Rosacea Product Advice?

Metrogel seemed to help when I had outbreaks on my cheeks. For some reason it seemed less effective on my nose.

It depends what you are trying to do. For those who don’t know rosacea is a skin condition which is chronic and there is no cure. it is medically fairly benign but causes a lot of psychological distress for sufferers. There are 4 main symptoms. Not everyone gets all of them.
1. Spots after teenage years. This is the classic symptom
2. Red skin, especially in the T-zone. Blushing and flushing are common as is the naturally rosy cheeks. After a while the little blood vessels in the skin can break and leave permanent red trace lines. this is also very common
3. Swelling and growth of the nose. This is your classic old alcoholic look – big red nose. Now rosacea isn’t linked to alcoholism but drinking alcohol flushes your skin so exacerbates it.
4. Eyes: crustiness, weeping esp in the wind, red rims, styes, burst blood vessels in the whites.

For the spots, you should see your GP to clear these up. The medication is effective. Once they are cleared up then you need to not trigger them again. This can be through diet, skin products, herbal remedies – it’s a trial and error game. I don’t get the spots so won’t recommend products

For the red skin there is no cure. You can prevent some flushing by avoiding triggers such as hot and cold environment, foods and alcohol. I am prone to blushing and find that once I start blushing I get embarrassed about being red and blush some more! The only solution is to camouflage your skin with foundation. I use L’Oreal Visible Lift because it blends away my open pores and lasts most of the day. It is light and easy to rub in so doesn’t cause my skin to go red with the rubbing. The advantage for me is that my blushes and flushes are not noticeable so don’t get worse. I wear the foundation everyday. I spent a lot of money trying different products and ending up giving them away because they don’t suit.

My nose is fine for now but the only cure is surgery

My eyes are affected. I wash my skin with Dove Sensitive bar. I pay particular attention to my eyes, washing them thoroughly with hot water. I have been told to put pads soaked in hot water (hot as you can bear) on my eyes for 5 minutes each day. I don’t always do that but should. I also use shampoo and conditioner. I use Tres Semme but as I only wash my hair once a week it doesn’t seem to matter much what I use.

I used tea tree oil on the spot, and rubbed it in regularly. It went away after a few weeks.

The only thing I’ve experienced so far is redness on my face. My doctor, out of nowhere, said it looked like I have rosacea (I can understand why, because my face is always red tinted), and gave me some kind of topical steroid cream. It was completely amazing and got rid of the red 100%, but you can’t use it long term because of what it can do to your skin. So I was hoping that there might be something else, other than the steroids, that could help with redness. Manuka honey is a suggestion for rosacea I keep seeing, but because this is not something I know a lot about, I’m mostly clueless at the moment.

I also keep seeing things on the internet that say if you have rosacea it will inevitably end up getting worse. Is this true? Because like I said, so far I seem to only be suffering from red skin and I want to do absolutely anything I can to prevent it from worsening.

@DrasticDreamer Yes, it will get worse but avoiding the triggers can help slow the process down. For the red skin the only thing is to camouflage it with make-up (foundation) since, as you say, topical steroids can’t be used long term. I definitely would avoid soap and would use products for sensitive skin, non-biological laundry detergent, etc.

@Stinley Okay, thank you. Do you know if the foundation you recommend is oil free? I have oily skin, so I need something that doesn’t have added oil.

@DrasticDreamer I think that foundations generally are oily. But I have quite an oily nose and it seems to work quite well. I’ve tried powder as well but it tended to go sort of flakey and cakey. At make-up counters they sometimes give you samples to try which can be quite generous. Try the Clinique one also as I have heard on forums that it is quite good (yes there is a rosacea forum!)