The ESK blog
Retinal vs Retinoids: The Smarter Choice for Your Skincare Routine
01 May 2026
Daniel Rubinstein
If you’re looking to improve your skin, Vitamin A, as a group contains two ingredients that are hands down the BEST ingredient to have in your skincare routine. Whether you’re looking to combat the signs of aging, like fine lines and wrinkles, battle pigmentation or combat acne or rosacea, Vitamin A is incredible.
Studies have shown that applied to the skin, Vitamin A contributes to:
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Skin cells turning over and renewing
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Production of the extracellular matrix (this is your skin’s scaffolding- including collagen, hyaluronic acid and elastin)
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Preventing UV damage to the skin
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Reduced inflammation
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Formation of new blood vessels which helps deliver nutrients to the skin
This results in fewer fine lines and wrinkles, thicker, more elastic skin, increase in skin thickness, less pigmentation, better skin hydration, less acne, and less rosacea symptoms. But not all forms of Vitamin A are created.
The different forms of Vitamin A in skincare
The word “Retinoids” is often used interchangeably with the word “Retinol”, but that isn’t accurate and it can be misleading.
Vitamin A is a term that describes a group of nutrients that the body needs for vision, immune function, reproduction and cellular growth. That includes compounds found in plants and animals . Retinoids is a subset of Vitamin A and relates to a group of natural and artificial compounds which ultimately convert into Retinoic acid, the active form of Vitamin A used in our bodies. Retinol is just one of those Retinoids. The other most commonly known are Retinyl Palmitate, Retinal (a.k.a Retinaldehyde) and Retinoic acid.
To understand each Retinoid, how they work and which one you should use in your skicnare, let’s start at the end.
Your skin contains receptors for Retinoic Acid. When Retinoic Acid binds to its receptors, you see all of the wonderful effects of vitamin A start to happen, like increased skin cell turnover and production of collagen... You can get Retinoic Acid directly into your skincare on prescription from your doctor. You can also get it indirectly in your food or in your non-prescription skincare. Once in your body (from food containing Vitamin A) or on your skin (from your skincare). Your body and particularly your skin has to use enzymes to turn the form of Vitamin A that you have into Retinoic acid. And this happens in a chain of conversions:
Retinyl esters -> Retinol -> Retinal -> Retinoic acid
Using Retinoic acid in skincare (on prescription from your doctor) works really well and has the best evidence of any ingredient in helping reduce and reverse the signs of premature skin aging. But it does come with one big drawback - irritation. In some studies up to 90% of users experience some level of side effects which includes redness, dryness, swelling, scaling, irritation and burning. While that usually subsides after several weeks, many users either can’t or don’t continue using it.
So if other Retinoids can convert to Retinoic acid, we can use them - goes the logic. But the further the Retinoid is from Retinoic acid is (in that conversion chain), the less effective it is likely to be. That’s because retinoic acid obviously has the highest stimulation of retinoic acid receptors. And every conversion step that a Retinoid takes to get closer to Retinoic acid, sees much of it is lost.
No wonder, Retinyl plamitate in skin care has no evidence to support it’s use. And studies show that retinol is 20 times less potent than Retinoic acid. Or that a British review of all Retinol studies concluded that there’s not much evidence from robust studies that Retinol does anything for the skin.
Enter Retinal. It is just one step removed from Retinoic acid, so it is highly effective, but with none of the irritation of Retinoic acid (and Retinol for that matter). We think it is because metabolism of Retinal to Retinoic acid ONLY happens in skin cells at a very specific stage of differentiation, giving a very controlled delivery of Retinoic acid, so we just don’t see many side effects.
Retinal hits that Goldilocks spot. It’s just right!
Studies have shown that when it comes to skin aging, Retinal is AS EFFECTIVE as Retinoic Acid. Minus the irritation. Independent of its stimulation of the Retinoic Acid receptors, Retinal also has antimicrobial effects which are beneficial in acne and rosacea. Retinal is also effective and well tolerated by people with rosacea.
So why doesn’t every skincare brand use Retinal?
We can only speculate. But legacy, cost, availability and logistics are likely reasons.
Despite being a bit old-school, lots of brands hang onto their retinol products because they’re popular and ditching them might be a hard commercial decision. Then there’s the cost. At about $30,000 per kilo, Retinal costs more than 10 times as much as Retinol. It’s also a very difficult ingredient to find (especially from a reputable manufacturer). It took us 4 months of searching to find just one reliable high-quality supplier! Finally, it has to be transported at -20 Degrees Centigrade from warehouse to warehouse. It is also hard to stabilise when formulated into a product, so it can lose its effectiveness quite quickly if it is not well formulated. Lots of companies throw in the towel seeing it as just too hard. But we LOVE a challenge and really enjoyed conquering this one!
BOTTOM LINE
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Vitamin A is hands down the best cosmeceutical ingredient for the treatment of aging skin and acne.
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Pure Retinoic Acid is very effective but causes irritation and burning in many people.
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Retinol is 20 times less potent than Retinoic acid and recent studies have called into question its efficacy altogether. Plus, while Retinol is less irritating than Retinoic acid, some people still react to it.
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Retinal is as effective as Retinoic Acid without the side effects – making it the most effective and well tolerated form of Vitamin A. Which is why we use it in ESK’s Ultimate A and Ultimate A+ and Ultimate A Gold
The game-changing night cream developed in partnership with Selma Blair - combines our most potent hero ingredients to effectively and gently tackle the most common skin concerns – in one product. Tackling the signs of aging skin including fine lines, skin elasticity, impaired barrier function, hydration, dullness and uneven skin tone. it is our most powerful product yet and yet it’s still ridiculously well tolerated. Wake up to skin that's supple, smoother, and softer. For the most irritable of skin, Ultimate A may be a better option, particularly when starting to use Retinal based products
Ultimate A Gold
Ultimate A Gold: the most effective and gentle ingredients that evidence based cosmeceutical skincare has to offer, in one revolutionary formula.
*Ultimate A Gold (Retinal) may transfer onto white or light-coloured fabrics. For best results, we recommend using darker clothing or surfaces to avoid visible marks.
