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Some firsts you never forget: kisses, jobs, and tretinoin. Yes, that inaugural time you slather on prescription retinol is one that sticks with you — mostly because it often brings torture along with it in the form of redness and flakiness. My experience came along at age 25 when I was desperate to banish my adult-onset acne.
Although the results six weeks later were remarkable, I swore off tretinoin for four years due to inflammation. However, Agency Future Formula with Tretinoin reunited me with the retinol about eight months ago. Stress and constant mask-wearing brought my breakouts back with a vengeance and nothing seemed to be helping. I needed to call in the big guns.
Venturing out into the world to see a dermatologist for a tretinoin prescription terrified me. Health anxiety has plagued me for as long as I can remember, and I am prone to having panic attacks when I go to a doctor's appointment. Needless to say, I put it off for months — that is, until the opportunity to try Agency came up.
Agency provides you with a dermatologist appointment on your own time without leaving your couch or having face-to-face interaction. You fill out a quick online form detailing your complexion concerns, current skin-care routine, and medical history — all the typical parts of a visit to the dermatologist. Everything is easy to navigate while being incredibly inclusive, respectful, and private. You'll send in photos of your skin for your provider to review too.
From there, a dermatology provider will be assigned to you and they will create an extremely detailed treatment plan for you, complete with prescription tretinoin sent right to your door along with a recommended skin-care routine. You can even message them whenever you want with any questions or concerns.
But Agency's prescription tretinoin isn't simply the beloved vitamin A derivative, which increases skin cell turnover and stimulates collagen synthesis, according to Sheila Farhang, a board-certified dermatologist in Arizona. It's a custom-compounded formula with ingredients specific to your complexion's cravings, like niacinamide and tranexamic acid, while keeping the retinol from irritating your skin. Every month, the percentage of each may change and ingredients may be added and subtracted. Agency basically provides you with an all-in-one serum that changes as your skin improves. It's like having a dermatologist and cosmetic chemist at your fingertips, which is my dream come true.
My Future Formula, as Agency calls it, packs 0.035 percent tretinoin alongside 1 percent of dexpanthenol, also known as provitamin B5, to moisturize skin while reducing transdermal water loss. It's joined by 5 percent of my recent favorite ingredient: tranexamic acid, a gentle dark-spot treatment that wards off post-inflammation hyperpigmentation. And last but not least, niacinamide, a.k.a. vitamin B3, makes the ingredient list with a 4 percent concentration.
It "works with your skin's natural chemistry to improve overall skin texture by rebuilding a lipid layer, minimizing the appearance of pores, and preventing UV damage and inflammation as an antioxidant," Brandith Irwin, a board-certified dermatologist based in Seattle, has told Allure.
Every night — after cleansing and spritzing on my favorite essence — I spread one pump of the creamy, buttery-yellow Future Formula all over my face. Straight away, you can tell the serum is not going to suck the moisture out of your skin because its rich texture spreads on a layer of hydration without feeling like you're undergoing a painful chemical peel. Plus, I love that it doesn't have the overwhelming, chemical smell that retinol tends to have. I simply layer a moisturizer on top and I'm free to get my beauty sleep.
Within a week, I noticed my skin clearing up, smoothing out, and getting brighter without any flakes or redness like my first retinol experience. Every month, I look forward to the arrival of my new bottle of Future Formula. And the list of friends and family I've recommended it to keeps growing. My sister Taylor has even become an avid fan of Agency and she's a tougher skin-care critic than I am.
Intrigued by Agency? Head over to withagency.com to see what all the hype is about. And after you're done here, check out all of our 2021 Allure Best of Beauty Award winners. (The entire list is well worth the read.)
More on Best of Beauty:
- See All of the 2021 Best of Beauty Award Winners
- The Best of Beauty-Winning Skin-Care Products of 2021
- The Best of Beauty-Winning Luxury Beauty Products of 2021
Now, see a stuntwoman's entire beauty routine in action:
