Skin Health Magazine Issue #7 / Spring 2018 | Page 35

weeks, apply it only twice a week. For the next
two weeks, apply it every other night and from
then on, apply it every evening. If you feel your
skin is irritated by this, drop down a step to
allow your skin to naturally adjust to the high-
er levels of Vitamin A. When your skin has
fully adjusted, you can try out a slightly strong-
er formula like the 6 TR and, eventually, work
up to the 10 TR.”
But what about those who have completed a
step-up system like this and want to progress
further? For most brands, this is where the
Retinol journey ends and skin begins to plateau.
But, at Medik8, new derivatives and formulas
are being developed all the time, offering cus-
tomers new ways to get their Vitamin A fix.
One such product is the game-changing
r-Retinoate Youth Activating Cream, which quick-
ly became a best-seller when it launched a cou-
ple of years ago. What makes this different to
Medik8’s previous Vitamin A offerings is new
ingredient Retinyl Retinoate. This hybrid mol-
ecule combines Retinol with Retinoic Acid (the
type of Vitamin A the body recognises) to
create an exciting encapsulated active. “This
new molecule exhibits the properties of both
of its parts; improving the results of Retinol,
but without any of the side effects typically
associated with Retinoic Acid,” reveals Daniel.
“An impressive clinical trial published in the
British Journal of Dermatology demonstrated
that Retinyl Retinoate delivers astonishing re-
sults – it’s more effective than Retinol, yet at a
significantly lower dosage. It’s also eight times
more powerful than standard Retinol, is pho-
to-stable so it can be used day and night, and
is suitable for the most sensitive of skins. As
it’s biologically active, it can be used straight
away without phasing it in.”
A Retinol Revolution
The next wave of Retinol reinvention is upon
us and Medik8 are at the forefront. Not content
with creating a completely new derivative, the
formulation team have been busy developing
the next generation of Vitamin A-based skin
care. Their new Crystal Retinal serums contain
Retinaldehyde, a notoriously unstable derivative
that, until now, has been hard to formulate
effectively. This super-charged derivative of
Vitamin A has been encapsulated within a crys-
tal molecule by Medik8 to create an ingredient
that is clinically proven to work faster than
Retinol, as Daniel explains: “Crystal Retinal is
our new super-charged derivative of Vitamin
A and sits in between our Retinols and the
r-Retinoate products. It uses a version of Ret-
inaldehyde which is one step closer to Retino-
ic Acid, so it only has to convert once. We use
a patented time-release delivery system that
encapsulates the Retinaldehyde in a crystal
molecular vehicle that is broken down by the
skin’s natural enzymes upon contact. This
unique action controls the release of the active
to ensure the formula remains stable, absorp-
tion is optimised and the highly-potent for-
mula is distributed evenly and constantly
throughout the night.” If that wasn’t enough,
the ingredient also boasts powerful antibacte-
rial properties which diminish the number of
breakout-causing
bacteria on the sur-
face of the skin,
making the Crystal
Retinal range ideal for
acne-prone skins.
And it doesn’t stop
there. The Retinol
landscape is ev-
er-changing and Dan-
iel Isaacs doesn’t see
the desire for more
variations of the ingre-
dient stopping anytime
soon, “Without a
doubt, the field of Vi-
tamin A will continue to
evolve. We passionately
believe that Vitamin A
is the future of skin care
and we at Medik8 are sig-
nificantly investing into
further research and de-
velopment of the active.”
We can’t wait to see what’s
in store...
ISSUE #07 | 2018 | SkinHealthMagazine.com 35