Beauty & Personal Care › Skincare
Retinol 0.2% in Squalane
Retinol serum in squalane base
Should you buy it??
Trust it
based on 3 of 5 signals
Quick take
In short: what each side says
AI · critics · buyers · brand claims — each opened up in full further down ↓
Best on ChatGPT (avg #6.0), weakest on perplexity (#26.0)
Owners love the visible smoothing and anti-aging results even at low strength, and praise its gentleness for sensitive skin, but packaging damage during shipping divides satisfaction.
All sides land high — a confident buy, with the caveats below.
Main competitors
Top rivals in Skincare.
The verdict
What the panel makes of it.
The Ordinary makes Retinol 0.2% in Squalane, a liquid serum. Deciem released it years ago in Canada. The formula suspends retinol in squalane oil, not water. Beginners use it to reduce fine lines and acne. AI assistants rank it second for retinol newcomers. The concentration stays low. Application happens at night. Results take weeks. Cost runs cheap. Users find it effective and tolerable.
Act one
What the machines think.
Several AI models read the category and place this product — model by model, list by list, over time.
Model by model?
How each AI sees it.
Best on ChatGPT (avg #6.0), weakest on perplexity (#26.0) Averaging across the AI panel, Retinol 0.2% in Squalane sits around #13.0 this snapshot.
Gemini
—
Didn’t rank Retinol 0.2% in Squalane this snapshot.
Rank trajectory?
Weeks of movement.
Act two · ★ new
What the people say.
The same product, judged by the owners who bought and filmed it — what they praise, what they knock, who it's for.
What buyers say?
What Google knows about it.
Beyond the video critics, Google pools 7,175 buyer ratings of the Retinol 0.2% in Squalane from across retailers — a far wider, if blunter, jury. Here’s the shape of that opinion.
7,175 ratings · 7 written
across 6 retailers
What owners single out
Packaging integrity issues noted by buyers align with the delivery damage concern raised in review 7.
In their words
“I was sceptical even after seeing all those great reviews, however, I was desperate for something that would work and would break my bank. I have to say I am so glad I've tried these products. I've only been using them for a couple of weeks and I see a significant difference. My skin is so much smoother. I had a rough feeling to my face, almost like tiny spots. Also I'm peri menopausal and it was ”
Aleks · verified purchase · lookfantastic.com
“I haven’t tried this product yet, however, when it arrived in the mail with all my other items, the top of the box was open and you can see that there was something spilled on the box. When I opened the packaging, the lid was slightly unscrewed and the bottle was coated in the solution in the bottle. There clearly had been some product that spilled as there’s a lot of product missing out of my bot”
moose134 · verified purchase · sephora.com
as of June 5 · 7175 buyer ratings?
Frequent rivals?
What it competes against.
- A-Gloei Maretinol Oil
by Drunk Elephant
Retinol 0.2% in Squalane leads 1–0
Across 1 shared question
- Redermic R Retinol Cream
by La Roche-Posay
Retinol 0.2% in Squalane leads 1–0
Across 1 shared question
- Retinol Complex Serum
by Naturium
Retinol 0.2% in Squalane leads 1–0
Across 1 shared question
- Retinol Tonic
by Pixi
Retinol 0.2% in Squalane leads 1–0
Across 1 shared question
- Retinol Skin-Renewing Daily Micro-Dose Serum
by Kiehl's
Retinol 0.2% in Squalane leads 1–0
Across 1 shared question
- Retinol Youth Renewal Serum
by Murad
Retinol 0.2% in Squalane leads 1–0
Across 1 shared question
- A+ High-Dose Retinoid Serum
by Sunday Riley
Retinol 0.2% in Squalane leads 1–0
Across 1 shared question
The recap
Where it stands today.
- PositionBest rank #6 across 1 intent tracked (slipped 5 this week).
- FootprintStrongest in Best Retinol for Beginners (#6).
- AI verdictChatGPT ranks it highest (#6.0); perplexity most sceptical (#26.0) — a split the people don’t share.
- TraitsMost often described as “budget”.
- Closest rivalA-Gloei Maretinol Oil (1–0 across 1 shared intent).
- MakerBy The Ordinary — see how it ranks across other intents on its brand profile.
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