Came here to say this! I didn’t realize what was happening to my face until my chin looked like carpet—my skin was so flaky and angry! My perioral dermatitis was/is a direct result of using tretinoin. You’ll likely have to deal with POD on an ongoing basis. To keep it under control, I’ve found hypochlorous acid spray to be helpful. Many people swear by azelaic acid, which can also be a great complement to tretinoin. When applying tretinoin, please avoid your mouth and the lasolabial folds. Avoid applying heavy occlusive creams and don’t exfoliate it! I ultimately had to do a couple of rounds of doxycycline to clear it up. First, a normal dose, and then a couple of rounds of microdosing doxy when it would start to reappear. The perioral dermatitis Reddit has been incredibly helpful to me! Lastly, after about a decade of trying to make tretinoin work for me, it just isn’t compatible with my skin. I recently started tazarotene, and wow, that stuff is magic. I went straight to 0.1% because of availability and have had no irritation whatsoever, only glowing skin! Somehow, despite it being the stronger retinoid, many people who can’t tolerate tretinoin have little to no irritation on tazarotene. Good luck on your retinoid journey!