along with the selected active agent without causing any undesirable biological effects or interacting in a deleterious manner with any of the other components of the pharmaceutical composition in which it is contained similarly a u201c dermatologically acceptable u201d salt or a u201c dermatologically acceptable u201d ester of an active agent as provided herein is a salt or ester which is not biologically or otherwise undesirable u201c optional u201d or u201c optionally u201d means that the subsequently described circumstance may or may not occur so that the description includes instances where the circumstance occurs and instances where it does not for example recitation of an additive as u201c optionally present u201d in a formulation herein encompasses both the formulation containing the additive and the formulation not containing the additive the invention as noted above involves the use of piceatannol in order to prevent or treat skin conditions associated with the use of retinoids piceatannol may be used in natural form i e as isolated from grape skins wine or other plant derived compositions or it may be used as chemically synthesized in the laboratory or as obtained commercially e g from biomol research laboratories inc plymuth meeting pa preferred methods for obtaining piceatannol from a natural source is to extract the compound from picea abies bark the active agent may be used in the form of a dermatologically acceptable salt ester amide prodrug or analog or as a combination thereof salts esters amides prodrugs and analogs of piceatannol may be prepared using standard procedures known to those skilled.