Can I use PhycoHealth skincare while using tretinoin?
In many cases, yes. If you are using a prescription tretinoin such as ReTrieve® 0.05%, gentle moisturising skincare can be particularly useful because tretinoin commonly causes dryness, tightness, peeling or sensitivity, especially while your skin is adjusting.
For most people, Nourish is our preferred daytime moisturiser alongside a tretinoin routine.
If your skin is naturally sensitive, or becomes more reactive while using tretinoin, BiomeBalance Serum and/or Light Day Cream may provide a lighter alternative.
Tretinoin is a prescription medicine, so it should always be used according to the advice of your prescribing doctor or pharmacist.
What is tretinoin?
Tretinoin is all-trans retinoic acid, a prescription-strength derivative of vitamin A.
Unlike cosmetic retinol, which must undergo conversion within the skin before becoming biologically active, tretinoin is already in its active retinoic-acid form.
It binds to retinoic acid receptors within skin cells and changes gene expression. Among its effects, tretinoin can:
- normalise the way epidermal skin cells develop and shed
- increase epidermal renewal
- reduce follicular plugging associated with acne
- improve uneven pigmentation and surface texture
- influence collagen production and dermal extracellular-matrix remodelling over time
Because these effects are biologically powerful, tretinoin can also produce temporary dryness, redness, peeling, stinging and increased skin sensitivity.
ReTrieve® 0.05% is a prescription-only tretinoin preparation in Australia. Its prescribing information specifically allows suitable moisturisers to be used during the day, while advising caution with additional irritating or exfoliating topical products.
Why is moisturising particularly important when using tretinoin?
Our outer skin is not simply a layer of dead cells. It is a highly organised barrier that helps regulate water loss while protecting the living tissue underneath.
When tretinoin alters epidermal differentiation and increases renewal, the skin can temporarily become drier and more reactive while it adapts.
A good moisturiser therefore has an important supporting role: helping maintain hydration and the physical environment of the skin surface while the active prescription treatment performs its own biological function.
This is where we see Nourish and Phyaluronic® as complementary to a tretinoin regime—not as alternatives to tretinoin, and not as products intended to change how the prescription medicine works.
Where does Phyaluronic® fit?
Phyaluronic® is our seaweed-derived glycan ingredient found across the PhycoHealth skincare range.
We think of its most relevant role in a tretinoin routine as helping support the hydrated surface environment of the skin.
Its highly water-associated molecular structure helps create and maintain a hydrated layer at the skin surface, which can be particularly valuable when using skincare ingredients that may otherwise leave the skin feeling dry or tight.
Our research into Phyaluronic® extends well beyond cosmetic hydration, including investigations into biomaterials and wound-healing environments. However, those applications are biologically different from everyday use on intact facial skin, so we do not use those findings to suggest that Phyaluronic® changes or enhances the pharmacological action of tretinoin.
Instead, the relationship is much simpler:
Tretinoin drives biological skin renewal.
Phyaluronic® helps us support the hydrated environment in which the skin barrier functions.
Which PhycoHealth moisturiser should I choose?
Nourish
For normal-to-dry skin, Nourish is our preferred daytime moisturiser while using tretinoin.
It provides richer moisturisation and can be particularly useful when skin feels dry or tight.
BiomeBalance Serum
If your skin is sensitive, reactive or you prefer lighter hydration, BiomeBalance Serum may be a better starting point.
Light Day Cream
Our Light Day Cream can also be used when a lighter moisturising layer is preferred, either alone or after BiomeBalance Serum.
Skin tolerance is individual. If a product stings persistently on tretinoin-treated skin, stop using it and allow the skin barrier to settle.
What should I avoid while using tretinoin?
The important principle is to avoid overwhelming the skin with multiple strong actives at the same time.
The Australian ReTrieve® product information specifically advises caution with topical products containing ingredients such as salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide, sulphur, resorcinol and abrasive or strongly drying ingredients because of the potential for increased irritation.
Introducing multiple exfoliating acids, peels or additional retinoids at the same time can also make it difficult to determine what is causing irritation.
If your skin becomes significantly red, painful, cracked or persistently inflamed, speak with your prescribing doctor or pharmacist.
Do I need extra sun protection while using tretinoin?
Yes. Good sun protection should be an essential part of a tretinoin skincare routine.
During the day we recommend combining moisturising skincare with sunscreen, a hat and sensible sun avoidance.
Shield SPF15 can form one component of daytime protection, but where significant sun exposure is expected—particularly in the Australian environment—we recommend using an appropriate broad-spectrum higher-SPF sunscreen as your primary sun protection and following its labelled application instructions.
What about bakuchiol?
Bakuchiol is an interesting ingredient because it sits in a different biological category from retinoids while producing some overlapping cosmetic outcomes.
It is a plant-derived phytochemical and is not vitamin A, retinol or tretinoin.
Laboratory research has shown that some of the gene-expression changes produced by bakuchiol overlap with those associated with retinol, including pathways involved in collagen and skin ageing.
Importantly, however, bakuchiol does not simply act as a weaker form of tretinoin. Its molecular structure and biological mechanism are different.
A randomised, double-blind clinical study compared 0.5% bakuchiol used twice daily with 0.5% retinol used once daily for 12 weeks. Both groups showed improvements in wrinkle surface area and hyperpigmentation, while the retinol group reported significantly more scaling and stinging.
This makes bakuchiol particularly interesting for people seeking gentler cosmetic support for the appearance of ageing skin.
However, this study compared bakuchiol with cosmetic retinol—not prescription tretinoin—so bakuchiol should not be considered a substitute for a prescribed tretinoin treatment.
Is bakuchiol another way of increasing skin turnover?
We prefer to describe it a little differently.
Retinoids have a very direct and well-characterised effect on epidermal cell differentiation and renewal through retinoic acid receptors.
Bakuchiol appears to influence some retinol-like downstream pathways, including pathways associated with collagen, pigmentation and the visible signs of photoageing, without being a retinoid itself.
So rather than saying:
“Bakuchiol speeds up skin turnover like tretinoin, just more gently,”
we would say:
“Bakuchiol offers a gentler, non-retinoid approach to supporting skin renewal and the visible signs of ageing, with some biological effects that overlap with retinol.”
That distinction matters.
Can I use bakuchiol and tretinoin together?
If you are already using prescription tretinoin, we recommend keeping your routine relatively simple rather than automatically adding another renewal-focused active.
Tretinoin is already performing a powerful biological function, and adding more actives does not necessarily produce better results.
If you want to introduce bakuchiol or another active while using prescription tretinoin, particularly if your skin is sensitive or undergoing treatment for acne or another skin condition, discuss the combination with your prescribing healthcare professional.
A simple daytime routine while using tretinoin
Morning
Gentle cleanse if required
→ BiomeBalance Serum if desired
→ Nourish or Light Day Cream
→ Broad-spectrum sunscreen
→ Hat and sensible sun protection
Evening
Gentle cleanse
→ Allow skin to dry
→ Apply tretinoin exactly as prescribed
ReTrieve® prescribing information advises that no other topical preparation should be applied over its nightly application, while suitable moisturisers may be used during the day.
A note from PhycoHealth
Skin renewal and skin hydration are related, but they are not the same thing.
Some ingredients actively influence how skin cells behave. Others help create the hydrated physical environment in which our skin barrier operates.
At PhycoHealth, our interest lies particularly in that second piece: understanding the extraordinary water-binding, skin-affinity and biomaterial properties of seaweed glycans such as Phyaluronic®.
If you are using prescription skincare, always follow the advice of your doctor or pharmacist and introduce other skincare thoughtfully.