DR.DIFFERENT Retinal 1000 Signature Cream

What is this product?

DR.DIFFERENT markets this as the entry point of a three-strength retinaldehyde ladder, and the printed number is the only thing to go on: 0.1 percent retinal in a 20g cream, one step up from the brand's 0.05 percent version and one step below its 0.15 percent version. No brand test, no pH, and no consumer review count for this exact size could be found on any archived page; the brand's own product page for this SKU resolves instead to its stronger sibling. What is disclosed reads as a genuine barrier-support base underneath the retinaldehyde: shea butter, squalane, cholesterol and ceramide NP, which is the standard defensive formulation for a retinoid this fast-converting.

What is in it?

The full ingredient list as the brand publishes it, in the printed order. Each name links to what we know about that ingredient.

This brand publishes its ingredient list in Korean only. Names below are the matching INCI names from the Korean Cosmetic Association ingredient dictionary.

Key ingredient

• Water
• Cetyl Ethylhexanoate
• Glycerin
• Squalane
• Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil
• Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter
• Brassica Campestris (Rapeseed) Sterols
• Cholesterol
• Phytosteryl/Behenyl/Octyldodecyl Lauroyl Glutamate
• 1,2-Hexanediol
• Polyglyceryl-10 Oleate
• Sodium Hyaluronate
• Hydrogenated Lecithin
• Polyglutamic Acid
• Ceramide NP
• Retinal
• Stearic Acid
• Oleic Acid
• Tocopherol
• Adenosine
• Disodium EDTA

Ingredients with no mark are ones we found nothing notable about, and when marks overlap on one ingredient we show the caution first.

We could not place these in the list above: Oleic Acid, Retinal

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked the one line this product advertises against the ingredient list and public documents. None of them hold up. There is nothing behind them.

Claims translated from Korean, originals preserved.

Each line is quoted as the brand published it, and each one was read on its own against the ingredient list and the documents the brand publishes.

How we read these lines

What else is worth seeing?

Products we read alongside this one.

• DR.DIFFERENT Retinal 500 Signature CreamAnother product in the same category
• DR.DIFFERENT Retinal 1500 Signature CreamAnother product in the same category
• DR.DIFFERENT Secolzi 311 Moisture Barrier CreamAnother product in the same category

Which articles cover it?

Articles on this site that write about this product.

• Retinal is the rare trend word that arrives with a numberTwelve Korean labels put retinal on the front. All twelve print it in the ingredient list, and eleven print how much, which almost no trend word does.
• Squalane is not the oil your skin makes, and one study used it as the placeboSqualane is on 136 Korean labels and three print a level. It is a good emollient. It is also the arm a wrinkle trial used as its control.
• The retinoid night is the one that decides whether skin cycling worksPick the strength you can hold for eight weeks, not the one you can survive once. A rare three step Korean concentration ladder, read side by side.