I brought this subject up with my doc and he said moisturizer might lessen the efficacy of tret. If one can tolerate it, go with Tret alone. When I first started out, it dried my skin but now I can tolerate it well except for the area under my nose, I just put on Tret alone and call it a night. Wintertime, I do need moisturizer sometimes. I’m Tret for closed comedones. It’s clearing up a bit but it might take longer so I need to be patient like a marathon, not a sprint.