While many topically applied vitamins have skin benefits, none can come close to the wide ranging salubrious effects provided by Vitamin A, a powerful and multifunctional oily nutrient that is available in three major forms.

The most common and the most stable form of Vitamin A is called retinyl palmitate. Retinyl is the Latin designation for Vitamin A and palmitate represents a carrying case or ferry for Vitamin A, acting to shuttle to the nutrient around in a protective bubble. This is the type that is absorbed into the body from the digestive system when we take supplements or eat Vitamin A containing foods. Topically it has some nice moisturizing and skin softening properties and there are enzymes in the skin that can break it down and activate it.

The second form of Vitamin A is known as retinol. It’s more active than retinyl palmitate and, in fact, if you use a high enough concentration of retinol (say 5 to 10 or even 20 percent) you can get a nice exfoliating Vitamin A skin peel. However retinol is quite unstable and for this reason you’re really not going to find these kinds of concentrations in topical products. At lower concentrations retinol can be “somewhat effective”, although the amount of retinol in most retail products isn’t going to get you much effect.