I’ve seen this retinol night cream by Wishtrend everywhere since it was originally released. It’s got beautiful packaging and retinal seems to be the “big thing” in skincare now, so let’s try it out!
First off, I received this product for free from Picky and By Wishtrend in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
This is actually my first time trying anything with retinal/bakuchiol actually. I’m familiar with vitamin C products and had wanted to try retinal but I’d be lying to say I wasn’t a little apprehensive about starting.
Retinal is an ingredient that has now been linked with “well-aging” which I believe is the concept that promotes aging thoughtfully(?). Gone are the days when people are grasping at the newest cream that’s supposed to make you look younger, or make wrinkles disappear, and I like that. So we’re already off to a good start.
The packaging that the retinal night cream comes in is actually a beautiful colour scheme and I genuinely appreciate it so much. It’s this beautiful periwinkle blue base with a neon green/yellow highlight that works so well together.
My first thought, when I got this, was that it’s pretty small compared to other creams I got. Maybe it’s because it’s a retinal product, and it’s supposed to be small but I was a little taken aback at first. What was most interesting to me, is that this is one of those airless pump bottles. The pump part is actually pretty big in comparison to others like it, but it works well.
The cream itself is actually this wacky neon yellow/green colour, similar to the accent colours on this product. It’s a bit thick but spreadable, kind of like room-temperature butter actually but less greasy. And it has a bit of a herbal smell to it, not too strong but it’s there.
Fun tidbit: the yellow colour of the retinal cream kind of stains stuff like a tissue or face mask. I had a situation where I left the house before washing my skincare off. When I remembered to wash my skincare off, I changed my mask as well and my blue mask turned a little green/was greasy in some spots too lol.
Now everyone is going to have different routines when it comes to retinal, and using this cream. I’m personally a scaredy cat and started off using it once a week (after the initial skin test), and then continued to use it twice a week. Nothing more than that, but according to the product description, after twice a week for 2 weeks, you can up it to three times a week for two weeks and so forth.
As for results, I genuinely was not expecting too much. I’m only 22 and I’ve occasionally dabbled in some anti-wrinkle eye creams so it’s not like I have wrinkles to monitor. However, the look of my pores, especially around my nose, saw some visible differences. They are less noticeable and don’t appear as much when makeup is applied so I’m pleased with these results after using retinal.
One thing I was worried about with retinal was my skin reacting to it. On my first day using it, I did feel a bit tingly but nothing else since then. It is marketed to be beginner friendly and gentle though, so your mileage may vary.
Unfortunately, I did find one area of this retinal cream that I didn’t like as much. This is really greasy. I have combination skin, leaning more on the oily side and when I wake up I look and feel very oily. It gives me the deja vu of the days before I started my skincare journey. Additionally, with how greasy this cream was, it was not that moisturizing at least for me.
I’m not sure if you’re supposed to use another cream on top but I did after the first week. After washing off the skincare from the night before, my skin actually felt a little dehydrated compared to when I was using my regular skincare. So just to be on the safe side, I waited 30mins after using this cream to put another moisturizer on top and it helped.
It’s not something that would tank my opinion of this cream itself, but I think I could do without the greasy finish in the future. Overall, if you’re in the market for retinal/bakuchiol I highly recommend trying this! It’s marketed as beginner friendly, is already travel sized and fairly easy to use.
