Glow Lab Age Renew Retinol* Booster Oil

*No real retinol inside

Glow Lab Age Renew might have the word retinol, but it contains bakuchiol, which is not the same as retinol. This is a New Zealand brand, which you can read more about it on their website. Retinol is good stuff for skin care, my go to Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair eye cream contains retinol. Primary source of retinol is animal products, because vitamin A itself is fat soluble. So if you are looking for a plant source, you may have to go to bakuchiol.

What is Bakuchiol?

As you know, there are many forms of vitamin A, and retinol is one of the active forms. You can’t compare it with tretinoin, which is 20 times stronger. Adapalene is a 3rd generation retinoid derivative, which is more stable than tretinoin. You can get laboratory made retinoids, but if you want to be sure….

Bakuchiol comes from Psoralea corylifolia, or babchi. It has always been a popular plant in Ayurvedic and Chinese traditional medicine, but mainly orally. Some genius found and isolated bakuchiol, and research has been done to compare it against retinol. The researches are promising, a twice daily application of 0.5% bakuchiol is comparable to 0.5% daily of retinol products. That being said, we are comparing only with retinol.

Why call itself retinol booster oil then?

I guess it is because people are familiar with the word retinol, and the miracles it can perform. Companies are trying to tap into the vegan market, and bakuchiol is a good answer. Here is something that is comparable to animal source Retinol, isn’t it great?

Does it work?

Even though helps with my smiling grooves and forehead wrinkles, I do not like this. Glow Lab Age Renew Booster oil is mainly sunflower oil, with some rosehip and marula seed oil. The bakuchiol component is not much, it actually sits on the below rosehip oil. I got this in a Beauty Heaven trial box, so I cannot complain much, but I will not buy this knowingly. First of all, it gave me acne. My combination skin cannot handle more oil, and so out pops a few pimples. I do only use 1-2 drops, instead of 2-3 per recommendation. I also use it with Weleda facial cream, because it is easier to absorb (for me).

Verdict

Do I think it works? Yes.

Is it for me? No.

But if you are interested to give bakuchiol a run, Amazon has Bakuchiol Facial Serum that is made in America. The concentration is also higher than this Glow Lab one, and they use plant-based squalene as a base. However, I am not that keen on Glow Lab one, despite its promising effectiveness.

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