Ask any dermatologist worth their salt for an anti-ageing skincare product recommendation and they will inevitably recommend two things: One, a sunscreen. Because, while we talk cheerfully about living in ‘sunny South Africa’, it’s a well-known fact that the sun will flay you alive if you venture out unprotected come summertime. And two, a retinol. Beauty companies pour a lot of time and money into researching and developing a perfect cocktail of vitamin A, and for good reason: it gets results.
Retinol has been described as ‘the Swiss Army knife of beauty’ because it does a little bit of everything. It promotes collagen production to firm and tighten skin, reduces wrinkles, evens skintone, encourages cell turnover, and even fights acne. But all those benefits can come at a cost, because retinol is a tricksy little bugger: yes, it has loads of
