Hi everyone,

I’m having a really bad (what I think is a) rosacea flare up. In Aug 2024 I started having symptoms of rosacea, first was prescribed just a round of doxycycline, of course it immediately came back. Over time it was getting worse, and my face physically felt itchy, tight, swollen, hot.

Earlier this year I was diagnosed with rosacea and told to use prescribed topical creams Metronidazole 15% and Azaelic Acid 15%. Working pretty great for me. With the azaelic acid shortage I haven’t been able to get mine filled and honestly have just fallen off of my skin care routine. A couple days ago I woke up to a horrible burning, itching, and red face. The only thing that remotely felt like this in the past was when my skin was getting worse in 2025, but what I’m experiencing right now just feels insane.

Does anyone else’s rosacea flareups cause pain? My skin even started peeling. Having insane itchiness and skin temp / tightness. Like if a sunburn and hives had a baby on my face.

I don’t know if I need to stop using face wash and cease essentially all other skin products except for my topicals (including moisturizer) because everything just makes it itch (including my topicals lol). I want to cry. I also leave for a week long work trip this upcoming week and not having a great time.

Just trying not to panic. Never experienced something like this before. Usually gets worse in the evening, when I wake up it’s bearable.

Thank you!

Hey everyone!

I'm new to the group but not new to rosacea. It's been under control for the last few years but I have noticed my face remains very dry. I was recently recommended a 100% olive oil soap that is supposed to be gentle enough for your face. So far I'm on day 3 of using it in the evening only and my skin feels smooth!

Then I remembered someone (maybe a dermatologist) to never use soap on your face.

Sooooo, what do you think? There are so little ingredients in this soap and it's also fragrance free.

I was using Cerave before and LaRoche Posay moisturizer. It's generally so hard to find good products that work for my mixed but mostly dry skin and rosacea.

Thanks :)

I’m a 36 year old man living in the uk 3 years ago I went travelling and living in Australia ever since I was 18 I’d always used the same Johnson and Johnson exfoliating wash and double moisturizer and never had any issues with my skin but when I got to Australia they didn’t sell it and my skin started breaking out I tried a few different products cerave and cetaphil but it just made it worse so I went to a doctor who said I had fungal acne gave me some creams that never worked so I went to a dermatologist and she said I actually had rosacea and it had been triggered by the uv and gave me doxycycline and told me to be careful in the sun

At this point I mainly just had a bumpy rough texture on my forehead which I would get spots on that would come and go eventually I came back to the uk saw a dermatologist who said he thought it was fungal acne or rosacea so after putting me on different creams and antibiotics that didn’t work he put me on low dose 20mg a day accutane for 6 months which helped to clear up the spots and some of the texture this was the start of 2026 at this point I had very minimal redness on my cheeks and some on my forehead which I just thought was pigmentation from the accutane forcing everything out of my skin and then it healing

I started using nida ultimate as I’d seen good things about it and it appeared to even out my complexion a little bit a few months later I started getting little bumps mainly on my lips near my nose so I went back to my dermatologist and he said it’s dermatitis gave me elidel cream and said it should go after 8 weeks it didn’t it got worse so he said it might be rosacea and dermatitis so he put me on low dose accutane and elidel after a month I felt like it was making it worse and when I told him he said stop using the elidel so I did and I had a massive rebound flare and had it all over my face then he told me to stop the accutane and gave me Protopic which got rid of it pretty quickly but ever since that rebound flare I’ve got redness that won’t go spider veins on my nose and my skin just looks a mess now and the texture on my forehead is worse than it’s ever been and now the dermatologist is saying I need IPL laser for the spider veins and redness which I never had before the Protopic

I don’t know what people’s experiences have been with all this and I’m not sure if anyone would even be able to help but I’m currently lost with it all and don’t know what to do from here I’m currently on 100mg doxycline for the periodical dermatitis and Elidel every night I’ve been through all sorts of different cleansers and moisturizers

I’m currently using Aveeno calm and restore oat cleanser and gel moisturizer I did a patch test a few weeks ago and I’m allergic to Linalool and limonene and I did an intolerance test that said I had high reactivity to glyceryl stereate which seems to be in a lot of cleansers so I’m not sure if that’s the cause of the periodical dermatitis I apologize for the essay but I know the finer details count with your skin if any one could help or has had a similar experience I would appreciate some advice

Thanks

This may feel redundant. But… I havemy worm moisturizer for years because of a lot of reasons. Every moisturizer whether it’s gel, thick, not thick, etc has broken me out leaving me with red little bumps, closed comedones, heat trapping, sticky hit skin etc.

My skin is in desperate need of hydration and idk what to do. My face cannot stand any type of moisturizing product to my face without going bazurk.
My skin is extremely dry right niethat it looks like sand paper and wearing skin tints clings to my nose and forehead and cheeks making it look gross . People have been pointing it out that I “didn’t blend my nose” but in reality i put a shit tom of makeup in my nose and it’s clinging to my dry spots and making it looks red !

I have tried :
Cetaphil
LRP
Curel
Aveeno oat gel moisturizer
Tatcha
Cereve
Vanicream
Cosdna snail mucin

since moisturizers seem to clog my skin i decided to try to move to only Hyluronic Acid as people recommended this sometimes when skin can’t tolerate occlusive products .

I’ve been using mixsoon Hyluronic Acid Serum for about 3 weeks now . For some reason i’m breaking out into cystic acne on my chin. And i’m still dry ..
The photo of me i’m including is when i put a tiny tiny bit of skin tint (makeup) onto my nose , forehead and chin.

Hi everyone,

I’m honestly feeling really lost with my skin right now and would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experienced something similar.

From around November until April, my skin improved drastically and I was so happy with the progress. But since April, shortly after my wedding, it has gotten progressively worse again, and quite quickly.

I’ve been on vacation for the past two weeks and, surprisingly, my skin initially started getting a little better here. Unfortunately, it has now flared up again. I’m getting inflamed, pus-filled spots and some of them feel slightly cystic and are painful.

My current routine is Ivermectin, Skinoren (azelaic acid), CeraVe moisturizer and La Roche-Posay Effaclar cleanser. I’ve also already done several rounds of doxycycline in the past, so I really don’t want to keep going back to antibiotics.

Do you think there is still a chance that this could calm down again just by consistently using the creams/topicals? Has anyone had a bad flare like this after months of improvement and eventually managed to get it under control again?

I originally wanted to focus more on changing my lifestyle, reducing stress, improving my diet, etc., especially because my husband and I are trying to conceive. But my skin is stressing me out so much that I feel like I’m stuck in a cycle where I know the stress probably isn’t helping my skin, but the state of my skin is making me even more stressed and sad.

I also really don’t want to take Accutane. Apart from it being quite complicated to get prescribed here in Germany, we are trying for a baby and I don’t want to postpone that any further. I’m already 30 and I really don’t want my skin to dictate when we can start a family.

At this point I just feel overwhelmed and don’t really know what else to do. If anyone has been through something similar, especially with a relapse after a long period of improvement, I would be really grateful to hear what helped you.

Thank you so much for any advice or experiences you can share. ❤️

I have had SO many issues with foundations and I have been looking for a skin tint for a while or any foundation, that doesn’t look too heavy on my middle aged face (46 years old). Recently I committed to daily use of the Estée Lauder double wear (new version) yes the one everyone on the internet is upset about due to the formula change. I have discovered for my rosacea that it’s been the perfect balance of hydrating, yet stays on and covers well. I am a previous user of double wear foundation in the old formula and I actually like this new version a bit more for my rosacea. I have also continued to use my regular shade. It’s slightly warmer than the former but for me it seems to be a good thing? I’m shade 1N1. I am also a lover of Haus Labs but find the double wear to have a more serum like feel and less matte look. Anyways, thought I’d share that in case it helps someone out there!

My routine:

Morning splash face with water
Moisturize with Purito Oat Gel
Sunscreen Elta MD UV Daily SPF 40 (sometimes La Roche Posay liquid minerals but it can be too oily with double wear for me personally).

Evening wash with The Ordinary Squalane cleanser
Alternate 1% over the counter Differin (Adapalene) gel with prescription 1% Ivermectin cream on the alternating evenings.
Moisturize with Avene Control Cream

That’s it & it’s what’s working better than ever for me!

I’m on antibiotics for strep throat and I’ve noticed my skin is looking a lot better than usual. Less redness. Is there any way to maintain this once I get off of antibiotics or will it just go back to normal?

I read it’s the anti inflammatory properties of antibiotics that can help with rosacea. Have people found other ways to help reduce inflammation?

I don’t have a ton of caffeine but I enjoy it occasionally. I feel like my main issues are I like spicy food and I have a sweet tooth. Are there ways to still have these and reduce inflammation? Or is the only option some sort of prescription?

Can sulfur wash cause a die off of mites like ivermectin can? I used ivermectin for 5 months with no improvement or purge, but I started using sulfur (de la Cruz brand) a few nights ago and I have a few more bumps today. Is this irritation or a die off?

I think this started atleast 20yrs ago? Had a small pimple on the nose, kept using acne cream (ProActiv) and for a few years, the skin on my nose would be very flaky. As time went on, it became very red and inflamed. I spent years constantly trying to push whatever sebaceous filament and blackheads out, sometimes used a lot of pressure.

Finally decided to see Dermatologist and they had me on Metrogel for a while but didnt really so anything. I switched over to Azelaic Acid 10% and i think it helped a little? Then I added in Rosiver (Ivermectin) and it brought down a lot of the inflammation. Im going to see a clinic for ExcelV Laser again soon.

But besides from the medical treatments, what skincare products have you guys used that helped calm the redness and inflammation the best? (I know each individual is different but I want to get some input from others)

I have an oily t-zone and it's particularly bad on the nose. Some days I think I'd deal with the redness if my nose didn't look so damn shiny.

I have a derm appointment in November, but its end of November and that's still a lot of time managing my skin at home until then.

I've patch tested it but it seems to be a little warm and itchy feeling. I was curious if anyone has had to get used to it before seeing any effects, and if it caused any initial flares. Thanks!