COULD THIS BE THE NATURAL EQUIVALENT OF POWERHOUSE ACTIVE INGREDIENT RETINOL?

The compound: Bakuchiol

The lowdown: When retinol burst onto the beauty scene as a mainstream ingredient last decade, it was considered the holy grail of skincare products. Who wouldn’t love an ingredient that addresses fine lines and wrinkles, overall skin texture and breakouts? Of course, it wouldn’t be long before formulators uncovered a natural equivalent. Enter bakuchiol. The antioxidant salve is extracted from the leaves of an Indian plant and has been lauded for its skin-brightening benefits. “Despite having no structural resemblance to retinoids, this botanical ingredient has been shown to act on the same genes in the skin to stimulate collagen production. It therefore functions as a potent antiageing compound,” says dermatologist Dr Cara McDonald, from Complete Skin Specialists. But don’t swap out your favourite retinol-spiked serum just yet. “At this stage only very few clinical trials have been done and therefore the level of evidence for bakuchiol is nowhere near that for retinoids.”