Now let’s hone in on retinol, which we most often hear about in the beauty and anti-aging world. Under the retinol ‘umbrella,’ we have retinyl esters. Retinyl esters are considered “storage” forms of retinol. They sit in your body’s fats until they are needed. At that point, the body turns them into retinol, with varying numbers of steps. Eventually, they morph into retinaldehyde before becoming retinoic acid. Common retinyl esters include: Retinyl palmitate Retinyl acetate Retinyl stearate Retinyl linoleate Retinyl oleate And more. All of the above esters can be found in skin care products. The thing to know is that, the more steps there are, the more the ingredient loses its potency along the way (which isn’t always a bad thing - see below). So, they are selected for particular strengths by cosmetic chemists. Please see more on our website.