I have seen thousands of cases of rosacea over the last 9 years and this is my explanation of it.  Rosacea is a genetic skin condition in which your blood vessels are closer to the surface of the skin than the average person’s and they get inflamed more easily than in the average person.  So….if you have red cheeks, forehead or chin you might have rosacea.  Do you become red when you exercise, are hot, agitated, drink caffeine or red wine?  Then you probably have rosacea.  As time goes by instead of only becoming red in these circumstances, you may start to be slightly pink on a consistent basis.  So when you are sitting in a nice air conditioned room, drinking a cold glass of water and you have pink cheeks…this is rosacea.  Sometimes acne comes along with rosacea, thankfully the pimples, bumps, pustules portion of rosacea is fairly easy to treat.  As is most acne….that is a subject for another blog post.

So, if you have rosacea, what should you do?  Move to a cool climate and avoid anything that will get you excited or hot and never drink red wine or caffeine.  Not to realistic right??  I wish rosacea were as easy to treat as acne, unfortunately what might work for one person doesn’t always work for another.   I will say this, those permanently dilated blood vessels on your face can be treated with a laser or IPL machine.  Both with great results, this does not mean that you won’t continue to get red in certain circumstances but it does mean that we can decrease and sometimes completely eradicate the redness when you are calm.   It is definitely a very achievable goal to have rosacea and to only be red when you are in the aforementioned circumstances.  It is my goal with each of my patients to give their skin the appearance of little to no redness when they are not hot, exercising or drinking wine or caffeine.  Can this be done?  Yes!!!

Their are a few products that consistently receive praise from my rosacea patients, you know, when a patient comes back and says “I really LOVE that product, thank you so much for telling me about it, it makes a huge difference in the color of my skin!!”  My first highly recommended product is Green Tea Serum with Caffeine by Replenix.  Studies have shown that both green tea and caffeine used topically help to decrease the vasodilation that occurs with blood vessels in the case of rosacea.   This is not an expensive product and gives noticeable results.  The second product that I HIGHLY recommend is Journee Bio-Restorative Day Cream by Neocutis.  You probably know that I am a huge proponent of human growth factors for many reasons, well this cream contains human growth factors, green tea and SPF 30 – that is a lot of good stuff in one cream.  I don’t have rosacea and I personally make sure to apply this every single morning for the benefits of all the ingredients this amazing cream contains.  My third recommendation is Rosaclear by Obagi.  Obagi is known for their Nuderm System.  In fact they are the number one skincare system sold in the world because of their Nuderm System.  I never recommend the Nuderm System for rosacea patients, it is just way too irritating for their skin.  That being said, Obagi’s Rosaclear system was introduced in 2009 and quickly became a huge hit with my patients.  This was one of those creams that people would come back and rave about.  So finally after years of seeing patients with this annoying yet very common skin condition, I have three topical treatments that I can turn to and will almost always end up with a very happy patient.   As always please feel free to leave your comments, or contact me with any questions.