Almirall Aknemycin Plus
A prescription with 5 ingredients, including retinoid.
Prescription with 5 ingredients that contains retinoid
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What's inside
Key Ingredients
Benefits
Concerns
Ingredients Explained
This ingredient is a non-INCI ingredient (it is prescription medication). It is an antibiotic that stops the growth of bacteria.
If you have any concerns, please speak with a licensed professional.
Tretinoin (aka retinoic acid) is the gold standard retinoid in dermatology because it's the form of vitamin A that your skin can use right away. It's a prescription drug and regulated as medication in most countries.
Unlike retinol, it skips the conversion steps and goes straight to work.
Inside your skin cells, it binds to receptors called retinoic acid receptors and switches on the genes that control how skin cells behave.
For acne, it helps your skin shed dead cells properly instead of letting them build up and clog your pores (this is what turns into blackheads and pimples). It also calms redness/swelling, which is why it's a FDA-approved acne treatment.
Tretinoin also tells your skin to make more collagen and slows down the stuff that breaks collagen apart too. Over time, your skin looks smoother, softer, and more even, with fewer lines lines and sun spots.
The evidence for this ingredient is strong:
A systematic review of randomized controlled trials found that topical tretinoin consistently improved wrinkles, pigmentation, sallowness, and dark spots. Results typically showed up as early as one month and lasted out to 24 months.
All studies also found this ingredient to be safe and well-tolerated.
Typical concentrations run from about 0.01-0.1%, with 0.025%-0.1% being the usual range studied for photoaging and a 0.05% cream producing measurable wrinkle/roughness improvements in large six-month trials.
The main trade-off is irritation; dryness, peeling, redness, and sun sensitivity are common in the first few weeks so be sure to pair it well with a good moisturizer and daily sunscreen.
Learn about a form of retinoid you can purchase at the store, retinol.
Learn more about TretinoinAlcohol Denat. is an alcohol with a denaturant property. It is created by mixing ethanol with other additives.
The "denat" part just means "denatured"; common denaturants include Denatonium Benzoate, t-butyl alcohol, and Diethyl Phthalate. This step makes the alcohol undrinkable (and lets brand skip taxes related to beverage alcohol).
This ingredient gets a bad rep because it is irritating and drying due to its astringent property. Astringents draw out natural oils in tissue to constrict pores and dry out your skin.
However, alcohol denat. is not all that bad.
Due to its low molecular weight, alcohol denat. tends to evaporate quickly. One study on pig skin found half of applied alcohol evaporated in 10 seconds and less than 3% stayed on skin.
This also helps other ingredients become better absorbed upon application.
Studies are conflicted about whether this ingredient causes skin dehydration. One study from 2005 found adding emollients to propanol-based sanitizer decreased skin dryness and irritation. Another study found irritation only occurs if your skin is already damaged.
Small amounts of alcohol are generally tolerated by oily skin or people who live in humid environments.
The rule of thumb is this ingredient will probably not affect your skin much if it is near the end of an ingredients list.
One thing to note:
People with ALDH2 (aldehyde dehydrogenase 2) deficiency may experience skin irritation from continued alcohol use. About 8% of the world's population have this deficiency.
The Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel has determined denatured alcohols to be safe for use in concentrations between 0.05% and 12% (depending on which denaturant is used).
Also...
This ingredient has antimicrobial and solvent properties.
The antimicrobial property helps preserve products and increase their shelf life. As a solvent, it helps dissolve other ingredients.
Look for formulas that contain glycerin, hyaluronic acid, or panthenol if you want to offset any drying effect.
This ingredient will trip away your skin's natural oils/lipids that help it lock in moisture. This can worsen dryness, trigger eczema flare-ups, and aggravate rosacea.
Be sure to patch test any product with this ingredient if you have dry or sensitive skin, eczema, or rosacea.
Learn more about Alcohol Denat.Glycerin (or glycerol) is a compound naturally found in your skin. It's a powerhouse humectant that pulls water into the stratum corneum.
Topically, glycerin does several things at once:
Your skin makes glycerin on its own (mostly from sebaceous oil breakdown) and shuttles it to your outermost layer of skin, or your epidermis, via aquaporin-3.
Aquaporin-3 is a transporter that is essential for normal skin hydration, elasticity, and repair. Interestingly, mice lacking in AQP3 have dry and less elastic skin that can be fully corrected with glycerin.
This ingredient is non-irritating, plays well with almost every ingredient, and works across all skin types. Typical use is anywhere between 3-10% but can go up to 79% in some leave-on products.
Just know very high concentrations (>40%) can feel tacky in low humidity.
Glycerin is the name for this ingredient in American English. British English uses Glycerol/Glycerine.
Learn more about GlycerinThis powder is used to increase the thickness of a product.
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Where it's from
Almirall is a American brand
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The data we've presented on this page has been verified by a member of the SkinSort Team.
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