Rosacea is a frustrating and uncomfortable skin concern, where the skin of the face flushes red and becomes hot. It can also cause pimples and swelling, and if severe enough, can cause broken blood vessels which are permanently visible on the surface of the skin. Sufferers often find that flare-ups occur at the most inconvenient times, and can be very hard to cover up with makeup. Luckily though, there are steps that people with rosacea can take to prevent, or reduce the frequency of their flare-ups.
Identify your triggers
Most people with rosacea will have at least one trigger – an underlying cause for their flare-ups. There are a huge variety of different triggers, but here are a few to get you started:
- Spicy foods
- Wind and cold
- Sunlight
- Stress
- Makeup
- Exercise
- Heat
- Crying
- Alcohol
- Harsh skincare
Keep a diary or notebook with you, and every time you have a flare up, jot down a list of everything you were doing before it happened. You should see a pattern eventually. Once you have established what triggers flare up you can then try to avoid or minimise these triggers.
Caring for rosacea-prone skin
Once you know what your triggers are, you can also take steps to strengthen your skin and reduce the likeliness of future flare-ups.
- Protect your skin from the sun with a gentle SPF30
- Avoid distress by adopting a calming technique like meditation, mindfulness or yoga
- Avoid food and drink triggers as much as possible
- Use extremely gentle, hypoallergenic skincare
- Avoid essential oils and fragranced products
- Find a foundation that doesn’t cause flare-ups, and use it daily in winter to create a protective barrier from the cold.
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Treatment for rosacea
Of course, you can’t avoid your triggers forever, and the longer you experience rosacea flare-ups, the more likely you are to end up with permanent vascular lesions – broken blood vessels, pimples and areas of redness. This can take a real toll on your confidence, but the good news is that you don’t have to put up with it. There are treatments available for these vascular lesions, Such as Intense Pulsed Light, also known as IPL. IPL is a fantastic treatment for vascular lesions associated with rosacea. This treatment uses pulses of specifically filtered light waves to target the broken capillaries and redness in the skin, which the body is then able to flush out of your system, leaving behind clear, even, blemish-free skin.
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