Bakuchiol vs. Retinol: What the Research Actually Shows

Most bakuchiol marketing tells you it's "like retinol, but gentler." That's a claim worth being skeptical of, because most ingredient comparisons in skincare are written by the brand selling one side of it. So here's the actual research, not our summary of it.

The study, plainly

In 2019, a team led by Dr. Sarah Dhaliwal ran a randomized, double-blind trial published in the British Journal of Dermatology. Forty-four participants used either a 0.5% bakuchiol cream or a 0.5% retinol cream over 12 weeks. Neither the participants nor the people evaluating them knew who was using which cream until the trial ended.

The result: both groups saw a significant reduction in wrinkle surface area, with no statistically meaningful difference between the two. In plain terms, bakuchiol performed comparably to retinol on that specific measure. The retinol group reported meaningfully more scaling and stinging over the course of the trial.

What bakuchiol actually is

Bakuchiol comes from the seeds of Psoralea corylifolia, sometimes called babchi. It isn't a retinoid, and it shares no chemical structure with vitamin A. The two ingredients reach similar outcomes through different mechanisms, which is part of why researchers describe bakuchiol as functionally comparable rather than chemically related.

One practical difference worth knowing: bakuchiol is photostable, meaning it doesn't break down in sunlight the way some forms of retinol can, and it doesn't increase your skin's sensitivity to sun the way retinol does. That doesn't mean skip the SPF. It means the ingredient itself isn't adding to that particular risk.

Better tolerated isn't the same as risk-free

We want to be careful with this one, because it's the claim easiest to overstate. Bakuchiol is generally better tolerated than retinol for most people. That's not the same as saying it can't cause irritation, because it can, for some skin. If you're layering it into a new routine, patch test on your inner arm for 24 hours before it touches your face. That's true of any new active, bakuchiol included.

What's actually in Lumina Sérum

Our own Lumina Sérum carries bakuchiol as its lead active, alongside six cold-pressed seed oils: rosehip, jojoba, evening primrose, strawberry, raspberry, and blueberry. Nineteen ingredients total. That's short enough to read in full on the bottle, which is unusual in a category where 25-plus ingredient lists are the norm.

It's COSMOS Organic certified, 99% natural origin and 61% organic origin. We're not going to tell you a short ingredient list is inherently better than a long one. We will tell you it's easier to know exactly what's touching your skin when there's less of it.

What this means for you

If retinol has irritated your skin before, or you've been putting off trying it because you've heard it will, this is the honest version of what bakuchiol offers instead: comparable results on wrinkle appearance in the research available, with a better-documented tolerability profile. Not a promise that your skin will respond exactly like the 44 people in that study. A reasonable, evidence-backed reason to try a gentler path.

And if you didn't come to this looking for a retinol alternative at all, if you started here because you wanted a plant-based routine from the beginning rather than as a backup plan, the same research still applies to you. The evidence doesn't care which door you walked in through.

If you want the fuller story on why we built around two plants instead of one, that's here.

Source: Dhaliwal, S., Rybak, I., Ellis, S.R., et al. "Prospective, randomized, double-blind assessment of topical bakuchiol and retinol for facial photoageing." British Journal of Dermatology, 2019;180:289–296.