and 0.1%.
Patience isn’t exactly my strong suit so I immediately jumped to the 0.1%, and surprisingly I had little irritation. It feels very gentle on the skin, leaving my skin soft and nourished. And I know that retinoids take time to work, but I’m telling you, I see an overnight change with this one. Not on my fine lines, but on my pimple-prone chin. It is visibly brighter and clearer the next day.
What confuses me is the price difference. I’m in the EU and I get it for about €30 from official retailers, while it retails for $70 (!) in the US.
For the EU price, I’d say it’s definitely worth it. For the US price…. There are plenty of other retinoid options 👀
- price difference between the US and EU, US way too expensive!
- bit hard to spread out
- hard to get by, only available in pharmacies in the EU
- avene is not cruelty free
