Forehead lines and the lines around your eyes aren’t all the same, which is why they aren’t treated the same way. There are expression lines, etched by muscles that move, and fine lines, which come from skin that renews more slowly and holds up less well. Retinal works on the second kind and softens the first. Here’s what to expect, area by area, and what’s best not to believe.
Two types of wrinkles
Raise your eyebrows and look at your forehead: the horizontal lines that appear are expression lines. As long as they disappear when you relax your face, they’re dynamic; once they stay even when your face is still, they’ve become static. Fine lines are something else: a web of tiny lines, more visible when skin is dry and in side light, that deepen over the years. The first kind depends on the muscle. The second depends on the skin: slower renewal, fewer support fibres underneath, a rougher surface.
What retinal does on the forehead
Forehead skin is thick and copes well with retinal. Here, retinal renews the surface and stimulates your skin’s natural collagen production, the collagen that holds the skin up: fine lines and wrinkles are visibly reduced in as little as 4 weeks, and expression lines soften because they sit on fuller, firmer skin. They don’t disappear: they fade. Anyone who promises you a smooth forehead in a week isn’t talking about skincare.
Why retinal isn’t suitable for the eye area
The skin around the eyes is the thinnest on your face: a 0.3% retinal almost always irritates it. Apply Retinal Booster from the centre of your face outwards, stopping at the bone around the eye socket. For crow’s feet and puffiness, use a dedicated product: Dr.Luvion Eye Patches, with caffeine, niacinamide, collagen, hyaluronic acid and peptides, left under the eyes for 10–30 minutes. Crow’s feet, which are expression lines, soften with hydration and peptides; retinal applied lower down, on the cheeks, helps the surrounding area look more lifted.
Home remedies
Olive oil, honey, egg white, cucumber: they hydrate or tighten for an hour, and they do no harm. But they don’t tell your skin to renew itself, and they don’t stimulate its natural collagen production. Fine lines call for vitamin A and peptides; deep expression lines call for a dermatologist. Home remedies belong in the comfort column, not the results column.
“An alternative to injections”: the truth
Anti-wrinkle injections freeze the muscle. No cream can do that, and anyone who says otherwise is exaggerating. What retinal can do is different, and worth saying honestly: it makes skin firmer and smoother, so dynamic lines show less and fine lines fade. If you don’t want needles, it’s the right path for fine lines and for keeping deep wrinkles at bay. If a wrinkle stays even when your face is still, retinal will soften it; erasing it isn’t its job.
Routine for the forehead and eyes
- Evening: Retinal Booster on your forehead, cheeks, chin and neck, keeping away from the eyes. 3–4 times a week at first; after 1–2 months, once your skin has adjusted, every day.
- Then moisturiser, around the eyes too.
- Eye Patches whenever you like, morning or evening, for 10–30 minutes.
- Morning: sunscreen, on your forehead too, even in winter. The sun is the number one cause of fine lines.
The first few weeks are explained in How to use retinal: the first 4 weeks.
Frequently asked questions
Is retinol good for forehead wrinkles?
Yes, the forehead copes well with it. Retinal does the same, but it works 11 times faster than retinol and is gentler: fine lines and wrinkles visibly reduced in as little as 4 weeks, and a firmer forehead in 2–3 months.
What about crow’s feet?
Not 0.3% retinal: it’s too strong for that skin. Use patches or an eye cream with peptides and hydrating ingredients, plus sunscreen and sunglasses.
Can a cream get rid of expression lines?
No. They can be softened, and you can slow down how fast they deepen. To get rid of them, you need a dermatologist.