Red, irritated, inflamed skin—even to the point of pain. These are symptoms that rosacea, eczema, and psoriasis all share. And beyond the physical discomfort, they can seriously impact your confidence. As someone who has dealt with chronic eczema flare-ups for years, I know firsthand just how much skin irritation can affect your entire life. I’ve done everything from wearing turtlenecks to hide the patches on my neck, chest, and arms, to cancelling plans at the last minute because I felt self-conscious about how I looked (and because I was so. damn. itchy).
That’s why I’m writing a series of three articles on rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, and the best skincare ingredients to try if you live with one of these conditions. If you’re here, welcome to the first installment all about rosacea!
Why talk about these skin conditions? Because education is a powerful tool—not just for healing your skin, but for reducing the stigma around the very real and very normal symptoms that so many of us deal with.
If you’re familiar with our founder, Graydon Moffat, you might know her personal skin journey includes rosacea. In fact, the challenges she faced while trying to manage her rosacea was part of what inspired her to start this skincare brand. We actually talked about this recently in an interview, where she shared how difficult it was to not only navigate treating her rosacea, but deal with the pain and confidence blows that came with it.
I’ve included a photo of Graydon from back in the day experiencing papulopustular rosacea (or type 2 rosacea). Many confuse this for acne, and at the time Graydon thought she was simply breaking out!
Like many people with hyper sensitive skin, it felt like everything Graydon tried to soothe her skin didn’t work—or only offered temporary relief. It took her a long time to find tools and strategies that actually helped her rosacea. This type of trial and error is not uncommon, especially when you aren’t sure what will irritate your skin. Hopefully, this article will give you a good jumping off point so your own trial and error period can be shorter.
Below, you’ll find a simple breakdown of what rosacea is, what it can look like on your skin, some practical tips Graydon has found effective for managing it, and a list of ingredients and products you might want to try.
Having a deeper understanding of your rosacea and how to support your skin can be incredibly empowering. This is just the beginning—there’s much more to come in the rest of this three-part series on rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, and the gentle ingredients that can help with these conditions.
Find the other parts here:
All About Rosacea
Like I shared earlier, Graydon lives with rosacea, and it’s a big reason why she’s so dedicated to formulating skincare for sensitive skin. Graydon first started experiencing rosacea in high school, and at the time her treatment consisted of her mother slathering her in cortisol cream and going to get weekly allergy shots at the doctor’s office.
Not only was it painful and difficult to navigate, but it was also a blow to Graydon’s confidence and feelings of self worth. It was only when Graydon started getting curious—not just about skincare but what a holistic approach to skin health might look like—that she found real, impactful ways to manage her rosacea.
Your skin needs more than just topical products—it needs a holistic approach that considers your skin’s overall health and longevity.
There’s no known cure for rosacea, but Graydon has discovered tools and strategies to keep flare ups mostly at bay. While it’s not realistic to expect your rosacea to disappear entirely, managing redness and irritation doesn’t have to take over your life.
What exactly is rosacea and what causes it?
Rosacea is an inflammatory skin condition that commonly affects the skin on your face, particularly your nose, cheeks, and forehead—but can appear anywhere on your face, neck, and head. Though it can show up early, like it did for Graydon, most people develop rosacea after age 30. It also tends to be more common in women with fair skin.
Rosacea appears most often as swollen, red, or flushed skin. (We’ll get into the different types of rosacea next.) In addition to how it looks, rosacea can cause discomfort like burning, stinging, pain or irritation in the affected areas.
The root cause of rosacea is still unknown, but there are a few things that commonly trigger flare ups, including sun exposure, stress, extreme temperatures, irritating skin or hair products, spicy food, and alcohol consumption.
Hormones changes can also play a role. Back when Graydon was teaching yoga, she often heard from clients who noticed their skin changed dramatically as they aged. As estrogen levels decline—particularly during menopause—rosacea flare-ups can become more frequent. You may also notice changes tied to your menstrual cycle.
What does rosacea look like on the skin?
There are four types of rosacea, and each one shows up a little differently. The most common is erythematotelangiectatic rosacea (what a mouthful!). It’s also called type 1 rosacea. This is the type that appears on your skin as overall redness and swelling. You’ll also notice broken and/or enlarged blood vessels on the skin.
Papulopustular rosacea (aka type 2 rosacea) is the kind that can often be confused with acne, as it causes fluid-filled pimples to form on your skin alongside swelling. This is often—but not always—paired with general skin redness.
If you aren’t sure if you have papulopustular rosacea or acne, ask yourself if the condition tends to worsen in the sun. If it does, it’s likely an inflammatory skin condition and quite possibly rosacea, not acne. Some acne products that contain ingredients like salicyclic acid or clarifying ingredients can also worsen rosacea.
Skin Therapist Seanna Cohen, when meeting with clients, would often ask them if their breakouts got worse in the sun. On her own face, Seanna sometimes gets reactions on her cheeks. Her advice? “I usually apply either zinc or salicylic acid to the spot to see if it gets better or worse.” Zinc is typically good for inflammatory skin irritations, while salicylic acid is good for breakouts (and can worsen rosacea).
Phymatous rosacea is characterized by the skin swelling, thickening (this happens due to something called hyperplasia), and developing a bumpy texture. This type of rosacea most often affects your nose and sometimes the skin on your cheeks around the nose.
Ocular rosacea affects your eyes, causing them to look bloodshot.
For those with darker skin, rosacea can be more difficult to diagnose because it doesn't always look red or flushed. Instead, it may show up as darker, discoloured, or slightly purplish patches. But other key signs—like swelling, visible blood vessels, and acne-like bumps—are still present.
Graydon’s Tips
Managing rosacea is about more than what you put on your skin—though anti-inflammatory skincare is a huge help.
When it comes to the tips and strategies Graydon uses to manage her rosacea, she takes a holistic approach. Because stress is a major trigger for her, she leans on mindfulness and meditation when she needs to ground herself. She’s also thoughtful about her diet and avoids foods that cause inflammation (though of course, exceptions happen—we’re all human!).
Naturally, Graydon uses skincare products that are gentle and free from common irritants. She sticks to her own formulations (no surprise there) because they’re designed to nourish, support, and strengthen skin without fragrance or harsh additives.
When flare-ups hit hard, she turns to a thick layer of Putty and even uses ice to cool her skin—sometimes in the form of frozen cubes made from Face Food facial mist. Since sun exposure is a major trigger for her, she takes extra care with sun protection: SPF, hats, and full-coverage clothing are all key parts of her routine.
The thread connecting all of these practices? Consistency. That’s Graydon’s #1 tip. A regular self-care routine can help you shift from reacting to flare-ups to preventing them altogether.
Consistency is Graydon’s #1 tip to shift from reacting to flare-ups to preventing them altogether.
If you currently aren’t having a rosacea flare-up or your flare-up has gone away, consistency is still important. If your redness and swelling has gone down, that's a sign to keep doing what you’re doing rather than consider yourself “healed” and no longer in need of skin support.
Beyond what has worked for Graydon personally, some other common treatments for rosacea include oral medication, topical products (medicated or otherwise), and laser therapy. Lifestyle changes are a big aspect of managing rosacea. I know a few people who keep a journal or have a record in their notes app of when they’ve had flare ups and the potential triggers. Identifying patterns is a game-changer and allows you to hone in on what needs to change in your life to improve your skin.
Here’s the TL;DR version of Graydon’s tips:
- Identify your personal flare-up triggers and try to avoid them (for Graydon, the sun is a big one!)
- Make lifestyle changes to reduce stress and support your health (think mindfulness, movement, and diet)
- Stick to a skincare routine full of gentle, anti-inflammatory products
- Stay consistent with any lifestyle changes you make
- On tough days, use something cooling to soothe irritation
Skincare for Rosacea
If you’ve been struggling with rosacea for a while, I can guess that you’ve probably already been to a doctor or a dermatologist and not found the solution you were looking for. When talking about this article with Seanna, who has had many clients frustrated with their rosacea, she told me that many of them have had negative experiences with a family doctor or derm. The stories are similar: they’re given a five minute consultation and a one-size-fits-all treatment for their rosacea, such as a prescription retinol or antibiotic.
While that might work wonders for some, it isn’t effective for everyone. There are other ingredients, many of them natural, that studies show have had a noticeable improvement on rosacea.
I’ll share more about them below, plus some rosacea-friendly products. Even if you have a good prescribed treatment, complimentary skincare can boost results. A study even found that a rosacea treatment was more effective when paired with a barrier repair moisturizer.
Azelaic Acid
Azelaic acid has been an FDA-approved treatment for papulopustular rosacea since 2002, when a 15% azelaic acid gel was approved. Since then, numerous studies have been done that show azelaic acid is effective at treating both papulopustular rosacea and acne vulgaris, both categorized by fluid-filled pustules, papules, and inflammation.
Azelaic acid works by reducing inflammation and killing bacteria, which helps with redness, pustules, papules, swelling, and bumps. Alongside azelaic acid being antibacterial, it offers very gentle chemical exfoliation to remove dead skin cells, which helps with reducing congestion. Azelaic acid is also good for fading post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, which is great when you’re often dealing with inflammation, as the papules and pustules caused by rosacea can leave behind spots of hyperpigmentation once they are gone.
Find azelaic acid in Face Foam.
Zinc
Zinc oxide not only has anti-inflammatory properties that can help reduce the redness and swelling associated with rosacea, but it actually acts as a physical barrier for UV rays, helping protect your skin from sun damage. As we know, the sun is a common trigger for rosacea, so the shielding and soothing properties of zinc make it a great ingredient to look for in your skincare. Zinc oxide has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and wound healing properties.
On top of this, zinc oxide is suitable for sensitive skin and is non-comedogenic, meaning it won’t clog your pores.
Find zinc in Putty, Face Glow, and Face Food.
Other Gentle, Anti-inflammatory Ingredients to Look For
Rosacea-Friendly Products to Try
While all of Graydon Skincare’s products are clinically proven for sensitive skin, there are a few that make great additions to your routine if you are someone who has rosacea. Please keep in mind that none of these skincare products are direct cures or treatments, but rather might help soothe and calm rosacea-prone skin.
Face Foam
Face Foam is an ultra gentle foaming cleanser that contains azelaic acid.
It offers light exfoliation to remove dead skin cells without irritating delicate skin. A big plus to Face Foam is that it is totally fragrance free. Since people with rosacea tend to have skin that is more alkaline (read more about the microbiome and acid mantle here), it is helpful to use products that are pH-balanced (like Face Foam) to support the skin’s barrier, which protects your skin from outside irritants.
Face Foam can be particularly helpful for anyone who has papulopustular rosacea and may struggle with oil imbalance. Cleansing two times per day is often recommended and Face Foam thoroughly cleanses without over drying skin.
One reviewer, Kelly L, shared: “I have rosacea, oily, dry, crazy skin, or had I should say. Within a week this cleanser helped to ‘normalize’ my skin. It’s super gentle but still gets makeup off!”
Putty
Putty is our super soothing moisturizer designed to help with red, dry, irritated skin.
In fact, Graydon even formulated this product with her own skin in mind. Putty contains zinc, and also includes some great anti-inflammatory ingredients like colloidal oatmeal, tamanu oil, carrot seed oil, and turmeric. It's an occlusive moisturizer that repairs the skin barrier and prevents TEWL.
Stephanie T. shared about Putty: “Putty is everything I want in a face cream for my sensitive, rosacea prone skin. It sinks in very quickly and helps to calm my sometimes splotchy tone. The smell is great and you really only need the smallest amount for it to be effective. I use it day and night and it's never too heavy even for summer days.”
Face Glow
Face Glow is another product that contains not only zinc oxide, but also soothing aloe vera and pumpkin seed oil (a rich source of zinc in and of itself).
It’s gentle on sensitive skin, but what makes Face Glow a really great product to try out if you have rosacea is that it offers a tinted, blurred effect to the skin which can help hide redness without having to use a heavier makeup product for coverage. It’s personally a favourite of mine, and I’ve replaced my foundation with Face Glow and a light layer of powder over top as foundations often irritate my skin.
Alia Z. wrote: “Light, clean, and makes my skin look radiant. Protects from the cold weather and eliminated my rosacea. I love it so much, I caught myself looking in the mirror and thought, damn! I haven’t seen my skin look this good (in the winter) in a while. No need for anything else on your skin when you have face glow.”
Doris M. shared: “It doesn’t bother my rosacea, yeah! I use this product as a foundation because it evens out my skin tone and provides just enough coverage, while looking natural. It’s a must have.”
Take Care of Your Skin
If you’re newly diagnosed with rosacea and don’t yet have a toolkit of strategies to soothe flare ups and reduce their frequency, start slow and experiment with different options. While there are treatments for rosacea that are tried and tested, there might be some things that seem to work for others that don’t quite work for you. For example, a topical product that is someone’s holy grail for rosacea might irritate yours. There’s always going to be a trial and error period when you’re trying to find out what works for you.
If you’re already well-versed on rosacea, I hope the section on skincare and ingredients helps you find new products and ingredients to explore—hopefully, a soothing solution is on the horizon for you. Many of the links in that section will lead you to even more research and information.
Having a skin condition like rosacea can be painful—not just for your skin but for your confidence. If your rosacea has ever made you feel self-conscious, know this: we’re often our own toughest critics. We spend so much time analyzing our skin in the mirror—poking, prodding, worrying. But most people won’t notice the redness... and if they do? Your confidence and presence will always shine brighter.
Take care of your skin. You deserve it ❤️
Part 2 of this article series on skin conditions (and the best ingredients for them) is on eczema. Read more about my personal experiences with eczema and my best tips for navigating the good, the bad, and the itchy here.
