Ten Weeks of Bakuchiol, and I Went Back to Tretinoin Twice a Week

Forty-four dollars, one dropper bottle, and a cheek I photographed every Sunday morning since June 21 in front of the same north-facing window in my Ann Arbor apartment, and on week 10 I stood there with the tretinoin tube back in my other hand. Same window. Same cheek. Different plan. The stakes were my face in my brother's wedding album next June and a skin barrier that tretinoin kept flattening. On 0.025 percent tretinoin, 3 nights a week, my cheeks flaked 5 days outta 7, stung every time serum touched 'em, and went pink on any walk below 40 degrees. My burn log from March and April, still in my notes app, has 19 entries with words like "raw" and "cancel the run." The retinol alternative every shelf kept pushing, bakuchiol, promised the same results with none of that. After 10 weeks of photos I can tell you the exact number bakuchiol moved, the thing it would not touch at all, and why the compromise schedule taped inside my medicine cabinet has the prescription tube back on it twice a week.

the June 21 baseline, north window

Method, because photos lie without rules. Every Sunday, 9 a.m., washed face, no product, no filter, north window, 3 shots: full face, right cheek close, left cheek close. Eleven Sundays, June 21 thru August 30. The comparison photo for this article is the right cheek shot, 11 of 'em, same framing, and I did not miss a single Sunday even on the camping weekend in July, which my wife photographed for proof.

the burn log, 19 entries

Tretinoin history, from the log. Began January at 0.025 percent, 3 nights a week, prescribed at a $15 telehealth visit. Results by April were real: the blackhead cluster on my nose down from 8 visible to 5 under a magnifying mirror, fine lines around my eyes softer, texture honestly smoother. Costs were real too. Entries like "flaked through a client call" and "cheeks pink for 36 hours after a 30-minute walk" and one that just says "ow" dated April 3. A $12 moisturizer stung. The prescription worked, and I was flaking 5 days a week.

the $44 bottle from the clean shelf

The bakuchiol serum cost $44 at the natural foods co-op on Fourth Avenue, 1 percent bakuchiol, squalane base, dropper top, a vegan seal on the box. Zero fragrance. The label promised retinol-like results "without irritation" and cited no studies, which I did not think about til week 8, cuz the bottle felt expensive and the checkout line felt persuasive.

weeks 1 and 2: nothing, on schedule

Weeks 1 and 2 delivered exactly what the patient threads said they would: nothing. No flaking, no stinging, no glow, no change my fingers could find. Sunday photos, weeks 1 and 2: identical to baseline. That part was anticipated, since skin turnover runs on a cycle of about 4 weeks and nothin' visible changes in 14 days. I almost quit in week 2 anyway. I did not, cuz the bottle was $44 and I am stubborn about receipts.

week 4: blackheads, 8 down to 5

Week 4 was the first real movement. The nose cluster went from 5 visible, where tretinoin had parked it in April, to... 5. Still 5. The right cheek pores looked tighter in the close-up, and the flaking was zero, and the stinging was zero, and my wife said my face looked "calmer," her word, unsolicited. I wrote "finally" in the log at 9:40 a.m. on July 19. Correction: I wrote "finally" because somethin' was happening, even if the blackheads had not moved.

the Sunday photo ritual

The ritual never moved: same window, 9 a.m., washed face, 3 photos, 11 Sundays. Side by side at week 6, the bakuchiol difference read as texture and tone, not lines. Smoother, slightly. Less pink, evidently, tho almost anything reads less pink than a retinoid-irritated baseline. The photos could not answer the wrinkle question, so week 8 answered it for them.

week 8: what it would not touch

Week 8 was the honest accounting. The 11-lines under my eyes, the ones tretinoin had started softening in March, had not moved a measurable step in 8 bakuchiol Sundays. The crow's feet on the right side, same. Nose blackheads: 5, exactly where April left 'em. Bakuchiol had cleaned up texture, calmed the pink, and stopped the flaking altogether, and it was not gonna do the deeper work the prescription had started. The label cited nothin'. Week 8 told me why.

the pharmacist's flat answer

I asked our pharmacist about it while picking up her refill, and he had no bottle to sell me either way. Flat summary: bakuchiol trials are modest, mostly 8 to 12 weeks, frequently company-run, and in the one decent head-to-head he knew, tretinoin won wrinkles outright and approximately tied on pigmentation. His verdict, near verbatim: "Gentler, yes. Equivalent, no." That matched my 11 photos exactly, which is a peculiar thing to say about a stranger and a matching set of zits.

the compromise schedule on a sticky note

The schedule took a week to settle and lives on a sticky note inside the medicine cabinet door. Tretinoin, 0.025 percent, Friday and Monday nights, buffered with moisturizer, sandwich method. Bakuchiol the other 5 nights, cuz my skin likes it and the calm holds. Flaking check after 2 weeks on the hybrid: 1 mornin' out of 7, down from 5. Stinging: none since the switch. Nose blackheads: 5, holding, which the Friday tretinoin nights appear to be covering.

the tube back in my hand

Sunday, September 13, 9 a.m., same north window, cheek photographed one last time, tretinoin tube already back on the counter next to the dropper bottle. Sticky note inside the cabinet: tretinoin Friday and Monday, bakuchiol the other 5. Flaking this week: 1 morning. Lines under my eye: unchanged since June. Pink: gone. That is the whole result, and it cost $59.