It is common practice for many companies to assert that skin needling will only work when used in conjunction with their particular products particularly vitamin A or retinol based creams. This is simply not true. Some studies have been done using skin needling with vitamin A, but many of the best have also been done using ‘dry needling’, or the use of no products. One of the best known of these studies showed that skin needling can increase collagen induction by up to 1,000% after a single session without the addition of vitamin A (1).
That is not to say some products do not assist skin needling. Many of the natural White Lotus serums have been shown to induct collagen and reduce the side-effects of derma rolling. It is important, however to understand that skin needling can induct collagen alone and is a wonderful natural treatment that can be performed successfully without synthetic products that can contribute to unnecessary side-effects.
The use of vitamin A is unnecessary to achieve the results from microneedling which are principally from the induction of collagen. Given that Vitamin A has a degree of known toxicity even used topically and dramatically worsens the dryness caused by microneedling there does not seem to be good enough reason to use these products (2).
1. Schwartz et al, 2006, internet paper. Abstract re ections about COLLAGEN-INDUCTION-THERAPY (CIT) A Hypothesis for the Mechanism of Action of Collagen Induction Therapy (CIT) using Micro-Needles; 1st edition February 2006. 2nd revision January 2007 Horst Liebl
2. Silverman, A.K., Ellis, C. N. & Voorhees, J. J. (1987). Hypervitaminosis A Syndrome: A Paradigm of Retinoid Side Effects. The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 16(5), 1027-1039.