Novel retinol formulation may minimize irritation typically associated with topical retinoids

A novel irritation-control retinol formulation was shown to minimize the irritation typically experienced with the use of topical tretinoin and free retinol, according to study results presented at the American Academy of Dermatology Summer Meeting.

Researchers enrolled 30 women with Fitzpatrick skin types I and II in the randomized, double-blind, single-center study. The patients were randomly assigned to a split-face comparison between the irritation-control retinol formulation (ICRe) 0.5% vs. vehicle base (group one), a split-face comparison between free retinol 0.5% vs. vehicle base (group two) and a split-face comparison between tretinoin 0.05% cream vs. vehicle base (group three). ICRe 0.5% contained retinol 0.5% and a blend of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents, including Magnolia grandiflora and Dunaliella salina extracts, niacinamide and palmitoyl tripeptide-8 in vehicle base.

The study was 12 days in length, with visits at baseline, days 1 through 4 and days 7 through 11. The researchers calculated and compared mean physician assessment scores for treatment minus vehicle.

From approximately days 7 through 11, which the researchers considered the period of peak irritation, patients in the IRCe group had lower mean scores for erythema, dryness/scaling and peeling when compared with the tretinoin and free retinol groups.

By day 10, erythema scores for the IRCe group were more than 60% lower than in both the tretinoin (64%) and free retinol (67%) groups, according to the researchers.

Reference: Makino ET. Poster #116. Presented at: the American Academy of Dermatology Summer Meeting; August 6-10, 2014; Chicago, IL.

Disclosure: The study and poster were supported by a grant from SkinMedica.