Natalie O’Neill
Digital Creator
Six years of retinoid use and, every single summer, I get the same question: Should I stop using my retinoid? My answer is almost always no, but it does depend on how you use them.
The concern makes sense. Retinoids increase your sun sensitivity, so naturally you’d think to put them away until autumn — especially if you’re going on a beach holiday or spending long days in the sun. While temporarily reducing frequency can seem sensible, stopping for months at a time can undo much of the valuable progress.
Adjusting frequency vs stopping completely
Every week you skip your retinoid, you risk acne, texture and sun damage creeping back up. If you skip retinoid use in summer for many years at a time, you lose out on years of compounding retinoid results. The answer is shifting your lifestyle, not your skincare routine.
Removing sun exposure,
not retinoid, is the answer.
While adjusting your retinoid use frequency can seem like the logical compromise, it rarely works out perfectly. The skin’s reaction to retinoids with high sun exposure can be unpredictable, regardless of the dose. Even with sunscreen and without burning, skin damage is accruing to some degree. Removing sun exposure, not retinoid, is the answer.
Seeking shade is the strategy
Seeking shade keeps your skin protected, hydrated and happy. In practice, this looks like: face in the shade, book in one hand, SPF reapplied every two hours and retinoid still happening after dark. Your routine continues building results, your skin stays protected and there’s no bumpy reintroduction period come autumn.
If skin health is your goal, avoiding sun exposure is far more effective than reducing retinoid frequency or skipping it entirely.
