- AutyFIT Editorial revisited the bakuchiol evidence on 21 August 2026, centered on the 2019 retinol comparison.
- That 12-week test pitted 0.5% bakuchiol used twice daily against 0.5% retinol used once daily in 44 people.
- Wrinkle area and dark spots improved in both groups, while scaling and sting showed up more with retinol.
AutyFIT Editorial published an evidence review on 21 August 2026 that returned to bakuchiol as a retinol alternative. The review put the 2019 12 week head to head trial in the middle and asked for clearer claims on labels and shelves.
Anyone who has set aside nightly retinol after burning cheeks will recognize the question here. The most studied comparison showed similar change in signs of photoageing with easier wear from bakuchiol. That finding applies to one regimen only. It fails to turn each bakuchiol serum into a match for retinol.
The story begins with the plant source. Bakuchiol is a meroterpene phenol linked to the seeds and leaves of Psoralea corylifolia, also called Cullen corylifolium in some references. A seed oil, a low level extract and high purity bakuchiol stand as separate starting materials. The 2020 Pierre Fabre study described its bakuchiol raw material as about 95 percent pure.
The trial itself stayed narrow and exact. It was listed on ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT03112863. It tested 0.5 percent bakuchiol twice daily against 0.5 percent retinol once daily for 12 weeks in 44 participants. Both groups showed clear drops in wrinkle surface area and hyperpigmentation, with no statistical gap between compounds on those measures. One summary put the shift at 20 to 30 percent reductions in fine lines and hyperpigmentation.
Feel divided the two routines. People using retinol noted more facial scaling and stinging than people using bakuchiol. “Our work shows bakuchiol matches retinol for softening photoageing and feels kinder on skin than retinol,” wrote Chaudhuri and Bojanowski in the British Journal of Dermatology in 2019.
The biology keeps the interest measured without pushing it too far. Retinol turns into retinoic acid in skin and meets retinoid receptors, while bakuchiol does not turn into retinoic acid. Gene expression work from 2014 showed bakuchiol switched on collagen boosting pathways while calming MMPs that break down collagen. Later summaries lean the same way. A review in the Journal of Integrative Dermatology searched PubMed and EMBASE for bakuchiol and photoaging, kept seven articles from 2014 to 2021, and found bakuchiol showed comparable efficacy and better tolerability than retinol when tested side by side. A 2024 comparative study in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology found comparable help for photoaging and hyperpigmentation after 12 weeks with fewer notes of redness and scaling.
What comes next turns on sourcing and dose. The head to head used different routines, so it compared daily rituals rather than gram for gram strength. Product copy often folds cell, animal and human findings into one studies show promise, which reaches past what cosmetic trials measured. A market analysis by Grand View Research in 2025 projected the global bakuchiol market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.5 percent through 2030, which may bring more jars with less clarity.
For now, see bakuchiol as one kept path for reactive routines, not a full exchange for every retinoid result.
Laura Reyes
Laura runs the news desk and the texture guides at Second Skin. She keeps a drawer of empty jars she could not bring herself to throw away, sorted by how good they felt to open.
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