Review: The Ordinary Retinol, Retinoid, Niacinamide + Zinc

I've been a loyal fan of The Ordinary since 2016. I'd have said loyal user, but technically, I have only used variants of Retinol and only recently, the Niacinamide + Zinc serum for a few months a year. I love the brand for sentimental reasons.

Photo by Assel Askhatova on Unsplash

I love that Deciem, "the Abnormal Beauty Company" envisions a beauty industry that provides high-quality and well-researched products at reasonable prices. The company seeks to change the industry by taking away all the marketing fluff and fancy packaging and misleading endorsements that does nothing to improve product quality yet hikes up product prices. Deciem has a working conscience and sometimes that's all that's needed to garner support from industry fans. 

Now Deciem has several brands serving different markets, with The Ordinary targeting the B & C consumer bracket. Other brands that target the same bracket offer similar products with watered down ingredients in forms that are not as potent as the ones for the consumer bracket A. Again, because these brands need to recover marketing, packaging, and endorsement costs. The Ordinary harnesses the latest clinical formulation technology to provide products that are highly effective with less importance put on product popularity and market dominance. Bad business model, you think? If you're in it to make billions as in the case of transnational mega companies, then it is a bad business model. What's funny is that Deciem has in fact made billions by distancing itself from the mainstream.

What keeps me loyal is that they stay true to their image - relatable, approachable, honest-to-goodness. If Deciem were a person, it would be that fun doctor friend you went to high school with. The kind who'd meet you for lunch and give you free medical advice for your skin, hair and cosmetic concerns. You can send Deciem DMs on Instagram regarding your skin concerns, and they actually reply. Note that the replies are tailor made for your specific concerns. I asked them for product recommendations for my oily, textured skin that breaks out like it's 16 but has lines and sunspots like it's 36. I was expecting they'd either ignore the message or send me a copy pasted blurb or something, but they gave me a short list: 3 products and how that can help my specific issues.

1. The Ordinary Granactive Retinoid 2% Emulsion

Photo from TheOrdinary.com

I used up an entire bottle of this product in 2016-2017. A bottle lasts for 6 months, maybe longer if applied very thinly. Bought it for P750 (roughly $15.) which makes it worth P125 (or $2.50) per month - rather cheap considering its potency. 

I don't remember breaking out from it. I normally experience a purging period from topical Vitamin A products but this one didn't cause any initial distress on my skin. I remember having the smoothest canvass for foundation, my skin was bright, taut, moist, and generally free from my monthly mandatory period pimple. I should probably discuss the wonders of retinol at a different post. This time I just want to sing praises for this miracle worker.

My issue with it is that it feels thick and tacky. I mean, it's an emulsion, of course it's going to have that consistency. This is also for use exclusively at night since topical Vitamin A is unstable in the presence of UV light, so this is applied after switching off the lights, another inconvenience. I don't recommend this to people who sleep without the AC at 18C, it can get uncomfortable when it's hot. Also not recommended for use if you plan on cuddling or getting your face kissed, it's really sticky and smells a little like white glue.

All in all though, I loved the product. All the nightly discomfort was worth it, what with waking up to bright, taut and smooth skin. I stopped using the product after a fleeting infatuation with microneedling, so I had to give it a rest for a couple of months. After giving up on my dermarolling experiments, I thought I'd go back to retinoids at a lower concentration, but I accidentally ordered the wrong product which was:

2. The Ordinary Retinol 0.5% in Squalene

Photo from TheOrdinary.com

The official Deciem website strongly recommends retinoids over retinol, even specifically says that newer technologies exist that mimic the effects of retinol without causing skin irritation. It's laudable how a company can openly make recommendations against its own products. The reason here is that retinol is known to be a potent irritant to most people, even those with non-sensitive skin. Despite this shortcoming, retinol still has a strong fanbase due to its science-backed effectiveness. There are people who brave the sensitivity and irritation and come out unscathed with ridiculously perfect skin from retinol. 

I am not one of those people, turns out. I was hoping my skin would adjust well to retinol considering my previous experience with retinoids, and both oral and topical tretinoin. 

This product is not as thick and tacky as the retinoid. It's in squalene, an oil base, with thin and lighter consistency than an emulsion. The label says it's highly stable but I decided I'd still apply it in the dark just to be sure I'd get all the potency to make up for how sensitive and irritated it made my skin. Now, I didn't break out, but my skin was dryer than usual, had some rough and scaly patches, and had rashes that appear and disappear randomly in small circles. Foundation didn't stick as firmly to the skin so I looked like an oily, patchy mess by the end of the day. 

People who stick to the plan with retinol eventually wake up to perfect skin, and trust me, I gave retinol several chances. But I ended up giving a half-full bottle away. I just was sure I'd fare better with retinoids. To be fair, the person who did receive my retinol ended up with great skin. So it's probably just my overly sensitive skin that failed me. Bought this for P485 (roughly $9.70) in 2018.

3. The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%

Photo from TheOrdinary.com

I've been meaning to go back to retinoids for months this year, I'd have preferred going back to The Ordinary Retinoids, but my impatience got in the way so I experimented with a locally available product. It's a set of soap, toner, and creams with all sorts of ingredients in them like alpha arbutin, kojic acid, and maybe salicylic acid, I saw that it had retinol in the creams so I bought the set. Surprisingly, it worked pretty well. I have not had pimples in the 2+ months I was using the set. However, I knew that products with Kojic Acid and whatever else may be in the toner (it had no list of ingredients on the label!), could potentially damage my skin, or cause cancer and whatnot if it had hydroquinone or *gasp* mercury in it (I'm guessing it had because it was so effective, besides, why would they not include a list of ingredients, that's just way too sketchy.)

So anyway, I realized if I were to stop my new skin care routine, which I meant to do strictly after the 3rd month, I needed something to maintain my newfound flawlessness. I thought I'd go back to retinoids, but then I remembered checking Deciem's Instagram DM, and saw that apart from retinoids, they recommended two other products for my skin concerns: Niacinamide + Zinc and Alpha Arbutin. I researched and thought long and hard and picked the former.

Niacinamide is Vitamin B3, and it's in every whitening and beauty cream in the early 2000s. It was marketed as the super ingredient that everyone with a skin problem needed back when I was in my teens. It brightens tone, fades dark spots, and unknown to me until recently, it can also potentially minimize enlarged pores, fine lines and wrinkles. The Deciem website seems to not make such claims and even has a disclaimer that this product is not intended for the treatment of acne.

I think I'm gonna believe Deciem because so far this product has not helped with the subsequent appearance of blackheads after I stopped using my mysterious toner. I still use the Kojic Acid soap and Retinol/Glycerin/Alpha Arbutin cream from my local skin care set at night, and then apply the Ordinary Niacinamide + Zinc in the morning under makeup. Aside from the blackheads, my skin seems to be doing fine. I find though that after adding this serum to my routine, my skin has looked shinier than usual, foundation does not stay as long, but it's no biggie considering I now have decent skin underneath. 

This product also has Zinc, a mineral that's supposed to balance sebum activity, a.k.a. minimize oiliness, which was weird because again, my skin is shinier than it used to be. What's odd though is that despite the shine, it does not feel oily. It's more glass-y shine than oily shine. 

It's only been a few weeks and I'm giving this product a chance, I mean, I don't wanna give away another bottle. It costs P600 (roughly $12) which isn't a lot, but I guess I'm just hanging on for sentimental reasons. I could live without the product, I guess, but it's a welcome addition. I'm still hoping for a long term redeeming quality so I can repurchase. If I don't find anything extraordinary, I'm giving Alpha Arbutin a chance. And then I'd go back to Retinoids. And stay with it forever.