Name: CeraVe Skin Renewing Retinol Serum
Brand: CeraVe
Rating: 86.0 (7 reviews)

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What the gurus are saying.

Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.

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Dr. Aleksandra Brown

104k subs · 4k devotees

✓Approved

"If you're somebody just starting, you may want to consider CeraVe Skin Renewing Retinol Serum. It's a really good starting point."

Top Pick: beginner retinoid

All 3 takes from Dr. Aleksandra Brown

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"If you have more sensitive skin or you're new to retinoids, this is a really good place to start. It uses that encapsulated retinol, which means it's going to be more slowly released and less irritating to the skin. Less irritation means you're going to get better anti-aging benefits because you're more likely to use it. I really like this option because it's lightweight, easy to layer, and it's very focused on barrier support. This is a really good choice if you want to be consistent with retinoids without dealing with a lot of dryness, peeling, or irritation."

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"If you've never used a retinoid before, this is hands-down one of my favorite places to start. The biggest reason people quit retinol early isn't that it doesn't work, it's that they get hit with way too much irritation too fast, and they give up. CeraVe designed this formula specifically to prevent that. The retinol is encapsulated, which means it's released gradually over time instead of all at once. So, you're getting steady, consistent benefits without the irritation spike that scares most beginners off. It's also paired with ceramides to reinforce your skin barrier, niacinamide to calm redness, and hyaluronic acid for hydration. That combination right there is so thoughtful because barrier disruption is exactly what leads to that peeling, burning, tight feeling, and this formula is built to get ahead of that. It's also under 25 bucks and available at any drugstore, which makes it a genuinely really low-risk first step."

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"If you're somebody just starting, you may want to consider CeraVe Skin Renewing Retinol Serum. It's a really good starting point."

Sincerely Miss Ash

194k subs · 3k devotees

✓Approved

"This is a great affordable option for those that want to keep things budget friendly. This is also a great option for those that have sensitive skin or if you're a beginner to the retinol world. It's a great intro product. This has an encapsulated retinol, which means that this has more of a gentle approach, even more gentle than just regular retinol. Anything that is encapsulated will have more of that slower delivery system into the skin, which means it's going to be more gentle for you. I would definitely recommend that if you're a beginner and then as your skin adjusts to the retinol, then move up to something a little bit stronger. But I also like this one because it has hyaluronic acid to hydrate the skin, and there's also three essential ceramides to help repair and keep that skin barrier nice and strong. Plus, ceramides help to prevent water loss. So, it keeps the moisture in the skin to keep the skin more comfortable when you're using retinol. And this is a 30 ml size. It's fragrance-free."

Dr. Daniel Sugai

716k subs · 23k devotees

~Mixed

"The CeraVe Skin Renewing Retinol Serum is good, it has the hyaluronic acid and encapsulated retinol, but I like the resurfacing Retinol Serum more than the skin renewing one. I feel like the texture is better on my skin with the resurfacing one, so I use that one more often than this one. You only need a pea-size amount for your entire face, so just a pump on your fingertip, break it up into dots on your face, connect the dots, and that will be all you need. If you put more than that you will get a dry peeling face or even red and swollen, so really be careful. After applying, apply your moisturizing lotion."

Dr Dray

2.66M subs · 34k devotees

✓Approved

"This is one of my favorites, the CeraVe Skin Renewing Retinol Serum. It has hyaluronic acid which is hydrating and helps combat the dryness. It's a really effective retinol. It has niacinamide which also helps with the redness and irritation that you might develop with getting used to the retinol. It has ceramides which are good for the moisture barrier."

All 2 takes from Dr Dray

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"This is one of my favorites, the CeraVe Skin Renewing Retinol Serum. It has hyaluronic acid which is hydrating and helps combat the dryness. It's a really effective retinol. It has niacinamide which also helps with the redness and irritation that you might develop with getting used to the retinol. It has ceramides which are good for the moisture barrier."

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"Their skin renewing Retinol Serum is great if you're looking for an affordable effective retinol formula."

Dr. Somji Skin

356k subs

✓Approved

"There's actually niacinamide in there and niacinamide is great for all sorts of things: reducing redness, reducing pigmentation, reducing acne, well absolutely everything. So if you're going to put it in a product, fantastic. They've got their encapsulated ceramide MVE technology which they always talk about and it's kind of behind most of their success, which is fantastic. Using this retinol when I've tested it on the back of my hand, I think it's fantastic. It's something that can really help. They talk about dimethicone and the use of it, and it's a silicone that helps with skin softness and coverage without making things heavy, which is what makes a product feel quite nice. They really justify their use of it. I will always say it's not bad for the skin and it's definitely in so many other skin products, but if you're going to be building it up, limiting the amount of dimethicone in your layered skincare is going to be important. Also there's the impact on your environment. So the dimethicone is definitely not bad, but if you care about the world maybe don't use it so much, and if you're layering a lot of products you just have to limit the amount that you're using because you're going to gather debris, especially if you're acne prone."

All 3 takes from Dr. Somji Skin

CeraVe Skin Renewing RETINOL | Best Anti-ageing serum? | Dr. Somji Reviews

"There's niacinamide in there, and it's a great product for all sorts of things: reducing redness, reducing pigmentation, reducing acne. They've got their encapsulated ceramide MVE technology which is behind most of their success. Using this retinol, I've tested it on the back of my hand and I think it's fantastic. It's something that can really help. They use dimethicone, which is silicone that helps with skin softness and coverage without making things heavy, and that's what makes a product feel quite nice. It's not bad for the skin and it's definitely in so many other skin products. That said, if you're going to be building it up, limiting the amount of dimethicone in your layered skincare is important, especially if you're acne prone, because you're going to gather debris."

CeraVe Skin Renewing RETINOL | Best Anti-ageing serum? | Dr. Somji Reviews

"CeraVe is a brand that really has broken boundaries mainly because what they've done is make sure that they get everything right and also they justify what they do. It's something that will maintain things. If you're in a restorative, reparative protocol, then CeraVe is fantastic. You can use it as a building block and then you can add major actives within it and it can be combined with other brands quite nicely."

CeraVe Skincare | Complete Skincare Product Guide and Review By Dr. Somji

"There's actually niacinamide in there and niacinamide is great for all sorts of things: reducing redness, reducing pigmentation, reducing acne, well absolutely everything. So if you're going to put it in a product, fantastic. They've got their encapsulated ceramide MVE technology which they always talk about and it's kind of behind most of their success, which is fantastic. Using this retinol when I've tested it on the back of my hand, I think it's fantastic. It's something that can really help. They talk about dimethicone and the use of it, and it's a silicone that helps with skin softness and coverage without making things heavy, which is what makes a product feel quite nice. They really justify their use of it. I will always say it's not bad for the skin and it's definitely in so many other skin products, but if you're going to be building it up, limiting the amount of dimethicone in your layered skincare is going to be important. Also there's the impact on your environment. So the dimethicone is definitely not bad, but if you care about the world maybe don't use it so much, and if you're layering a lot of products you just have to limit the amount that you're using because you're going to gather debris, especially if you're acne prone."

No BS Beauty

89k subs · 2k devotees

✓Approved

"The ones from CeraVe are really good. The Skin Renewing Retinol Serum or the Resurfacing Retinol Serum, they're both good and very affordable."

Dr. Jenny Liu

315k subs · 6k devotees

✓Approved

"It contains encapsulated retinol that enhances delivery but it reduces irritation, also along with ceramides, hyaluronic acid, and niacinamide, so all great ingredients to support the skin barrier and reduce irritation. I certainly love this one and have definitely used this retinol all over my face, but sometimes I would use it as my retinol eye cream, and I've used it around my eyes, around my neck, and I have not had any issues. I definitely feel CeraVe has probably one of the most gentle retinols that you can find, and definitely one that I think most individuals with sensitive and rosacea-prone skin can use and tolerate with minimal irritation."

Top Pick: gentle drugstore retinol

All 2 takes from Dr. Jenny Liu

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"CeraVe has probably one of the most gentle drugstore retinols that you can find and definitely one that I think most individuals with sensitive and or rosacea prone skin can use and tolerate with minimal irritation. This one has a little bit more moisturizing property so great for those with more sensitive and dry skin. I certainly love this one and have definitely used this retinol all over my face but sometimes I would use it as my retinol eye cream and this one I've used around my eyes around my neck and I have not had any issues."

Dermatologist's favorite Retinols for Sensitive Skin

"It contains encapsulated retinol that enhances delivery but it reduces irritation, also along with ceramides, hyaluronic acid, and niacinamide, so all great ingredients to support the skin barrier and reduce irritation. I certainly love this one and have definitely used this retinol all over my face, but sometimes I would use it as my retinol eye cream, and I've used it around my eyes, around my neck, and I have not had any issues. I definitely feel CeraVe has probably one of the most gentle retinols that you can find, and definitely one that I think most individuals with sensitive and rosacea-prone skin can use and tolerate with minimal irritation."