The photostabilizing electronic excited state energy&mdash；particularly singlet state energy from retinoid compounds&mdash；has been found to be readily transferred to (accepted by) &alpha；-cyanodiphenylacrylate compounds having an alkoxy radical in the four (para) position (hereinafter &ldquo；alkoxycrylenes&rdquo；) on one of the phenyl rings having the formula (I): wherein one of R1 and R2 is a straight or branched chain C1-C30 alkoxy radical, preferably C1-C8, more preferably methoxy, and the non-alkoxy radical R1 or R2 is hydrogen； and R3 is a straight or branched chain C1-C30 alkyl radical, preferably C2-C20. The alkoxycrylene compounds of formula (I) significantly increase the photostability of retinoid compounds in a composition by at least 3-fold and as much as 10-fold or greater. The ability of the alkoxycrylene compounds to stabilize the retinoid compound is concentration dependent, with the amount of retinoid photostabilization increasing with the concentration of the alkoxycrylene compound.
