The Retinal Booster Protocol

Dr.Luvion · How-to guide

How to use Retinal Booster, evening after evening. This isn’t an instruction leaflet: it’s a method, and every rule exists for the same reason. To let the retinal do its work without burning your skin.

Retinol helps; retinal does much more: it works 11 times faster than retinol and is gentler. Precisely because it’s so fast, it needs to be introduced with care.

The protocol at a glance

  • Use it in the evening, on clean, dry skin.
  • To start, 3–4 times a week; after 1–2 months, once your skin has adjusted, you can use it every day.
  • A little goes a long way: two or three rice-grain-sized dots per area, on your face and neck. You can use it around the eyes, but it’s a delicate area: apply it less often there, and with care.
  • After the Booster, apply your usual moisturiser. If your skin is sensitive, apply it beforehand too.
  • On the same evening, don’t use exfoliating acids, pure vitamin C or other retinoids.
  • In the morning, apply sunscreen: our SPF 50+ Anti-Ageing Face Cream is made for exactly this.
  • A slight tingle that fades within a few minutes is normal. If it really burns, stop for a few evenings.

Retinol has irritated my skin before: can I use it?

Many bad experiences with vitamin A come down to how it’s introduced: too much product, every evening, right from the very first night. Your skin defends itself, goes red and feels tight, and anyone who’s been through that gives up.

Here, you start slowly on purpose. Inside there’s pure 0.3% retinal, together with niacinamide and panthenol, which help keep your skin hydrated and comfortable. If your skin is reactive, follow the protocol with moisturiser before and after, and try it on a small area for a couple of evenings first.

If you’ve ever had a reaction with swelling, intense itching or raised patches, check with your dermatologist first.

How many times a week, and when to move to every day

To start, 3–4 times a week; after 1–2 months, once your skin has adjusted, you can use it every day.

If you remember just one line from this page, make it this one. Your evenings off aren’t wasted evenings: they’re the evenings when your skin gets used to it.

When to move to every day

It takes time and a sign. After 1–2 months, when you no longer feel any tingling the morning after, see no redness and your skin no longer feels tight, you can move to every day. If the tingling comes back, stay at 3–4 times a week for a while and try again later.

Rushing won’t get you results any sooner. It’ll only get you irritation sooner.

How much to use, and where

You only need a little: two or three rice-grain-sized dots per area are enough for your face and neck, spread in a thin layer. Using more won’t make your skin work harder; it will only make it react more.

Spread it over your face and neck, from the centre outwards. Take extra care around the eyes, the corners of the nose and around the lips: these are the thinnest areas and the first to get irritated. Use even less there, and less often. Not on the eyelids.

If your skin still looks shiny after a few minutes, use less the next evening.

Evening routine, moisturiser and make-up

Use the Booster in the evening only, never in the morning. Night-time is when your skin renews itself, and in the dark the formula stays intact.

  1. Remove your make-up and wash your face with a gentle cleanser.
  2. Pat dry and wait a couple of minutes, until your skin is completely dry. On damp skin, retinal can tingle more.
  3. Apply Retinal Booster to your face and neck.
  4. Wait a couple of minutes for it to absorb, then apply your moisturiser.

If you have sensitive skin

Apply a thin layer of moisturiser, then the Booster, then moisturiser again. The moisturiser underneath acts as a cushion: the retinal works more gently and your skin tolerates it better.

In the morning, wash your face, then apply moisturiser, the SPF 50+ Anti-Ageing Face Cream and, if you like, make-up.

What not to use on the same evening

  • Exfoliating acids: glycolic, salicylic, lactic, mandelic.
  • Pure vitamin C: keep it for the morning.
  • Other retinoids, including our Retinol Booster Serum. One retinoid at a time: if you’re using Retinal Booster, you don’t need the Serum on the same evenings.
  • Scrubs, cleansing brushes and exfoliating pads.
  • Exfoliating or peel-off masks. In the first few weeks, if you want to use a mask, save it for an evening off.

Two strong products together don’t double the results. They just make your skin red.

If you have a peel, laser treatment or facial waxing coming up, stop the Booster a few evenings beforehand and only start again once your skin has settled. Let whoever is doing the treatment know, too.

The eye area

You can use the Booster around your eyes, but it’s a delicate area: the skin around the eye is the thinnest on your face. Apply it there less often than on the rest of your face, in an even thinner layer, and keep to the bone around the eye: not on the eyelid, and never in the eye itself. If it gets in your eye, rinse straight away with water.

If your eyelid is puffy or red in the morning, stop for a few evenings, then apply the product further away from your eye. If it doesn’t settle within a day, or comes back, stop using it around your eyes.

For that area we also have our Collagen and Caffeine Peptide Eye Patches, designed for such thin skin. Use them whenever you like, even on the same evening. The gentle eye cream you already use is fine too.

The first few weeks, stage by stage

The first few evenings

You’re on 3–4 evenings a week. You may feel a slight tingle when you apply it, which fades within a few minutes. That’s normal.

When your skin makes itself felt

After a few evenings, your skin may become a little drier, flake slightly around the nose and chin, or show a few more blemishes. Stay at the same frequency, use more moisturiser and don’t add anything else.

When your skin has adjusted

This usually happens after 1–2 months: the mornings after no longer leave any trace. That’s when you move to every day.

The everyday routine

Every evening, a small amount, moisturiser afterwards and sunscreen in the morning. From here on, consistency is what counts.

Normal

  • A slight tingle that fades within a few minutes.
  • Skin that’s a little drier than usual.
  • A few areas of slight flaking.
  • Mild redness in the evening that’s gone by the morning.
  • A few more blemishes in the first few weeks.

Not normal: stop

  • Real burning that carries on after you’ve applied it.
  • Redness that’s still there the next morning.
  • Skin that stings when water touches it.
  • Widespread small spots that don’t settle down.

If this happens, stop the Booster for a few evenings and use only a gentle cleanser and moisturiser. Once your skin is calm again, start again with less product: to start, 3–4 times a week; after 1–2 months, once your skin has adjusted, you can use it every day. If the burning comes back just as strongly, stop using it.

Swelling, intense itching, raised patches or blisters can be signs of an allergic reaction and shouldn’t be ignored. Stop straight away and, if they don’t go within a few days, see a doctor.

Pushing through isn’t willpower. Skin that burns and stays red is being damaged, and carrying on makes it worse.

If your skin flakes or feels tight

  1. Don’t exfoliate to remove flaky skin. You’d be stripping away protection just when you need it most.
  2. Stop for a few evenings.
  3. Moisturise more, morning and evening, with a simple moisturiser.
  4. Use lukewarm water and a gentle cleanser.
  5. When you start again, apply moisturiser before and after the Booster and go back to the rule: to start, 3–4 times a week; after 1–2 months, once your skin has adjusted, you can use it every day.

If your skin just feels tight, with no burning, more moisturiser is usually all it takes. If it burns as well as feeling tight, or is still red in the morning, follow the advice in the section above. If it flakes every time, even when you go slowly, this product may not be right for your skin: stop and write to us.

When you’ll see results

Retinal doesn’t cover up or fill in: it supports your skin’s natural renewal, and its appearance improves little by little. The changes don’t all show at once, and they usually appear in this order:

  1. Texture, smoother and more even to the touch: usually the first thing you notice, after a couple of weeks.
  2. Pores, which look less visible from around week four.
  3. Fine lines and wrinkles, visibly reduced in as little as 4 weeks.
  4. Firmness comes last: with consistent use, skin looks firmer.

One tube lasts about 30 days if you use it every day; at the start, at 3–4 times a week, it lasts longer. Finish the first tube before you make up your mind: fine lines and wrinkles are visibly reduced in as little as 4 weeks, and the changes keep coming with the second and third tubes. Every skin works to its own timeline, and that’s why we give you our 90-Day Results or Money Back Guarantee.

Take a photo on day one, in the same light and without make-up. You get used to the mirror; a photo doesn’t.

Sun protection in the morning

In the morning, sunscreen is part of the protocol. The sun works against the very things you’re working on in the evening: firmness and fine lines.

Apply it every day, all year round, even when it’s cloudy. Choose a broad-spectrum one that protects against UVA and UVB, with high or very high protection, and reapply it if you’re spending hours outdoors.

That’s why we made our SPF 50+ Anti-Ageing Face Cream: very high UVA and UVB protection that also moisturises and protects your collagen during the day, while at night retinal stimulates its natural production. It’s here whenever you want it. If you already have a sunscreen you’re happy with, that’s fine too: the best sunscreen is the one you actually wear.

Who shouldn’t use it

  • During pregnancy, while breastfeeding or if you’re trying to conceive, it isn’t recommended. This precaution applies to all retinoids.
  • If you use prescription retinoids, as tablets or creams, it isn’t recommended. If you’re having treatment, ask whoever prescribed them first.
  • If you have very sensitive or reactive skin, try it on a small area first, for example the side of your neck, for a couple of evenings.
  • If your skin is sunburnt, chapped or has active dermatitis, wait until it has healed.

Retinal Booster is a cosmetic, not a medicine, and it doesn’t treat skin conditions. If you have rosacea, dermatitis or severe acne, your dermatologist’s advice comes first.

Missed evenings, holidays and breaks

You miss an evening. Nothing happens. Just carry on the next evening, without doubling up.

You stop for a week or more. When you start again, begin as you did the first time: to start, 3–4 times a week; after 1–2 months, once your skin has adjusted, every day again.

On holiday. You can carry on in the evening just as you do at home, with sunscreen in the morning, reapplied during the day. If you get sunburnt, stop until your skin has healed. If you’d rather take a break, you won’t lose anything: just start again from the beginning when you’re back.

How to store it. Keep the cap tightly closed, away from direct light and heat.

If something doesn’t feel right

Email us at support@drluvion.com and tell us what’s happening. We’d much rather get one more question than have you put up with irritated skin in silence. We add the questions we’re asked most often to this page.

Retinal Booster comes with our 90-Day Results or Money Back Guarantee. How it works and how to claim are explained on the Returns and refunds page.