Rosacea Skin Care Products -
Cosmetics Guide

You know that your rosacea skin care products are essential in your fignt with this skin disorder.  But when it's time to "kick up your heels", rosacea cosmetics can be a lifesaver when planning an important social event and your rosacea condition doesn’t want to cooperate. Having to face the blemishes and redness of rosacea can be difficult, but help is on the way!

Having the knowledgeable and creative use of rosacea skin care products and special cosmetics can make the difference between a fun-filled memorable event and a social disaster.  Using make up specially formulated with rosacea in mind, can assist you in concealing the rosy red glow, visible blood vessels, and pimples often caused by the skin condition.

In addition to a daily facial cleansing regimen, effective make up camouflaging techniques are available. For example, green makeup can be used to counteract your facial redness. In fact, green tinted pre-foundations are available at most cosmetic counters in either liquid or cream form.

For an added spot of moisture on your skin, a green tinted moisturizer is also available on the market.

After applying your green foundation, follow up with a skin tone foundation. Be careful to only choose foundations with natural yellow tones. The pink or orange hues should be avoided. Depending on the quality and thickness of the make up, you can generally expect moderate to heavy coverage and masking abilities.  A mineral based makeup is generally best and has less chance of irritating your sensitive skin.

As a general rule, you should only select make up with high quality formulations – forget the bargain rack cosmetics. It is this key factor that determines how the make up will interact on your skin.

Also consider using a powder - it will help keep the applied make up in place. The powder may also increase and lengthen the effectiveness of any sunscreen properties in the make up.

When applying make up over rosacea, it is recommended that a brush be used rather than sponge tipped applicators. The reason being is that the brush can be cleaned more effectively.

And don’t forget to replace your make up and other cosmetics on a regular basis – generally every 3-6 months. Cosmetics can actually grow bacteria, as well as breakdown, over time. Better safe than sorry in this instance.

Ocular Rosacea and Makeup Care 

Patients suffering from ocular rosacea need to be especially careful in their selection of cosmetics that might react negatively around their eyes. Those individuals should avoid the use of liquid eyeliners to prevent eye irritation. A make up pencil is a great alternative. Also avoid waterproof mascara products as they are difficult to remove and can be a problem for those suffering from ocular rosacea.

As you select rosacea make up and other rosacea skin care products, those suffering from rosacea should try to avoid ingredients that adversely affect their specific skin conditions. Interestingly, a survey conducted by the National Rosacea Society on skin care products identified a number of common ingredients that can aggravate rosacea for many individuals.

Over a 1,000 acne rosacea patients identified the following ingredients as contributing to a flare-up of their symptoms:

• alcohol (66 %),
• witch hazel (30 %),
• fragrance (30 %),
• menthol (21 %),
• peppermint (14 %) and,
• eucalyptus oil (13 %).

This is a general list of ingredients that might be found in your rosacea cosmetics or makeup and should be avoided, if at all possible. However, it is your individual rosacea symptoms and situation that will ultimately dictate which of these ingredients you may wish to avoid in your rosacea skin care products and cosmetics.