Of course, not everyone with redness issues has rosacea. Rosacea is a vascular disorder, usually inherited, usually shows up around the age of 30, and is marked by a chronic redness that gets worse with age when left untreated.
Daniela’s Webstore Spotlight: "Red-uction Serum", an Anti-Redness Serum specially formulated to reduce 2 main triggers of rosacea: 5-Alpha Reductase and inflammation.
Redness without rosacea can come from several things, like dehydration leading to sensitivity from your skin's barrier being compromised, sensitizing skincare products, over-exfoliation, friction from rough materials, or allergies to things like wool, or fragrance.
While I can't do anything about your allergies or the clothes you wear, I can at least do something about the products you use.
Related: Navigating Winter Dryness with Adult Acne
To be effective for your redness issues, your collection of products must be hydrating, calming, and repairing. They can't only be those deemed gentle or even hypoallergenic.
The term "hypoallergenic" only means it's missing particular ingredients found to be the most problematic for the most individuals with chemical allergies. It's a rather specific, limited list. There are those who dismiss "hypoallergenic" as nothing but a marketing term because it's not regulated by the FDA, but it's not as though the FDA doesn't have a definition for it. In fact, if a company were to lie about their product being hypoallergenic, not just be mistaken about it, but actually proven to have lied, someone could bring a lawsuit and they would win under false advertising rules of the FCC based on the definition laid out by the FDA.
Thing is, not everyone with sensitivity issues has allergies. Sensitivity involves more than that. It can involve simple thinness, sensitization from extreme dehydration, or an immune system that overreacts to all sorts of stimuli. Any ingredients that are stimulating or strongly exfoliating will bother any type of sensitive skin. To help this type of skin effectively, we need to do more than just worry about what to avoid; we need to actively calm your skin, and repair your skin's broken barrier.
So, I'd like to present a skincare routine that will calm your redness no matter what the source is, as well as being a great routine to calm rosacea breakouts. By the way, for those who don't know this yet, my webstore now offers FREE SHIPPING!
1. Wash with a mild foaming cleanser if you're oily, or a soothing lotion cleanser if you're dry.
2. Spray with alcohol-free toner that is both calming and reparative, which will especially help hydrating ingredients in your serums and lotions bind to your skin.
3. An important part of your routine is the use of a calming, hydrating, and repairing serum. If you do have rosacea, this redness reducing serum helps also to reduce the enzyme in the skin that is connected to rosacea flare-ups.
4. Protect your skin from UV! Sun exposure is the biggest trigger for rosacea, but also worsens redness from every source. This non-clogging, hydrating SPF is designed for sensitive skin. If you don't have any issues with your eyes stinging in the presence of most sunscreen products, a specially moisturizing, non-clogging SPF30 sunscreen can be a great partner in barrier repair.
5. Your nighttime moisturizer shoud be non-clogging, anti-inflammatory, hydrating and repairing. If you have aging issues as well and would like some firming benefit from your nighttime lotion, there is a great calming lotion with firming properties that will do everything.
6. A lipid replacement serum with barrier-repair properties will go a long way to protect your skin from environmental triggers. A tiny amount is applied in light, pressing motions after sunscreen and/or after nighttime lotion to seal in all of the wonderful products you've just applied to your troubled skin, and guard it against blowing wind and arid air.
Related: How to give yourself an amazing facial at home!
Weekly Routine
7. Exfoliation can be done once a week by several methods, depending on your level of sensitivity. If your skin is highly reactive, you can use a very soft foam sponge that is extra soft yet still has texture enough to accomplish something. Less reactive skin-types can handle BHAs, such as the more gentle form of Salicylic Acid called Betaine Salicylate, and some can even handle an oft-recommended AHA called Mandelic Acid, which also has anti-inflammatory ability similar to Salicylic Acid. Each individual case is different, so getting an individualized evaluation is recommended.
8. Using a mask once or twice a week is a great way to boost and maintain your redness-reducing efforts. I really highly recommend taking advantage of their unique benefits. One of my favorite masks is a gel type that very lightly exfoliates, calms redness, and hydrates, all at the same time. Another great mask calms the skin by cooling above and below the surface, while it also hydrates like crazy. Both are left on for 15 minutes, then removed as much as possible with tissue first to make rinsing easier, and then rinsed all the way with cool or tepid water.
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