Miracle 10 Retinol Treatment 30 Review

Disclosure:  Product provided for review.  All opinions are my own.

The very first time I can remember hearing about retinoids was back in the 1980's, in an article that talked about Cher's love for Retin-A.  Fast forward 30 years, and retinoids have been on the scene long enough to amass a fair amount of evidence to support their use for:

• minimizing the appearance of wrinkles
• slowing down the breakdown of collagen
• bolstering skin thickness
• lightening brown spots
• fighting acne

There's not a single thing on that list that I couldn't benefit from, so I was quite happy to try Miracle 10's Retinol Treatment 30, developed by The Plastic Surgery Clinic in Toronto, Ontario.  Retinol Treatment 30 contains 0.30% retinol to produce cell turnover and Defensil Plus, a proprietary blend of oils and botanical extracts for skin repair.  There are also Vitams E, A, C and B in the mix to help soothe and hydrate skin.

I've been using Retinol Treatment 30 for 7 weeks now, so thought it was time for a review!  I'm just a tad over halfway through the bottle, and that's using 3 pumps for each application.  I started with every other night initially, and then worked up to consecutive nightly use for 4-5 days at a time.  If my skin started feeling too dry or flaky, I would take a day or two off from using.  I did apply once (by accident due to lack of attention) to my under eye area, and it did promptly peel.  I'm kind of okay with that, as my under eye area is where most of my wrinkles are.  However, I'm pretty sure you are not supposed to apply to the eye area :-)

Considering I was using Retinol Treatment 30 during the coldest time of the year when my skin is drier than it usually is, I've got to say that my skin still tolerated this well.  One note about the consistency:  there is a slight grit to the formula that is evident when you first apply.  You can see a bit of it in the photo below, but since it's for night time use, it wasn't really an issue.

After 7 weeks of use, my skin is noticeably smoother.  I tend to experience regular breakouts on my temple area, and those were diminished and my pores overall look smaller.  I also have sebaceous hyperplasia, with under the skin bumps as a result.  I was actually prescribed Retin-A years ago when I was first diagnosed, but never renewed my prescription once it ran out.  While retinoids do not cure sebaceous hyperplasia, they do seem to help, and I'm happy that there are now non-prescription retinoids available in a high enough concentration to see results, but with skin soothing ingredients to help minimize the flaking.

Retinol Treatment 30 is the lowest concentration of the Miracle 10 formulations, with Retinol Treatment 60 and Retinol Treatment 90 versions also available.  It took several weeks of use before I noticed skin turnover in the form of flaking and peeling.  I did not experience any burning or tingling sensation, but that could be because I was using another retinol product prior to this, so my skin is already a bit conditioned to retinoids.  Overall, I'm quite pleased with the Retinol Treatment 30 and would consider using the Retinol Treatment 60 next to help with the sebaceous hyperplasia.  To be quite honest, I'm not really sure how you purchase this as I'm not seeing a price or link on the Miracle 10 site, but I'm sure you could email them to inquire.

Update:  I found out that the Retinol Treatment 30 is currently out of stock due to high demand, but it retails for $82 and should be available again in the near future.  The Retinol Treatment 60 ($87) is in stock.