People with rosacea often treat their skin with a strategy of avoidance. As if it's allergic to everything.
They usually avoid anything scented, then they cut out anything “heavy” because they want to avoid “anything that, well, does anything...you know?”.
We at Holistic Vanity get really sad when their skin continues to be red and angry so, in aggravation, they stop using everything altogether. Because the way to a calm complexion is to....take away all of its TLC?? This is not a good strategy.
So, we are here to tell you (based on our TWO DECADES of skin examination), how to actually turn this s*#! around.
Here are the 3 things you need to know to temper angry skin.
It’s all about that Base
Too often we focus on active ingredients.
They’re the stars of the beauty show with glittery ad campaigns and claims of scientific evidence behind them. And while we are all about effective actives, they are just a part of the equation.
The bigger part is the BASE of your skincare.
It’s like baking a cake; we need to use quality flours, organic eggs and nut milks to chock it full with nutrition. Whether we use vanilla extract or a dash of cinnamon is a smaller (albeit still influential) part of the recipe.
The base is what the BULK of your product is made up of. But too many companies ignore its importance.
They use icky, gross plasticy chemicals to give body to their products or they stay natural and just water it all down in...well water and fillers.
At Holistic Vanity we are super concentrated and waterless. Instead we use THERAPEUTIC ingredients in our bases like organic green tea oil, rose water, aloe juice and raw argan that’s been hand-ground with love.
So, all parts of our formulas WERK for us. Our bases are formulated together with stuff we have seen werk over and over for the last twenty years. What? We look great for our age? Why, thank you for noticing!
It not about avoidance
Very few problems go away simply through avoidance. And while staying away from triggers is super important, we also have to work on STRENGTHENING our skin’s resilience.
That’s why Holistic Vanity focuses on supporting your skin’s IMMUNITY, bolstering its defenses and making it more ROBUST.
And while lots of people react to scented products, it’s important to understand why. Chemical fragrances and chemically extracted essential oils are common allergens but truly natural, essential oils can help to HEAL sensitive skin.
We know essential oils can be powerful stuff and, in high concentrations, can irritate and burn, so you need to know how to use them or get them from other sources.
Holistic Vanity is a stickler about the right dilutions for sensitive skin -- and the right choice of essential oils, distillates and extracts to encourage regeneration and wound-repair.
There are actually TWO problems happening
While you may think flushing and blushing is the problem, the REAL culprit is dehydrated skin.
Skin dehydration weakens our skin’s barrier function, making it more susceptible to irritation - whether from improper skincare, the weather, wind, hot/cold or redness from stimulated blood pressure.
Your skin may naturally be more easily aggravated by these factors and triggers but dehydration always worsens your reactivity and sensitivity. So avoiding topicals can dry out your skin and lead to even more redness.
To prevent this downward spiral of increased dehydration, our skin needs to be infused with hydration, ideally with something that also contains cell-supporting proteins.
To lock in hydration, follow with a protective emollient like a non-stimulating oil. Obv our pick is Camellia oil, which is derived from the flower that makes green tea. This is like wearing a protective coat for your sensitive skin, shielding it from nasty, harsh weather and creating a barrier against irritating pollutants.
BONUS: It’s not only a Skin Problem
We've discussed the skincare angles to this problem...and those are things your need to know.
But at Holistic Vanity we’re honest that it’s not just about the topicals, there are deeper things at play.
And while topicals can create an environment to heal, redness is also a blood vessel issue. Our skin gets red because our facial blood vessels are dilating...and sometimes.
So skincare needs to help the skin tissue and temper this dilation response and is also why all HOLISTIC inflammatory factors need addressing. That’s why many rosacea triggers are food, alcohol and SUN.
But it’s also your heart. Did we already say it’s cardio? No, we also mean our heart heart: emotional distress is part of the equation.
According to Ayurvedic medicine, all inflammation is governed by the fire element, known as PITTA.
Along with influencing the blood and hormonal system, emotionally, Pitta makes for “fiery characteristics”. Anger, frustration, competitiveness, control, self-pressure and perfectionism are all Pitta emotions.
These stressful feelings also happen to raise our blood pressure, heart rate and produce internal heat, bringing everything full circle.
Topically, emotionally grounding plant ingreds like neroli, chamomile, turmeric and vanilla (not that fake s#!*) can help calm the mind.
But checking in with yourself is very important. Often we don’t realize how stressed we are until our bodies do.
Redness is a reminder that you need some loving attention.