Dr. Jason Rivers has practised dermatology in Vancouver since the early 1990s. The 3-step routine he eventually built — cleanser, serum, moisturizer — was the one he kept reaching for in clinic for patients whose skin wasn't responding to anything else.
Send me the free kit →Most patients who walk into Dr. Rivers's Vancouver clinic have already tried everything else. A bag of products. Some prescribed, most not. Many contradicting each other.
"It's not unusual to see twenty or thirty bottles," he says. "Half of them are doing nothing. A few are quietly making things worse. The job, a lot of the time, is subtraction — figuring out the smallest routine that actually works for that person's skin."
Riversol is the version of that routine he eventually built — three products, evidence-led formulas, designed to do the work of the dozen they replace.
The trial kit is a fifteen-day supply of the full routine — cleanser, serum, moisturizer. Riversol covers the product, shipping, and fulfillment. No credit card. No subscription. No automatic anything when the fifteen days are up.
The rest of the story is worth a few minutes, even if you've already decided.
Dr. Rivers earned his MD at the University of Toronto, completed dermatology residency in Canada, and trained further in England, New York, and Australia before returning to Vancouver in the early 1990s. His practice in West Vancouver is still active today; he holds a teaching appointment at UBC.
He is past president of both the Canadian Dermatology Association and the Acne and Rosacea Society of Canada, and has authored more than 170 peer-reviewed articles.
Riversol started inside that practice. The same three-product routine kept turning up on his recommendation list — for patients with reactive skin, for patients with rosacea, for patients whose skin had gone quiet under everything else they were using. Eventually it made more sense to formulate the products properly than to keep pointing patients at imperfect off-the-shelf versions.
Skincare doesn't need to be complicated to work. The full Riversol routine is three products, used in order, morning and evening. That's all.
Pea-sized on damp skin. Twenty seconds of gentle circles. Rinse with lukewarm water; pat dry, don't rub.
Three drops, pressed into cheeks, forehead, and neck. The hinokitiol · vitamin C · vitamin E stack. Let it absorb for about thirty seconds before the next step.
Hazelnut-sized amount over face and neck. In the morning, finish with SPF. That's the routine — the same one, morning and evening.
One 63-year-old customer, photographed at baseline and at ten weeks. Fine lines and sun-related pigmentation. Photos shared with written consent. Results vary; this is one person's outcome, not a promise. Drag the handle to compare.
Riversol is built around a single, well-characterised antioxidant: hinokitiol, a naturally occurring compound from the heartwood of the Pacific red cedar (Thuja plicata). It is documented across decades of scientific literature for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial activity, and has been studied for skin tone and post-inflammatory pigmentation in particular.
It hasn't shown up in skincare because it's expensive and technically demanding to source in a stable, usable form. Dr. Rivers considers that a worthwhile cost — every product in the Riversol routine is formulated around it. Internally, the team refers to it as Beta-T.
4.75 / 5 across 85,330 Judge.me reviews storewide
"I got the 15-day kit just to see. Two weeks later I ordered the full bundle. My skin is the calmest it's been in a decade."
"What I appreciate is that nothing in the routine is dramatic. There's no tingle, no smell, no claim that'll be on the news in three years. It just quietly works."
"My dermatologist actually recognized the brand when I mentioned it. She's the one who told me hinokitiol was a real thing — that surprised me."
"Anti-aging is a category full of nonsense. This is the only product I've used in five years that I'd actually pay for at the price they're charging."
Yes — actually free. No credit card, no enrolment, no shipping fee. The 15-day kit is a fifteen-day supply of the full routine: cleanser, serum, and moisturizer.
The model works for us because the routine itself is good — enough trial customers stay on as full-set customers to make giving the kit away worthwhile. If you don't, you owe nothing.
Skin is personal. Two people with the same skin type can respond differently to the same active. The kit lets you confirm three things on your own skin: the texture works for you, you don't have an unexpected sensitivity, and you actually like using it twice a day for two weeks.
That said — if you've used dermatologist-formulated skincare before and just want the routine, the $99 set is the better economics. About a quarter of new customers skip the kit and go straight to the full set with the 60-day money-back guarantee covering the risk.
The full routine is fragrance-free, paraben-free, cruelty-free, and patch-tested. Dr. Rivers originally developed these formulas in clinic for patients with sensitive skin — including patients with rosacea — so the bar for tolerability is set deliberately high.
Realistic timeline: skin feels different in 3–7 days — less tightness, less reactivity. Visible changes in tone, fine lines, and dark spots typically begin around the 4–8 week mark and continue improving through month 6.
"Results in three days" is a marketing promise, not a clinical one. Real skin repair takes time.
Nothing automatic. No card on file, no auto-renewal, no surprise charge on day 15 or any other day. If the routine worked for you, the 90-day Anti-Aging Trio is $99 with a 60-day money-back guarantee. If it didn't, you're done — and we appreciate the trial.
Everything is compounded and shipped from our facility in British Columbia. Free 15-day kits typically arrive in 5–8 business days across Canada. Full-size orders ship the next business day with tracking.
Fifteen days of cleanser, serum, and moisturizer. Free. We cover shipping. No credit card, no subscription, no automatic anything.
