The best retinol for men to reclaim strong, youthful-looking skin
The secret weapon to revive tired, ageing skin, these are the best retinol serums for men
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A sad truth of getting older is that your skin starts to show its age if you don't take care of it. You can drink all the water, spend all the time outside exercising and eat all the skin-reviving superfoods you like, but unless you're adding a proper, rehydrating moisturiser with retinol in, you're fighting a losing battle. There's a reason your Jake Gyllenhaals and Brad Pitts have kept their youthful, smooth skin for all these years, and it's almost certainly down to a good skincare routine that includes this wonder ingredient.
Before you go and hunt for the fountain of youth in a Superdrug store, take some time to learn what retinoids are, how they can help your skin routine, and which products are going to work best for your situation.
GQ's best retinol for men at a glance…
The products below have been tested by our grooming editors in-house. We test them on a range of skin colours, types, ages and genders so we can recommend which will work for you. Each tester then collects opinions to present to you, the reader. Elsewhere, we've perused online forums like Reddit or review forums to help us figure out what customers are actually buying.
We take all our guides very seriously, and we only want to recommend the best products for you and your face. Therefore, we trial each product before it lands on any article for you to read. Senior Commerce Writer, Owen Gough, has been working on British GQ's grooming content for three years now, assessing a range of price points and capabilities.
Shop GQ's best retinol for men to buy…
Best overall retinol serum
- Retinol strength: 0.02%
- Skin type: Sensitive skin
A list highlighting top-tier skincare products could only ever feature a Kiehl's option, right? Instead of overloading your skin with too much retinol too quickly, this easy-to-use daily micro-dose serum gently introduces the skin's surface to retinol, peptides and ceramides, the holy trinity of skin rejuvenation, allowing the cells to absorb and repair. Users report that their skin feels more vibrant, stronger and firmer after just a few weeks of use.
The micro-dose formula also helps to speed up the effectiveness of retinol, giving you results faster than options with a higher dollop of the super ingredient. For those with sensitive skin, this is perfect, as it reduces the chance of irritation and dry skin and gets you right into the radiant, healthy part of your skincare routine.
Best affordable retinol serum
- Retinol strength: 0.5%
- Skin type: All skin types
CeraVe provides a cheap and cheerful approach to younger-looking skin with its resurfacing Retinol serum, a slow-acting hydrator that lasts all day, slowly encouraging cell growth while building a protective barrier against the effects of ageing.
It doubles up as an exfoliator, cleansing the skin before preparing to renew dying, flaky skin, giving you a solid platform to add additional hydrators or SPFs for supreme protection. CeraVe is a British GQ favourite as it's kind to all skin types, is non-greasy and cruelty-free.
Best night cream with retinol
- Retinol strength: 1%
- Skin type: Oily, dry, normal, and combination skin
E.l.f. Cosmetics is a fun-loving brand that produces a staggering number of deeply nourishing skincare products, but its 1% retinol night serum is a superb way to rehydrate while you sleep. Efficiency is the key to simple skincare for men.
After just six weeks of use, you'll wake up with radiant, renewed cheeks and eyes thanks to the hyaluronic acid-infused serum that aids your skin's cells in retaining moisture for longer and gives you that plump, rosy complexion that you remember from your youth. Friendly to all users, this serum is cheap, effective and ready to help out.
Best retinol serum for most men
- Retinol strength: 0.5%
- Skin type: All skin types
French brand Horace has a deep vault of man-friendly skincare products, but its Bio-Retinol serum is a great grab for combating wrinkles thanks to its inclusion of argireline peptides, which infuse your skin with the strength to bounce back and smooth over those fine lines that are creeping up around your mouth and under your eyes.
The brand claims that eight weeks of use will reduce dark spots and blemishes, soften your skin and return it to its former glory. It comes in an easy-to-apply pipette and can be used morning and night.
Best retinol serum for acne
- Retinol strength: 0.5%
- Skin type: All skin types
No list of skincare products would be complete without a quality option from Murad. This moisturising night cream is a great way to prepare your skin for the day ahead, with a patented triple-retinol-infused formula that diminishes blemishes, smooths over lines and eliminates acne. A blend of niacinamide and dipeptide protects the skin barrier function, all while encouraging regrowth to bring a radiance to your skin.
Retinol fast-release wrinkle-reducing night serum
- Retinol strength: 0.3%
- Skin type: All skin types
Sometimes you just need a fast-acting injection of youth to blast away the wrinkles. Kiehl's has you covered with the fast-release night serum that features a 0.3 per cent retinol infusion, partnered with Kiehl's unique formula, which hydrates, protects and rebuilds without leaving residue or becoming too greasy.
If you're deep in the rabbit hole of skincare, this serum also helps to train your skin to absorb peptides and retinol even more efficiently, so the more you use it, the greater your overall results will be.
Crystal Retinal
- Retinol strength: (six strength serums available)
- Skin type: All skin types
Medik8's crystal retinal serum is so popular that it's won multiple awards for its age-defying stats. The night cream boasts a supercharged retinaldehyde cocktail that's been clinically proven to speed up the regeneration process by 11 times faster than standard retinol.
Even better is that Medik8 knows that not all faces are made the same, so it's produced a scale of strength depending on your needs, from beginner skincare enjoyers right up to veteran youth-hunters.
Eve Lom Radiance Repair Retinol Serum
- Retinol strength: 0.5%
- Skin type: All skin types
Sometimes the best options are just the most expensive. Eve Lom's Radiance Repair serum is pricey but works to protect your skin's delicate microbiome with skin-friendly ingredients (via prebiotic oat kernel ferment), while also enhancing the buoyancy and strength of the cells underneath (through liposome-encapsulated retinol).
The formula will gently encourage regrowth and bolster the skin's defences, adding strength and power, while reducing fine lines and pesky signs of ageing. Its gentle nature is long-lasting, stretching 72 hours after application, so add this product slowly to your routine and watch as your radiance returns.
Retinol Correxion Wrinkle Correct Night Cream
- Retinol strength: 0.5%
- Skin type: All skin types
ROC's night cream is best applied after your evening shower, before you snuggle down to sleep, working through the night to rouse your skin's cells so you wake up with smoother, stronger skin. After four weeks of use, ROC claims you'll enjoy a noticeably more buoyant face with fewer fine lines that creep in from frowning.
ROC takes great care to only bring its best products to market, so it remains one of the only brands to hold one-year clinical trials to create retinol creams that offer long-lasting results. Just remember to pop on an SPF moisturiser and hydrate when you wake up in the morning.
The Ordinary Retinol 1%
- Retinol strength: 1%
- Skin type: All skin types
One of the more potent retinol serums on our list, The Ordinary's 1% boasts a high-strength concoction – that also features squalane, another potent skin-kind ingredient – to supercharge your cells' regeneration. As a result, it should round out your skin's texture, smooth off fine lines and draw in strength. Many testers notice almost instant hydration and, over time, a reduction in blemishes, acne and dry, irritated skin, too.
You may not have recognised your gifts as a whimsical youth, but your skin's cells rejuvenate every month to keep their elasticity and wrinkle-free glow. Over the age of 30, though, your cells lose that urgency and start to repair significantly slower than they did – should have enjoyed it while it lasted, right? This is where wrinkles, fine lines and duller skin become more obvious, but luckily, there is a remedy to this.
Clinic Lead at Face the Future, Kimberley Medd, explains, “Whilst there are many buzzy skincare ingredients (Vitamin C, AHAs, Azelaic Acid etc), Retinol is the most proven ingredient for increasing collagen production, smoothing fine lines and wrinkles, improving skin tone and texture and minimising acne and clogged pores.”
Many skincare experts recommend the use of retinol as you age to inject some vigour into your skin's cells, speeding up the repair process, smoothing over those lines and bringing back that buoyancy you enjoyed as a youth.
It's a member of the vitamin A family that kickstarts your skin's replenishment. There are many forms of retinoid on the market, so it's worth speaking to a dermatologist to find out which will be best for your situation, but there are many options to tackle acne, wrinkles and fine lines. Retinol is a slow-releasing agent that seeps into the skin throughout the day, training the cells to clear out pores and fire up the cell reproduction process, shielding your face from further degradation if used over a prolonged time.
Isn't it a shame that men feel like they can't engage with the broad world of beauty? Of course men can use retinol. It's the latest buzzword in skincare, and is largely marketed to women for its wrinkle-reducing powers, but men can maintain a youthful look using the same products, and we encourage you to pick up a proper skincare routine since you ask. When your mates are all looking aged and sagging, you'll be the one who still looks 30.
Of course, men's skin is typically thicker and has a harder time absorbing ingredients compared to women's, but that hurdle is hardly a reason not to take care of your face. Diligent, consistent use of skincare products can and does work, so you should absolutely be using retinol if you're hoping to fight the signs of ageing.
Retinol will work wonders for your skin's health, but there are some side effects to using it. As it's encouraging your skin's cells to shed the older versions of themselves, you'll can experience flaky skin, dryness and irritation when you first start up. Ahead of introducing any new product to your skincare routine, you should chat to a dermatologist about whether it's right for you.
These downsides will subside once your skin adjusts to the new routine, and you'll certainly notice a difference once you break through that initial tough period. To start using it, we recommend you introduce it slowly, daily. For example, adding a tiny bit to your face washing routine each morning after you've thoroughly cleaned your skin, or whatever your specific product's brand recommends.
Afterwards, add a potent SPF moisturiser, as retinol will make your skin more susceptible to UV rays, undoing all your hard work in clearing the pores.
