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Originally Posted by mizzwanned  Ok so i checked out the qvc forum and i keep coming across threads about Green cream, Renova, Retin A, vitaminc c. What is green cream and retin a, renova? i am 21, can i use them now or for older ppl? |
oh wow, okay...i am going to try and NOT write a book here lol
vitamin c is an antioxidant which is useful for everyone - it protects your skin from normal, daily environmental "stress" (e.g. smog, smoke, pollutants, etc) certain forms of vitamin c products will actually also make your sunscreen more effective (skinceuticals CE ferulic claims this) ... it should also help "brighten" your skin tone when used regularly
retin a, renova, green cream and retinols are all forms of vitamin a....the basic differences between them is retin-a and renova require a prescription so they are "stronger" and green cream and retinols are OTC and are "weaker"...in a nutshell the active ingredient in retin-a (for normal skin types) and renova (for dry skin types as it is retin-a in a VERY emollient base so it would probably cause breakouts in oily/combo skintypes) is tretinoin...the job of tretinoin is to "speed up" cell turnover and get rid of the dull skin to make way for fresh skin which = decrease in wrinkles and fine lines - YAY!...i believe - but am not quite 100% sure - that it also increases collagen production which decreases naturally as we get older....retin-a was originally created for ance but once the other benefits started appearing, it is a huge product in the anti-aging world...because of the emollient base, renova is stricly marketed as an anti-aging product even though it is in essence the same product - just in a different base - as retin-a
green cream is a form of retinol...retinol is weaker than retin-a because it takes 3 processes once applied to your skin to turn into tretinoin, which means you will lose a lot of efficacy (retin-a IS tretinoin so there are no extra processes it needs to go through to turn into tretinoin)
i believe the weakest form of retin-a (0.025%) is still 10X stronger than the strongest OTC retinol you can buy
since you are so young (lucky you!
) i think just making sure you use sunscreen 365 days/year, rain or shine, inside or outside, and an antioxidant like vitamin c would be great! i am sure you do not have wrinkles to address so retin-a might be a waste of money for you...if you wanted to start out with a retinol, i highly recommend neutrogena, green cream and skinceuticals
geeez i am sorry this was so long but HTH!