My sister, a nurse, told me to stop using a certain type of chemical peel on rosacea-prone skin.

She saw me working on a friend with mild rosacea and said, 'You're going to make it worse with that acid.' I ignored her for months, thinking my training covered it. Then a regular customer in Portland had a bad flare-up after I used a 15% glycolic solution. Now I only use lactic or azelaic acids for those conditions. What other gentle actives do you all trust for sensitive, red skin?

2 comments

2 Comments

quinn_nguyen15d agoTop Commenter

Portland's water is already pretty soft, but that flare-up story hits home. I've had good luck mixing a tiny bit of oat extract into calming serums, it's not a direct active but really helps the barrier. Sometimes just leaving the skin alone with a basic ceramide cream for a few weeks does more than any acid.

river18215d ago

Yeah that part about leaving skin alone with a ceramide cream is so true. I feel like we all get stuck trying to fix things with another product when just stopping is the real fix. Quinn_nguyen is right, a basic routine for a few weeks lets your skin actually heal itself instead of fighting new ingredients. I had to learn that the hard way after overdoing it with retinoids last year.