CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol Serum Review

Who it is for

It is the best affordable retinol for beginners in our retinol guide. Here is who it suits:

The version we reviewed

Reviews of this serum often describe another country’s bottle and directions, or CeraVe’s other retinol serum. This one covers the bottle sold in the US today, and every ingredient fact below comes from its US list.

CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol Serum ingredients, mapped

The full list, in the order it is printed, colored by what each ingredient does. The line falls at the preservative: from there down, everything is used at about 1% or less. New to reading a list? Start with our guide to reading an ingredients list.

The full list, as CeraVe prints it: AQUA/WATER/EAU, PROPANEDIOL, DIMETHICONE, CETEARYL ETHYLHEXANOATE, NIACINAMIDE, AMMONIUM POLYACRYLOYLDIMETHYL TAURATE, DIPOTASSIUM GLYCYRRHIZATE, HYDROGENATED LECITHIN, POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, CERAMIDE NP, CERAMIDE AP, CERAMIDE EOP, CARBOMER, CETEARYL ALCOHOL, BEHENTRIMONIUM METHOSULFATE, DIMETHICONOL, LECITHIN, SODIUM CITRATE, RETINOL, SODIUM HYALURONATE, SODIUM LAUROYL LACTYLATE, CHOLESTEROL, PHENOXYETHANOL, ALCOHOL, ISOPROPYL MYRISTATE, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, CITRIC ACID, TRISODIUM ETHYLENEDIAMINE DISUCCINATE, PENTYLENE GLYCOL, PHYTOSPHINGOSINE, XANTHAN GUM, POLYSORBATE 20, ETHYLHEXYLGLYCERIN.

Retinol percentage: not stated, and 19th of 33 is not a strength

Retinol sits 19th of 33, after the ceramides and several thickeners and emulsifiers. Retinol in skin care is almost always 1% or less: the EU, which now caps it at 0.3% in face products, found the products on its market already within that (Regulation 2024/996). At 1% or less, the order is the brand’s choice. So the position tells you what is listed above the retinol, not how much of it you get.

The licorice on the front of the bottle

The bottle and CeraVe's page say “licorice root extract”. The list names no licorice extract. Its licorice ingredient is dipotassium glycyrrhizate, 7th on the list: a salt of glycyrrhizic acid, a compound that can be isolated from licorice (Cosmetic Ingredient Review, 2007). Animal studies suggest it calms inflammation (Leite, 2023). The licorice compounds studied for dark spots are different ones, such as glabridin, which cut UV-induced pigmentation on guinea pig skin in a study by Kanebo, a cosmetics company (Yokota, 1998). Neither glabridin nor a licorice extract is on this list, and every version of the list CeraVe has published since 2020 names the same licorice ingredient.

Niacinamide, ceramides and cholesterol

Niacinamide comes 5th on the list, but its place does not tell you how much is in it. In Procter & Gamble’s trials in Japanese women, a 5% niacinamide moisturizer lightened hyperpigmentation and a 2% niacinamide sunscreen lightened tanned skin, both compared with a plain base after four weeks (Hakozaki, 2002); CeraVe does not say how much this serum holds. The three ceramides (NP, AP and EOP, printed on the carton by their older names 3, 6-II and 1), cholesterol and phytosphingosine are lipids of the skin’s own barrier. In mouse skin, with early results in people, ceramides, cholesterol and free fatty acids let the barrier repair normally when applied together in equal parts, while one or two of them alone delayed repair (Man, 1996); this list names no free fatty acid, and CeraVe gives no amounts.

The alcohol

The word “alcohol” (ethanol) appears 24th, right after phenoxyethanol. So it is at about 1% or less: a small amount, not the drying dose of an alcohol listed near the top. Cetearyl alcohol, 14th, is a different thing, a fatty alcohol used to thicken creams.

CeraVe Resurfacing vs Skin Renewing Retinol Serum

CeraVe sells two retinol serums in near-identical 1 oz pump bottles, and people mix them up: in one Reddit thread, the original poster had read that the two were the same product under different names. Both list retinol, three ceramides, niacinamide and cholesterol, both are fragrance-free, and neither states a strength. Where they differ:

The two CeraVe retinol serums, label against label

Label fact	CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol Serum	CeraVe Skin Renewing Retinol Serum
CeraVe makes it for	Post-acne marks, pores and texture ("Post-Acne Skin")	Fine lines and wrinkles, all skin types ("Anti-Aging")
Retinol on the list	19th of 33	23rd of 37
Ingredients	33	37
Ceramides NP, AP, EOP	10th to 12th	11th to 13th
Niacinamide	5th	15th
Licorice compound	Dipotassium glycyrrhizate, 7th	Not listed
Glycerin	Not listed	2nd
Shea butter	Not listed	36th
Vitamin E (tocopherol)	Not listed	28th
Hyaluronic acid	Sodium hyaluronate, 20th	Hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid, 32nd
Preservative (phenoxyethanol)	23rd	27th
Added fragrance	None listed	None listed
Alcohol (ethanol)	24th of 33, after the preservative	29th of 37, after the preservative
Directions	Carton: daily. Website: PM only	Pack: once or twice a day. Website: PM only, building up to daily
Bottle	Teal, 1 fl oz pump	Purple, 1 fl oz pump
Where to buy	Check price at Amazon: CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol Serum (paid link, opens in a new tab)	Check price at Amazon: CeraVe Skin Renewing Retinol Serum (paid link, opens in a new tab)

Which should you buy? For oily, combination or acne-prone skin and post-acne marks, Resurfacing: it is the one CeraVe makes for post-acne marks and pores, and it adds dipotassium glycyrrhizate. For dry, mature or sensitive skin, Skin Renewing: it adds glycerin, plus shea butter and vitamin E after the preservative (about 1% or less each), which is why it is our drugstore pick in the guide to retinol for sensitive skin. Reddit users argue about which is stronger (2024 thread); no source we found settles it.

What the label can’t tell you

• How much retinol it holds. CeraVe publishes no percentage, on the bottle, the carton or its US, UK and Canadian pages. Figures on Reddit run from 0.06% to 0.3%. Two people in one thread say CeraVe told them 0.1% or 0.06%, and others give 0.3% with no source. We could not verify any of them. Most retinoid products leave the strength off the name too; see our retinol percentage study.
• What “encapsulated” means here. The bottle says “encapsulated retinol” but CeraVe does not say how. Its MVE technology, a multivesicular emulsion (US patent 6,709,663, filed in 2001), is described on its page as encapsulating the ceramides for slow release. We found no published trial comparing encapsulated with plain retinol for irritation; the human test we found compared one encapsulated retinol with another (Shields, 2018, Duke University with EnDev Laboratories).
• What CeraVe’s own results mean. Its UK page reports a self-assessment by 50 people (75% said their tone looked more even, 83% that texture looked smoother); its Canadian page cites expert grading of 49 people at 4 weeks; its US page shows a before-and-after photo captioned as 8 weeks of twice-daily use, though the same page now says PM only. None is a published, controlled trial.
• How it will feel and work on your skin. We did not test it on skin. What people who used it say is below.

CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol Serum reviews on Reddit

We read 1,669 archived comments in 236 Reddit threads about this serum, from 2019 to 2026. In eight threads we scored by hand (one of them cross-posted), 109 verdicts from people who said they had used it split 61 positive, 31 negative and 17 mixed. Not every poster is in the US, and opinions are not evidence, but they show what to expect:

• Gentle. Most people who used it call it gentle, including one user with sensitive skin and rosacea (2024 thread).
• Slow, subtle results. Smoother texture and pores come up more than faded marks. A user of about three years said it helped pores and texture but not acne marks (2023 thread).
• Feel: mixed. Some call it moisturizing; a few found it thick or greasy, and one advises letting it dry first or it pills (2024 thread, 2023 thread). One pump covers the face, users say (step-up thread).
• Breakouts at the start, for some. Reports run from a few days to a few months, and some people stopped (2024 thread, 2021 thread, another).
• Dark marks: split. One called it the best over-the-counter retinol they had used on post-acne marks; others saw no change, and several said it is not the product for sun spots (2023 thread).
• A starting point. People who wanted more moved on to Differin (adapalene) or tretinoin (2024 thread, step-up thread).

How to use CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol Serum

1. At night, on clean, dry skin. CeraVe’s US website says PM only, and the AAD advises using retinoids at night.
2. A pea-sized amount for the whole face, as Cleveland Clinic suggests for any retinol.
3. Every other night for the first two weeks, then build up. The carton says daily and to space out applications if it causes discomfort; the AAD says every other night at first, and Cleveland Clinic every other day for the first couple of weeks.
4. Moisturizer after, or before if it dries you out. The AAD suggests moisturizing first when a retinoid is too drying.
5. Keep it off the eyes and lips, as CeraVe’s directions say.
6. Sunscreen every morning. Retinoids can make skin more sensitive to the sun (AAD); see our mineral sunscreen picks for sensitive skin.
7. Give it 12 weeks before you judge it, and longer for dark marks.

Alternatives worth a look

• 

  CeraVe Skin Renewing Retinol Serum

  For dry or sensitive skin: the CeraVe retinol that adds glycerin, with shea butter and vitamin E further down its list. Our drugstore pick in the sensitive-skin guide.

  Check price at Amazon: CeraVe Skin Renewing Retinol Serum (paid link, opens in a new tab)
• 

  Paula's Choice Clinical 0.3% Retinol + 2% Bakuchiol Treatment

  If you want to know your dose: 0.3% retinol, 2% bakuchiol, stated on the bottle, with no fragrance. Our best retinol overall.

  Check price at Amazon: Paula's Choice Clinical 0.3% Retinol + 2% Bakuchiol Treatment (paid link, opens in a new tab)
• 

  Differin Adapalene Gel 0.1%

  For acne itself: adapalene 0.1%, an over-the-counter acne drug with a Drug Facts label, and the retinoid the AAD names as available for acne without a prescription.

  Check price at Amazon: Differin Adapalene Gel 0.1% (paid link, opens in a new tab)
• 

  Medik8 Crystal Retinal 3

  A step up: retinal, one conversion step closer to the form skin uses, in levels Medik8 states as percentages. Its list includes vanilla extract, tonka bean extract and coumarin, so skip it if you avoid fragrance. Our best retinal.

  Check price at Amazon: Medik8 Crystal Retinal 3 (paid link, opens in a new tab)

A retinoid works on the nights you use it

Avina keeps your morning and evening routines with your real products, and records the nights you did them, so a slow start with a retinoid stays on track.

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