-
Hydroquinone and Tretinoin
Anyone have an update about the use of hydroquinone and tretinoin in the US for astringents?
-
6 Replies
-
I never expected hydroquinone and tretinoin to appear in the same sentence as astringent.
Can you clarify? As far as I am aware, hydroquinone is used as a skin bleaching agent (banned in a number of countries) and tretinoin is a drug for the treatment of acne.
-
@johnb in the ASEAN market there exists liquid preparations that are used as peeling toners containing HQ and tret. These can be bought without any prescription from a medical practitioner. I was wondering if this is the same case in the US and in EU.
-
I am very surprised that potentially powerful drugs such as these are used for this purpose.
You state these can be bought “without any prescription from a medical practitioner”. Well, whether with a prescription or not, that puts them outside the field of being cosmetics.
I have just made a quick Google of these two materials in a mixture - most of the previously available products are discontinued or reformulated. I doubt there is any chance that rules will be relaxed in EU or USA.
-
I do know that they are not an approved combination in the US. Hydroquinone at less than 2% is an OTC Drug for Skin Lightening. Tretinoin (a very specific compound different from retinol) is a “legend” drug and requires a prescription.
-
Thank you for your inputs. I guess I have to convince my boss to move on from this combination and try new materials.
-
I’d suggest an AHA and/or BHA with Trehalose.
(Warning: really bad pun and old movie reference - What is the Three Stooges favorite cosmetic raw material? Trehalose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGtMwU8wDmc )
Log in to reply.