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Glycolic acid and tretinoin

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Glycolic acid and tretinoin: keep them apart

Keep them apart

Use them on alternate nights because they are both strong and should not go on together. Using both at the same time causes too much peeling, redness, and irritation on the face. The shopper can switch to a lower strength or give their skin a night off between the two products.

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Glycolic acid products

Tretinoin products

Questions and answers

Can you use glycolic acid and tretinoin together?

Keep glycolic acid and tretinoin apart by using them on alternate evenings, because combining them may cause irritation and disrupt your skin barrier.

Which goes first, glycolic acid or tretinoin?

Keep glycolic acid and tretinoin apart by using them in separate routines, such as glycolic acid in the morning or on alternating nights and tretinoin on different evenings. Combining them in the same step may over-exfoliate your skin and cause irritation or barrier disruption.

Are glycolic acid and tretinoin good for sensitive skin?

Glycolic acid and tretinoin should be kept apart to avoid irritation and barrier disruption, especially on sensitive skin. You can alternate them by using glycolic acid in the morning or every other night, and tretinoin on alternate evenings.

Research on glycolic acid and tretinoin

Behind this pairing advice

Lovi checks every pairing with brand-independent rules our dermatologists and cosmetic chemists build and review, and personalizes every pick with AI trained on the real results of millions of users. Lovi trains its fit score models on a proprietary dataset built from more than 10,000 expert-labeled products and more than 100,000 simulated examples, following an internally consistent methodology presented at Cosmoprof, AMWC, and Skin of Color Update.

  • Nadia Kapleva, MS

    Nadia Kapleva, MS

    Co-founder, Medical Director

    Cosmetic chemist, cosmetologist, aesthetic products developer

  • Alexey Shagraev, PhD

    Alexey Shagraev, PhD

    Co-founder, CEO and CTO

    PhD in computer science, 3x US patent holder, ex-Google, ex-Yandex

  • Dr. Sof铆a Perea P茅rez, MD, MSc

    Dr. Sof铆a Perea P茅rez, MD, MSc

    Medical Board

    Aesthetic medicine practitioner, MSc in Longevity and Anti-Aging Medicine

  • Aishani Shah, MD

    Aishani Shah, MD

    Medical Board

    Specialist dermatologist, MBBS, MD, IFAAD

  • Asya Zubkova, MS

    Asya Zubkova, MS

    Medical Board

    Cosmetic chemist, SCS, IFSCC member

  • Hanna Kurets, MD

    Hanna Kurets, MD

    Medical Board, Medical Advisor

    Dermatology MD

  • Elina Nazarenko, MD

    Elina Nazarenko, MD

    Medical Board

    Dermatology and diagnostic consultant

  • Victoria Derkova, MS

    Victoria Derkova, MS

    Medical Board

    Cosmetic chemist, cosmetic development technologist

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