Retinoids (vitamin A and vitamin A derivatives), such as retinol (ROL) and retinoic acid (RA), have received a great deal of attention by the cosmetics industry for their use as anti-wrinkle agents. However, neither RA nor ROL are widely used due to skin irritation and poor photostability, respectively. For this reason, safety and photo-stability have been important issues for the continued development of RA or ROL derivatives. To improve the photo-stability of retinol, a new hybrid, retinyl retinoate, was synthesized with a condensing reaction to form an ester bond between ROL (which has a hydroxyl end group) and RA (which has a carboxyl end group); the biological activity of the hybrid was also analyzed. Retinyl retinoate, a novel hybrid derivative, has better chemical stability, reduced skin irritant properties, and higher skin regeneration activity than either ROL or RA alone, and is thus a promising anti-wrinkle agent.