The cult ointment people call "tretinoin without a prescription." It is not. It is retinyl palmitate, the weakest retinoid there is, and costs €2.63 in France.
A good, greasy ointment sold on a comparison it does not earn. Its retinyl palmitate has to convert several times before it acts, so it is far milder than tretinoin. Check the label for peanut oil. If you want tretinoin's results, ask for tretinoin.
A313 Pommade is a thick, greasy vitamin A ointment made in France, sold here for about $30 to $50. In France it is a licensed pharmacy medicine costing around 2.63 euros; the US version is a cosmetic on a different base. It is not prescription tretinoin, and not close.
The vitamin A is retinyl esters, mostly retinyl palmitate — roughly 0.06 percent retinol-equivalent, weaker than a drugstore 0.3 percent retinol. Polyethylene glycols make up the rest, which is why it seals rather than sinks in. The US version also contains peanut oil, a genuine allergen.
Where it earns its keepWhat It Treats
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Dry Skin (Xerosis)
Good fit
Most of what people notice is the base, not the vitamin A. It is an occlusive — it seals the surface so water cannot evaporate. That alone smooths texture and softens flaking, and it is the honest reason it works.
Damaged Skin Barrier
Good fit
Sealing a compromised barrier gives it the conditions to repair, and this is a heavy seal. The French label's approved use is adjunct treatment of irritant dermatitis — closer to the truth than the wrinkle claims online. It warns against prolonged use over large areas.
Sensitive Skin
Use with care
Retinyl palmitate sits at the bottom of the vitamin A ladder and converts three times before skin cells respond, so very little arrives and very little stings. If stronger retinoids have defeated you, this is mild because it is weak, not because it is cleverly buffered.
Don't expect miraclesNot the Best For
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Acne
Barely works
Sold as a cheap prescription-strength retinoid. It is retinyl palmitate, one of the weakest, in a thick ointment base — a poor fit for breakout-prone skin.
Oily Skin
Poor fit
An occlusive pommade. Oily skin finds it heavy and shiny by morning.
How it feelsTexture
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A thick, greasy ointment that does not sink in. It sits on the surface, which is the point.
Skin stays shiny for hours and it will mark a pillowcase. A very small amount covers the whole face.
Faint waxy smell, no added fragrance. It does not layer under sunscreen or makeup, so it is a night-only product.
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Ointment · this one
Almost all oil, no water. Sits on top and seals.
Good for very dry, cracked or raw skin. Easiest to use at night. Too greasy for most faces during the day.
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Balm
Waxy and solid until it warms in your hands.
Good for dry patches, lips and hands. Useful in cold, windy weather. Heavy on the face.
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Cream
Thick blend of oil and water.
Good for normal to dry skin. Good in winter. May be too thick for summer.
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Oil
All oil, but spreads far thinner than an ointment.
Good layered over a moisturizer on dry skin. Sinks in faster than an ointment. Some oils clog pores on acne-prone skin.
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Lotion
Mostly water. Pours and sinks in fast.
Good for normal skin and for large areas like arms and legs. Comfortable in summer. Often not enough for very dry skin.
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Gel
Water based, no oil. Cool and slippery.
Good for oily and acne-prone skin. Good in heat and humidity. The alcohol in some gels stings broken skin.
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Serum
Thin and watery. Absorbs in seconds.
Usually carries active ingredients rather than moisture. Layers under a moisturizer. Rarely enough on its own for dry skin.
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Spray
A fine mist. Barely there.
Good for the back and other spots that are hard to reach. Easy in summer. Does little for very dry skin.
The house rulesHow to Use A313 Pommade
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How much: A pea-sized amount for the whole face, warmed between the fingers. More just transfers to your pillow.
Careful: Wear sunscreen every morning — vitamin A of any kind leaves skin more sensitive to sun. The French label warns against prolonged use and large-area application, citing vitamin A build-up, so nightly full-face use for years is what the label says not to do. Skip it if you have a peanut allergy; the US version contains peanut oil.
What to expect: Smoother, softer skin within days, mostly from the occlusion. Irritation is usually mild, because the vitamin A here is weak. Do not expect the flaking tretinoin causes. This is not that drug.
Where It Fits in Your Routine
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Pick what fits you and the routine rebuilds around it. A313 Pommade is marked in the steps it belongs to.
What's insideHow A313 Pommade Works
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Two things are happening here, and the internet credits the wrong one. Skin cells respond to retinoic acid and nothing else in the vitamin A family. Retinal is one step away, retinol two, retinyl esters like the palmitate in A313 three, and each conversion loses potency. So an ester at roughly 0.06 percent retinol-equivalent delivers less than a drugstore 0.3 percent retinol.
The other thing is occlusion, and that is the part that works. A heavy polyethylene-glycol ointment seals the surface so water cannot leave, and skin that stays hydrated looks smoother. That is most of what people see.
So it is a good occlusive carrying a little weak vitamin A — fine to own, but not tretinoin without a prescription, and the US price is a large markup on a French pharmacy staple.
Tap an ingredient to see where it works
In the pore
Retinoids change how the pore lining sheds, so plugs stop forming in the first place — which is why they prevent spots rather than treat the ones already there. Given months they also slow pigment reaching the surface and push fibroblasts to build collagen.
The outer layer, and the only one anything in a jar reaches. It renews itself constantly: a cell made at the bottom takes about a month to reach the surface and flake off. Most of what a skincare product does, it does here.
The cells that make pigment. They sit along the base of the epidermis and hand melanin to the cells around them, which is what gives skin its color. Dark marks, melasma and the patch left behind by a spot are all these cells making more than usual.
A narrow tube running from the surface down into the skin, with an oil gland at the bottom of it. Oil travels up and out. When the tube blocks, what is behind it has nowhere to go — which is where blackheads and spots start.
Makes sebum, the oil that keeps the surface soft and stops water escaping. How much it makes is set by hormones, not by how often you wash — which is why scrubbing does not fix oily skin.
Cutibacterium acnes lives in the pores of everyone with skin. It is not an infection and it is not a hygiene problem. It only causes trouble when a pore blocks and it multiplies in the oil trapped behind it.
The scaffolding in the dermis that keeps skin firm and springy. It is built by fibroblasts and broken down by age, sun and smoking. Lines and looseness are collagen lost faster than it is replaced.
The living layer underneath, holding the blood vessels, the nerves and the collagen. It is where lasting change happens and it is hard to reach: most of what is sold for the skin never gets this far.
This matters more than it sounds. Plenty of ingredients do impressive things in a dish in a lab and then never get through the outer layer of real skin. Retinol is fat-soluble, so it crosses that layer easily — which is half the reason it works at all.
Retinol is not the active form. Your skin converts it in two steps, and only the final one does anything. Some is lost at each step, which is why retinol works more slowly and more gently than prescription tretinoin — tretinoin is already the active form and skips both steps.
Fibroblasts are the cells in the dermis that build the skin's support structure. The active form gets inside the nucleus and binds to receptors sitting on the DNA.
Once bound, it switches the collagen genes on and turns down the enzymes that break collagen apart. This is why retinol is measured in months rather than days: you are waiting on cells to build something, not on a surface effect.
Short list or longNumber of Ingredients
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This is how many ingredients are on the label. The more a product contains, the more chances one of them bothers you. That matters most if you have sensitive skin, eczema, or a known allergy. If your skin tolerates most things, a long list is not a problem by itself.
21 retinoids reviewed, from A313 Pommade (7) to Anua Nano Retinol 0.3% + Niacin Renewing Serum (90). Tap a dot to see which.
Full Ingredient List
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Retinyl Acetate, Retinyl Propionate, Retinyl Palmitate, PEG-4000, PEG-400, Polysorbate 80 Note: French/EU version of the pommade.
The fine printA Dermatologist’s Concerns
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It is not prescription tretinoin: the "basically prescription tretinoin" claim is false on every count, and it is the most important thing on this page.
It uses a much weaker retinoid: wrong molecule. A313 contains retinyl palmitate, a retinyl ester at the bottom of the retinoid ladder. It converts to retinol, then retinal, then retinoic acid before it does anything. Tretinoin is retinoic acid.
The dose is weaker than drugstore retinol: wrong dose. 200,000 IU per 100g is roughly 0.06% retinol-equivalent, weaker than a drugstore 0.3% retinol. (The "0.12%" figure online is arithmetically wrong.)
It is not approved for wrinkles: wrong license. In France its approved use is "adjunct treatment of irritant dermatitis," and its drug class is skin protectant. Nobody approved it for wrinkles.
The US version is a different product: not the French drug. It is sold here as a cosmetic on a different base, and it contains peanut oil, an allergen nobody discusses.
The US price is a big markup: about $47 for a tube that costs €2.63 in a French pharmacy, where it is 30% reimbursed.
The label warns against long-term use: the French label warns against prolonged use and large-area application, citing vitamin A build-up. Nightly, full face, for years is what the label tells you not to do.
What it runsPrice per Ounce
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A313 Pommade costs $28 per ounce. That is cheaper than 12 of the other 20 retinoids priced on Dermapedia, which run from $7.92 to $120 per ounce.
A thin smear at night, so a tube lasts a long time. Price per ounce says little about what a month of use costs.
PCA Skin Intensive Age Refining Treatment: 0.5% Pure Retinol Night$120
$7.92$120
21 retinoids priced, from Good Molecules Gentle Retinol Cream ($7.92) to PCA Skin Intensive Age Refining Treatment: 0.5% Pure Retinol Night ($120). Priced on the 1.76 oz size at $50.00. The scale is logarithmic. Tap a dot to see which. Prices current as of September 2026.
Shop aroundSimilar Products
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These are the options if you want an actual retinoid, or a plain occlusive without the vitamin A.
Good Molecules Gentle Retinol Cream
Real retinol at a disclosed 0.11%, plus bakuchiol 0.30%, for about $10. A far more direct route to a vitamin A effect.
We recommend more
Peach & Lily Retinal For All Renewing Serum
0.1% retinaldehyde, stated plainly, fragrance-free, with ceramides. Retinal sits far higher up the ladder than an ester.
Improvement of naturally aged skin with vitamin A (retinol)Randomized controlled trial showing topical retinol has genuine anti-aging activity, but at 0.4% concentration, far higher than A313's roughly 0.06% retinol-equivalent, indicating retinoid benefit is concentration-dependent.
Occlusion vs. skin barrier functionStates that skin occlusion increases stratum corneum hydration, backing the claim that sealing the skin with an occlusive ointment improves hydration and texture.
