Many rosacea sufferers are looking for help to reduce the redness of their face. This is one of the first rosacea symptoms that people might notice. It is also one of the symptoms of rosacea that is sadly hardest to treat. What treatments have fellow rosacea sufferers used to hide the ruddiness and angry face that sometimes accompanies rosacea ? Read on where I’ll go through what I see as your current best options.
Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom with your top tips too.
Eucerin Redness Relief
Eucerin Redness Relief is a new range of products from Beiersdorf that contains an extract from Licorice called Licochalcone. The reviews from members of the Rosacea Support Group are generally pretty good. There is also some published evidence that it might help with reducing the appearance of a red face.
Acne Cover Lotion
This particular product is really an acne product, but my personal experience is really positive. It contains sulphur and has a strong ability to cover lesions. I’d see this product as best suited to outbreaks of papules and pustules and possibly also for general larger areas of redness. For more information see Linda Sy’s Acne Cover Lotion. This product might not be suitable for the more sensitive skin types.
[update:] sadly Linda Sy has gone out of business and ACL is no longer available. If you find something suitable as a replacement please let everyone know in the comments below.
Tinted Sunscreens
It seems to me that tinted sunscreens are still underrated as a rosacea treatment. My favourite, that I continue to use every day is Linda Sy’s (now made by RosaceaCare) Tinted ZincO Cream. As well as offering protection from the sun and elements it can cover redness quite well. Even a small amount of flesh coloring in a sunscreen can really lift your self esteem. All red faced rosacea rosacea sufferers would love to feel that their face blends in with the crowd !
More reading on sunscreens here: Rosacea & Sunscreen articles.
Short Course Steroid Creams
In short stints, low dose steroids can help calm a red rosacea flareup. This should be viewed as a last resort, though.
However, I believe that when circumstance requires it, a short-term course of low potency non-fluorinated topical cortisone, on the face of non-rosacean, is not out of the question. There are times when it is important to control an acute condition as soon as possible, to prevent progression or complication and to give relief to the patient. Once this is achieved, a responsible physician will: 1) attempt to find the cause of the condition and treat it accordingly and 2) convey the message that cortisone cream should be discontinued and not be used long-term due to its many side effects such as peri-oral dermatitis, steroid addiction, steroid induced rosacea, skin atrophy etc.
As for rosacean skin, it is definitely a good idea to use all other alternative topicals or oral medications available, rather than use cortisone. This is, as you know, due to the highly excitable reactive skin and vasomotor instability of rosaceans.
Dr. Linda Sy, RSG Message 22628
You’ll get different answers from different doctors AND group members! My own experience with patients has been that if you use a low potency non-fluorinated topical steroid, short term to alleviate symptoms, it is ok.
Steroids should be used with care as over the counter steroids can cause steroid induced rosacea.
If you think you are suffering from steroid induced rosacea you might find this post from Dr. Linda Sy MD helpful: treating steroid induced rosacea.
IPL
IPL, or Intense Pulsed Light is perhaps the best known treatment for a red face. Recently there have been a couple of studies published that were able to prove that IPL is effective in reducing rosacea associated erythema (redness). A couple of great papers are Measuring Erythema (red face) after IPL and IPL is excellent for rosacea (and inded a 2007 followup also IPL excellent for treating red face and broken blood vessels).
I’ve collected a set of 16 items (at the time of writing this article) that are a great place to start if you are interested in IPL. See the IPL Articles category.
KTP Laser
There is some good published articles suggesting that the KTP Laser (KTP stands for Potassium Titanyl Phosphate) is also a good choice for a facial redness. This laser is not talked about much in the online rosacea groups, but the published articles look promising. Have you had experience with this laser ? Please leave a comment below.
- ktp laser good for red face and facial vessels
- treating rosacea with the KTP Laser
- KTP Laser and facial telangiectasias
Eredicane
How about if your redness is related to flushing ?
Eredicane is an OTC non-FDA approved treatment containing Magnesium, Passion Flower, Valerian, Vit B6, Glycine, Glutamine, Primula Officinalis and Taurine. According to their web site, eredicane works thusly ;
Fight Blushing With the Body’s Own Building Blocks
Eredicane’s main ingredient, GABA, is one of the nine essential amino acids found in the brain. GABA inhibits neurons in the cells from firing, thus diminishing the excitatory messages reaching the frontal cortex of the brain.
In essence, GABA lowers the excitatory level of the cell that is about to receive the incoming information, therefore helping to prevent the onset of the sensation that causes blushing.
But does it work ? A long thread over at ESFB, `Has anyone tried “Eredicane??”‘ is inconclusive, showing mixed results.
Cutanix DRL
Unfortunately Cutanix is not currently available. Some members of rosacea-support have found DRL to help their facial redness. It is believed that the FDA has objected to the claims made by the packaging. No information is yet available on if or when DRL will return to the market. I love this product so personally I’m looking forward to it becoming available again. As some background you might like to read the Cutanix Articles on Rosacea News.
[update:] Cutanix DRL is now available from SkinMedica after they bought the product from Cutanix. See SkinMedica Redness Relief CalmPlex launches to replace Cutanix DRL for more information.
Sansrosa / CD07805/47
This option is speculative, but is worth mentioning here in this list. Galderma is in one of the final stages of developing a product that is showing promise as a treatment for the flushing redness of rosacea. The product is informally known as Sansrosa and is also called COL-118 (now CD07805/47) by Galderma. The information currently available suggests that this topical can be used safely for long periods and can reduce the appearance of a red flushed face. I have covered this product extensively, so feel free to look through the sanrosa articles. There is no guarantee that Sansrosa will be approved for general use, but if and when it does get approved, it will offer a treatment option that is not currently available from any other topical.
Oxymetazoline
Some recent research has found that the active ingredient in some nasal decongestants, oxymetazoline, when applied topically can relieve the redness associated with rosacea skin. While nasal decongestants are not formulated to be applied topically to rosacea skin, new custom formulations for rosacea sufferers are likely to be available soon.
Read more about oxymetazoline.
When it isn’t Rosacea
Finally, before launching into some treatment for rosacea, it might also be worth exploring the possibility that your red face isn’t actually rosacea. One good place to explore this further is red face: when flushing isn?t rosacea.
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Give Us Your Feedback !
How have you tackled your red face ? Leave a comment a below and let everyone know your top tips.
209 Comments over 5 pages ↓
Josh dont be discouraged. You have what I have. The chinese call it summer heat. Focus on the foods that you eat. Your body is not dispersing the heat so you have a tendency for your face to turn red.
Eat the following foods:
Cooling Foods which reduce heat signs:
Apple, banana, pear, persimmon, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomato, all citrus, lettuce, radish, cucumber, celery, button mushrooms, asparagus, Swiss chard, eggplant, spinach, summer squash, Chinese cabbage, bock choy, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, zucchini, soy milk, soy sprouts, tofu, tempeh, mung beans and their sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, millet, barley, wheat and its products, amaranth, kelp and all seaweed, spirulina, wild blue-green, oyster-shell calcium, wheat and barley grass, kudzu, yogurt, crab, clam.
Let me know if it helps.
Hey Josh. I feel like I’m living the same life as you… I am 15 and practically live in the basement and everything you said is what I have and am dealling with. How old are you?
Hey chad have you had success with all the healthy eating or… Is it actually not red enough to be noticable? And I feel for you about having to drop out of that job, kind of like how I depose out of public school and went to home school. I feel really connected to every one here…
I am a 30 year old male with rosacea and this is what I know so far: redness relief creams and lotions bought over the counter are a waste of money with no results. I have had 1 IPL treatment and it did not do much but did help slightly. From my research it takes on average 4 or 5 total treatments to get a good result. The reason I only had 1 treatment is that I picked a bad place to go for it, completely unprofessional, but they did make safety a concern, so I will commend them for that. I dont know if I am allowed to state the name of the place and what happened, if I can without getting in any trouble let me know.
What is working the best for me right now and I wish I would have thought of this years ago, is make-ups. If you live in the US this may be helpful as far as other countries not sure where you can purchase these. I sometimes use PHYSICIANS FORMULA CONCEALER TWINS [get the green] sold at Walmart. Also at walmart you can get COVER GIRL CLEAN NORMAL SKIN [comes in a little glass container and is a slightly thick lotion, works ok, but doesnt last really long. What I have been using most lately is from Kmart and it is called RIMMEL LONDON LASTING FINISH 25 HOUR FOUNDATION, and it does seem to last for a while [certainly not 25 hrs] but doesnt wear off as easy as the cover girl. All of the above mentioned products are fairly cheap in cost, but will have to be reapplied often. But works great if you have an indoor meeting or something that isnt going to last long, or just go to the restroom and reapply as needed. I am going to order Sheer Cover advertised on tv soon and see how it works, it looks like a good product at a fair price. I just want to find something that will cover thicker and last longer.
Whenever you are going outdoors use a good sunscreen with zinc, as it has seemed to help with my redness more than any sunscreen without zinc.
As far as all the claims to watch what you eat, it does not pertain to me, I eat all kinds of different foods and see no difference in what my diet is. My biggest triggers are sun, wind, cold, hot, mainly sudden temperature changes is my worst trigger, coming in from the cold, getting out of a hot shower, etc.
Remember, what happens with rosacea is that you veins and capillaries are coming to the surface of your skin, there is no medicine or lotion that is going to remove the capillaries and veins away from the surface of your skin. My best advice at this point of my knowledge is to: protect your skin as much as you can to help prevent it from getting worse [ a good sunscreen with zinc] stop wasting money on redness reduction creams and pills and start saving that money to put towards IPL. Just get a good make-up and your confidence level will increase dramatically, believe me the first time I put make up on and saw the redness disappear instantly, I said to myself why didnt I think of this sooner. So the moral of my story for now is: STOP HAVING A RED FACE AND WORRYING ABOUT WHICH TREATMENT TO USE, JUST COVER IT UP WITH MAKE UP FOR NOW AND SAVE FOR IPL OR LASER, AND IN THE MEAN TIME YOUR PROBLEM IS SOLVED WITH THE MAKE UP. At least that is my philosophy for now and I have had this terrible problem my whole life, so believe me I know what I am talking about.
Anti anflammitory diet helps. Im going to try going to someone who does accupuncture. I am also trying meditation.
So glad to see some of you understand how important diet is. Even if you don’t have trigger foods, bad diet causes inflammation and skins problems.
Chad – good idea to list foods that are more alkaline for the body, but tomato and citrus fruits are not alkaline to the body & corn is one of the top ten allergy foods and should be avoided, along with the grains. Remove all of this from your diet and you should have even better results. Meat is very acidic to the body. Try cutting out all red meat and chicken. Fish is so contaminated by our polluted oceans that most fish is high in mercury and other toxins. At least try eliminating and getting your skin cleared up before you add any of the acidic toxic foods back in.
Someone mentioned about Chinese. There is also Ayurvedic medicine too that talks about too much heat in the body, and skin and health problems it causes. I think Deepak Chopra wrote a really good book and how to tell what type your body is.
Some people can get away with eating anything, some people just can’t and it always shows in their skin. The liver has a lot to do with how healthy we are. Cleansing the liver should be a must too. Burdock Root is excellent for cleansing the blood.
My name is kamlesh , working in dubai i am suffering from reddness on face from long time i have a red spot on my chiks which become too much red sometimes when i contact of heat , sunlight or atmosphere disorder i feel burning on my face & ears i have shown to many doctors they are giving some oiement to apply i appling those oiement but no result
Please help me to find write treetment
My journey to find a cure for flushing continues….. I have found that diet does play a major role (esp caffeine and alcohol). I also drink a glass of water that has two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar with every meal. Reducing stress (through meditation, positive affirmations, and working out) along with changing my diet have helped tremendously. I am going to make a journal regarding the steps that I am taking to reduce/eliminate flushing. I will post it daily on this site. God Bless everybody. Dont give up!!
PS If you work in an office/bar/etc and have a flare up get some ice and hold it with your tongue to the roof of your mouth this will help to eliminate the redness.
Meditation is a plus, It helps the body heal. Acupuncture is excellent. Find a website or book that shows acupunture points and use some of the pressure points yourself. Deep breathing is important, helps bring new oxygen to all your body parts which speeds healing at all levels.
Be careful with the apple cidar vinegar, it made things worse for me. I needed more alkaline foods, that made a big difference.
If there is too much heat in your skin, there is definitely too much heat in your liver.