Retinyl Retinoate

What is retinyl retinoate?

Retinyl retinoate is a hybrid vitamin A derivative created by forming an ester bond between retinol and retinoic acid (R).

Is retinyl retinoate stable?

Retinyl retinoate was designed to improve upon retinol, which becomes unstable when exposed to sunlight, heat, oxygen, lipid peroxidation and water. It has been demonstrated to be less photosensitive than both retinol and retinyl palmitate, showing no decomposition or degradation even after 48 hours of exposure to UVA radiation. It also remained relatively stable when kept at room temperature and at 40°C for 1 month, unlike retinol which was degraded rapidly under these conditions (R).

Does retinyl retinoate get absorbed?

Retinyl retinoate has a relatively small molecular weight of 568.87 Daltons, and it is lipid soluble like both of its parent molecules (R). This suggests that it should be able to penetrate the stratum corneum of the skin, and this was validated in an experiment where retinyl retinoate was detected in the stratum corneum, epidermis and dermis 6 hours after being applied on human skin (R).

Encapsulating retinyl retinoate in microspheres enhanced its penetration to the deeper layers of the skin by close to 8 times (R). Retinyl retinoate can also be loaded onto cosmetic microneedle patches that release it into the skin when the microneedles dissolve (R).

What happens after retinyl retinoate is absorbed?

Retinyl retinoate can be hydrolysed to form retinol and retinoic acid, but its biological effects are due to its own actions in the skin, rather than those of retinol or retinoic acid (R).