How Does Rosehip Oil Compare to Retinol?

Hello, Bellas! 
We commonly get asked why we don’t use any retinol in our products. This is a fantastic question, and we’d like to use today’s Self Care Sunday blog as a chance to answer it while also explaining why we use rosehip oil as an au naturel substitute.

First and foremost, let’s start by talking about retinol, what it is, and why it’s so popular in skincare today.

What is Retinol?

Retinol is a type of retinoid. It’s a pure, potent form of synthetic Vitamin A and is touted in the skincare community for its ability to improve uneven skin tone, enhance collagen production, and reduce the effects of aging and acne. 

Sounds like a dream come true, right? Perhaps. However, it’s important to note that this synthetic skin solution doesn’t come without potential irritation. Especially the stronger, prescription-based retinoid products.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) uses a 1-10 scale to determine how safe an ingredient is, with 1 being the best and 10 being the worst. 

Retinol is rated alarmingly high – with a 9 – due to “data from an FDA study [indicating] that retinoid ingredients may speed the development of skin tumors and lesions on sun-exposed skin,” the EWG states. They go on to say, “FDA, Norwegian, and German health agencies have raised a concern that daily skin application of vitamin A creams may contribute to excessive vitamin A intake for pregnant women and other populations.” (1)

As a result, it’s never recommended for use during pregnancy and is also known to cause potential skin irritation like increased sun sensitivity, dryness, and redness. 

Now, we understand that reading about these potential health risks associated with a popular ingredient – especially one you may be utilizing often – may be a bit overwhelming or even scary at first, but we strongly believe that it’s important information to become aware of when making decisions that affect your health and well-being. Thankfully, for every potentially harmful ingredient in conventional skincare products (and beyond), there is typically a natural alternative.

Welcome to the scene: Rosehip Oil

Sweet, sweet, rosehip oil. Could she be a possible way to access all of the benefits of retinol without the potential health risks? She just might be. 

What is rosehip oil?

Rosehip oil is well, an oil. It gets extracted from the seed of the rosehip fruit, and is a natural carrier of some really impressive constituents:

• Essential fatty acids
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin C
• Beta-carotene
• Vitamin A 
• And lots of trans-retinoic acid

Thanks to the benefits listed above, rosehip oil has been shown to share many of the same skin-related perks as retinol, such as the ability to support collagen production, help with acne and hyperpigmentation, and smooth fine lines and wrinkles.

However, rosehip oil also supports skin barrier function while retinol doesn’t. It contains additional antioxidants like vitamin E while retinol doesn’t, and it’s safe to use daily unlike retinol.

While retinol and rosehip oil have many similar benefits when it comes to their ability to act as natural exfoliators, rosehip oil has a few very clear major advantages over retinol. To recap, it is all-natural, safe to use daily, contains essential fatty acids that play an important role in skin barrier function, and isn’t irritating or potentially harmful like retinol can be.

And alongside those physical benefits come some mental benefits from being able to rest assured that when you substitute retinol for rosehip, you won’t be doing any harm to your body.

We hope this article has been helpful to you and given you a better understanding of how rosehip compares to retinol. If you’d like to learn about more natural substitutes for synthetic skincare ingredients, look out for our next Self Care Sunday blog where we’ll be going over another botanical “dupes”. 

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