Currently experimenting with a home made melatonin face serum.
Why I like it more than retinoids:
Retinoids on paper are great. In practice I find they irritate me to no end. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to use them on my face which is unfortunate. No matter how strict I am with sunscreen I always end up with red skin. I’m just too prone to it.
But I am a very enthusiastic person. I do think I tend to use a new thing too much. In the future I will try strictly experimenting with a low % adapalene 2-3x a week.
Melatonin on the other hand no only can be put on in the morning in the sun, it shows photoprotective effects in studies. This is a huge bonus. It is currently my only major skin active AM and PM.
My home made recipe is very cheap as well, not that retinoids are expensive if you get them from Indian pharmacies.
My recipe:
I put pure melatonin powder in a glass jar with propylene glycol. I submerged the bottom part of the jar in warm/hot water and stirred continually to dissolve it into solution. Once dissolved I would add more and continue this process until it stopped fully dissolving. Once I reached this stage I then took my usual moisturizer, Cerave PM, and started adding this in and stirring it to incorporate.
In hindsight I think having the moisturizer in a container and slowly adding the melatonin solution and mixing it in would be a better method as the way I did it resulted in the moisturizer clumping up and being hard to fully mix in. Eventually it did mix in, I just resubmerged the bottom of the jar in warm/hot water and stirred vigorously.
I find this melatonin serum to be perhaps a little too concentrated. If I put it on and don’t put moisturizer on top right away it feels like it burns a bit. But this might be the propylene glycol.
Things to consider:
- From what I can see you need to keep this in the refrigerator. This is the only flaw for me. I’d rather keep it in the bathroom with my moisturizer for more streamlined use. Perhaps decanting a small amount into a small amber glass jar is viable.
- If you want to get a specific melatonin % in your serum you will need strict measurement. I’m not sure what the saturation point of melatonin in propylene glycol is, but 12.5% in studies was what was needed for maximum photoprotection. Lower % is useful for other anti-aging effects.
- My thought was to just get the highest % and get all of the benefits, especially since bulk melatonin powder isn’t really that expensive. Especially compared to buying premade melatonin serums.
I had Claude AI summarize all of the major studies on topical melatonin:
“Clinical Studies Using Topical Melatonin” (2024) — reviews 18 clinical trials on topical melatonin for photoprotection, anti-aging, and hair growth (PubMed search through Dec 2023).
“Unveiling the Anti-Aging Potential of Topical Melatonin: A Systematic Review” (2026) — broader pooled analysis. Topical melatonin (alone or combined) associated with skin hydration up to +59.5%, firmness up to +30%, wrinkle depth reduction −11% to −31%. Mechanistic findings: downregulated mTORC1, decreased MMP-1, increased collagen 17A1, fibrillin-1, and mitochondrial markers (TFAM, MTCO-1, VDAC).
UV protection / erythema
- Bangha et al., dose-response (1996) — 20 volunteers, UVB exposure on lower back, 0.05%/0.1%/0.5% melatonin gel vs. carrier alone. Clear dose-response; 0.5% performed best, significant at 8h post-irradiation. Suppression of UV-induced erythema by topical treatment with melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine). A dose response study - PubMed
- Bangha et al., timing study (1997) — melatonin gel applied 15 min before vs. 30/240 min after UV exposure. Pre-exposure application almost completely suppressed erythema; post-exposure application showed no protective effect. This is the key timing data point. Suppression of UV-induced erythema by topical treatment with melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine). Influence of the application time point - PubMed
- Dreher, Gabard, Schwindt & Maibach (1998), British Journal of Dermatology — melatonin tested alone and combined with vitamin C/E, applied 30 min pre-UV, 12 subjects (Fitzpatrick II/III). Modest protective effect from vitamins, assessed via chromametry, dermal blood flow, TEWL, and capacitance. https://academic.oup.com/bjd/article-abstract/139/2/332/6683592
- Systematic review (2017) — confirms the pattern across the pre-exposure UV literature: protective effect only when applied before exposure, most pronounced in “strong reactor” subgroups. Melatonin for prevention of erythema and oxidative stress in response to ultraviolet radiation - PubMed
Radiation dermatitis (cancer patients)
- Ben-David, Elkayam, Gelernter & Pfeffer (2016), Israel Medical Association Journal — 47 women post-lumpectomy, randomized to melatonin emulsion (26) or placebo (21), twice daily during whole-breast radiotherapy. Dermatitis occurred in 59% of the melatonin group vs. 90% of placebo. Melatonin for Prevention of Breast Radiation Dermatitis: A Phase II, Prospective, Double-Blind Randomized Trial - PubMed
- Zetner et al. (2023), Journal of Pineal Research — MELADERM trial — a larger, more rigorous double-blind RCT (48 evaluable patients, 25mg/g melatonin + DMSO cream) designed specifically to confirm the 2016 result. Primary outcomes showed no significant difference on RTOG dermatitis scores (p=0.441) or photographic erythema analysis (p=0.890) at the 2-week primary endpoint. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpi.12873
Worth flagging in your post: this is a case where the positive finding didn’t replicate in a better-powered follow-up. Good instinct to know both sides here rather than just citing the 2016 result.
Anti-aging / wrinkles
- Morganti et al. (combined oral + topical melatonin, vitamin E, beta-glucan) — showed benefit at a very low topical concentration (0.0002%), which the review authors flag as notable given how low that dose is relative to other trials.
- Sagan et al. — a higher topical concentration (0.012% alone, no added actives) was found less effective than oral melatonin (2.5mg/day) — the opposite pattern from Morganti, suggesting the co-actives (not melatonin alone) may be doing a lot of the work in these combination formulas.
- Melatosphere™ trial (2018), Cosmetics — open, evaluator-blinded, 2-month trial using a lipid-based delivery system for melatonin. 3D imaging (ANTERA 3D) showed −31% coarse wrinkle volume, −18% fine wrinkle volume, −17% melanin content. No placebo arm. https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9284/5/4/60
- “In & Out” randomized trial (2024/2025) — compared topical-only vs. topical+oral melatonin (with hyaluronic acid and apigenin) over 84 days. Combined regimen beat topical alone: hydration +23.6% vs +18.3%, wrinkle depth −18.5% vs −9.4% (p<0.05). Lipidomic analysis showed increased ceramides and triglycerides, relevant to barrier function. Lipidomic and Instrumental Evaluation of a Melatonin-Based In & Out Strategy Versus Topical Treatment in Skin Aging: A Randomized Prospective Trial - PMC and https://www.mdpi.com/2310-2861/11/11/860
Mechanism (relevant to formulation logic)
Across the review literature, melatonin’s proposed skin mechanisms are: direct free-radical scavenging, upregulation of endogenous antioxidant enzymes (SOD, glutathione peroxidase), immune modulation relevant to inflammation/dermatitis, mitophagy activation supporting mitochondrial turnover, and downregulation of mTORC1/MMP-1 with upregulation of collagen-supportive markers.
What this means for concentration/formulation choices
Pulling from the review’s concentration data across studies: 0.01% has established human skin penetration data; 0.1% has the clearest direct anti-aging trial data; photoprotection studies span 0.5% up to 12.5%; and 2.5% has the strongest overall clinical evidence base. Combination formulas (with vitamin E, beta-glucan, hyaluronic acid, or apigenin) consistently outperform melatonin alone in the anti-aging trials, so if your serum includes complementary actives, that’s consistent with where the strongest data sits.