AHAVA pRetinol™ Eye Cream Versus AHAVA Extreme Firming Eye Cream

Research shows it can encourage your skin cells to turn over and renew by stimulating keratinocyte and fibroblast proliferation.

It also has mild keratolytic properties to help loosen and shed dead skin cells without being harsh.

Studies also suggest allantoin can help calm inflammation by dialing down some of the chemical signals your skin sends out when it is irritated.

This ingredient is typically used in the 0.1-0.5% range, and the FDA recognizes it as a skin protectant in OTC products up to 2%.

Overall, allantoin is a wonderful addition to most routines; it is stable across a wide pH range (~4-8), works well with other ingredients, and is considered non-sensitizing/non-irritating.

Fun fact: Allantoin is naturally occurring in comfrey root, beets, chamomile, and wheat sprouts. Our bodies even produce it as a byproduct of uric acid metabolism.

Ci 77891 is commonly found in sunscreens due to its ability to block UV rays.

All the research on is it the last kind and it's usually sold as "Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil + Dunaliella Salina Extract". So a product having this on the label doesn't guarantee it's the version that was studied.

In cosmetics, it's a skin conditioning agent sold as an anti-glycation and antioxidant active for sun care.

The main study behind it: 25 women used a cream with 1% of the extract on one side of the face and placebo on the other for 8 weeks during a Portuguese summer with daily beach-level sun.

The active side had fewer wrinkles, fewer red spots, lower glycation scores, and calmer reactions to a histamine challenge compared to the placebo side.

Lab tests on skin explants back this up with less inflammatory signals and less of the glycation marker.

Just know this is one small study done by the supplier, so take it as promising rather than proven for now.

Tolerance data looks good: a 50 person repeat insult patch test showed no sensitization at all and 48 hour patch tests came back with zero reactions. There are also no allergy case reports.

Typical use is ~1%.

No comedogenicity testing has been published for this ingredient so nobody can give you a real rating.

The extract itself is used at around 1% and carotenoids are not known comedogens. The variable is the carrier; the colorless-carotenoid version ships in jojoba seed oil or hydrogenated polydecene.

So the question of whether it will clog pores is really about the finished formula, not this ingredient.