Best Rosacea Skin Care Treatment

By Cynthia Bailey MD.

best rosacea skin careFind the Best Rosacea Skin Care Treatment to Heal Your Rosacea. It is important to fight rosacea with the right hypoallergenic skin care products and routine. Rosacea is common and I've treated thousands of patients with it during my 35 years of dermatology practice. I have it myself. Over my career I've developed skin care routines to control rosacea for people with an infinite variety of skin types, budgets and product preferences.

Find the best dermatologist's skin care products and information to help you control your rosacea.

Rosacea is common. It’s also a skin problem that can come back over and over.

You need to understand your rosacea-prone complexion so that you can pick the best rosacea skin care products to keep your complexion clear, healthy, and comfortable. - Dermatologist Dr. Cynthia Bailey Rosacea Expert

How do you know if you have rosacea?

symptoms of rosacea

The symptoms of rosacea include:

  • flushing and stinging of the skin,
  • facial redness on the rounded 'apples' of the face,
  • extreme skin sensitivity,
  • pimples and pustules, typically not associated with blackheads,
  • enlarged oil glands and small oil gland growths called sebaceous hyperplasia papules,
  • prominent facial capillaries.

Here you will find the best hypoallergenic rosacea skin care products I use to treat my rosacea patients in my dermatology practice.

Your skin care routine will make or break your rosacea control. The foundation of your skin care routine needs to support rosacea healing. I have a very specific collection of products that I use to build skin care for people suffering from rosacea. I also use these products on my own rosacea-prone complexion. Believe me, my patients and I have put these products to the test!

Why it is best to use only non-irritating and hypoallergenic skin care products on your rosacea-prone skin?

It is important to know that having rosacea makes your skin sensitive. This means two important points regarding your skin care product choices:

  1. You need to use only the most soothing rosacea skin care products that don’t irritate your sensitive, rosacea prone skin.
  2. You also want to avoid products that are made with potent skin allergens.

Many skin care product ingredients will penetrate readily into your rosacea-prone skin, and allergen exposure can create troublesome, lifelong allergic skin reactions. It is important to use only hypoallergenic products on your face when you have rosacea. Sun exposure can trigger rosacea so you also need to wear a good broad spectrum, hypoallergenic sunscreen on your face daily. 

Dermatologist's Top Tips for Treating Rosacea

best rosacea skin care routine

To get the best results use nonirritating skin care products to create a layered Dr. Bailey Complete Skin Care Routine™ for the 4 essential steps to keep your skin healthy including:

  1. CLEANSE 
  2. CORRECT
  3. HYDRATE
  4. PROTECT 

Dermatologist's Skin Care to Heal Rosacea:

best rosacea skin care treatment dermatologist's
My Redness Relief Kit is the foundation of the best and most successful rosacea skin care routines. This includes two products: Calming Zinc Soap (with 2% pyrithione zinc) and my Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy Cream (with green tea/caffeine/hyaluronic acid).
  • Use the Calming Zinc Soap once a day for skin cleansing.
  • Apply Green Tea Skin Therapy twice a day under your moisturizer.
best rosacea skin care treatment dermatologist's routine

I created my Rosacea Therapy Skin Care Kit to take the guess work out of building a Complete Skin Care Routine to control your rosacea. The kit has healing and supportive products for each essential step in your skin care routine. Control your rosacea when you give your skin everything that it needs to stay healthy and resist this stubborn skin problem.  

Tips to build your own rosacea skin care routine

If you want to build your own routine, I recommend considering the following strategy:

  • Alternate another non-irritating skin cleanser with the Calming Zinc. My top choice is my Extremely Gentle Foaming Facial Cleanser. Other options are VaniCream Cleansing Bar Soap or my Naturally Best Bar Soap. One cleanser can be used in the AM and the other in the PM.
  • I have my patients apply their medicated prescription products after their Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy. Check with your prescribing doctor to see if this is right for you.
  • A deeply hydrating and healing moisturizing face cream applied twice daily is important to restore and strengthen the sensitive skin barrier of rosacea-prone skin. This helps to prevent flare-ups. My Daily Moisturizing Face Creams and Natural Face and Body Lotion are ideal hypoallergenic options. See below to pick the product based on your skin type and product preferences. 
  • Daily use of mineral sunscreen is the best sun protection for rosacea and is especially important because the sun can be a trigger to rosacea.
  • Makeup, if used, is applied on top of your complete skin care routine products. Simple mineral makeup powders are best for rosacea.
  • Stubborn or severe rosacea should be treated by a dermatologist as rosacea can leave lasting and unwanted changes on facial skin.

      Proof that the right skin care really helps control rosacea!

      I’ve tried just about every product, Rx and OTC, on the market and seen numerous dermatologists (spending hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in the process) to get some relief for my ultra-sensitive, rosacea-plagued face, and nothing has really helped…until now. Dr. Bailey’s Zinc Soap and Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy, followed by zinc oxide sunscreen has made a HUGE difference–and in only about a month. My itching and flaking are gone, the redness is almost gone, and I break out much less frequently. It’s like a miracle. I feel so fortunate to have come across her website and wonderful products, and I recommend them highly!" - Barbara, 7/16/14 

      Dermatologist Dr. Cynthia Bailey’s Complete Skin Care Routine to Heal Rosacea

      best skin cleansers for rosacea

      Step 1: CLEANSE

      Use only cool/warm/tepid water and your fingertips or a gentle cloth on your facial skin. Avoid hot water.

      best rosacea face soap

      Use a calming zinc pyrithione soap alternating this with a gentle cleanser, such as my Extremely Gentle Foaming Facial Cleanser,  or one of the other cleansers that I mentioned above. 

      best gentle cleanser for rosacea One caveat is that Foaming Benzoyl Peroxide Acne Treatment Cleanser is helpful for oily complexions with papulopustular rosacea. It is not tolerated by rosacea complexions that have sensitive skin. It is alternated with Calming Zinc Soap in place of a gentle cleanser. If you would describe your skin as sensitive do not use benzoyl peroxide.

      best product to heal rosacea
      best skin care routine to heal rosacea

      Step 2: CORRECT Apply a single pump of Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy to your entire face after washing and toweling dry. 

      People with papulopustular rosacea sometimes benefit from Benzoyl Peroxide Cream where needed. Sensitive skin rosacea patients (with erythematotelangiectatic type rosacea) typically won’t tolerate benzoyl peroxide.

      best skin cream to heal rosacea

      Step 3: HYDRATE

      Layer your moisturizer on top of the Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy – be sure to allow a minute or so for the Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy to dry and absorb into your skin.  

      best face cream for rosacea

      My Daily Moisturizing Face Cream provides state-of-the-art hydration that includes barrier replenishing ceramides and squalane.  

      best sunscreens for rosacea

      Step 4: PROTECT

      During the day sunscreen must be applied, because rosacea is often activated by sun exposure. Mineral zinc oxide is the best choice sunscreen for rosacea because it provides excellent protection, is non-irritating to sensitive skin, and does not generate heat as it blocks UV rays. Apply your sunscreen on top of your moisturizer.  

      best facial sunscreen for rosacea

      My top choice mineral zinc oxide sunscreens for rosacea is my Sheer Strength Pure Physical Matte Tinted SPF 30 Sunscreen. It provides pure mineral protection free from irritating chemical sunscreen ingredients and is formulated to give you the best broad spectrum UV protection while feeling light-weight on your skin. The tinting technology prevents any white cast on your skin and blends into all skin tones. It also never looks like you are wearing a tinted product. Even men love it on their facial hair-bearing skin.

      best powder sunscreen to reapply daily for rosacea

      Reapply UV protection throughout the day with my Sheer Strength Pure Physical SPF 50 Refresh Sunscreen Powder.  This powder sunscreen is formulated with over 3.2% iron oxide to block blue light from screens and visible light known to contribute to skin pigment problems like age spots and melasma. 

      water resistant sunscreen that won't irritate rosacea

      When you need water resistant protection for swimming and sports, use the Sheer Strength Water Resistant SPF 50 Spray. It is also non-irritating for sensitive skin. 

      Dr. Cynthia Bailey’s Rosacea Skin Care Kit

      I do the work building a Complete Skin Care Routine for you with my Rosacea Skin Care Kit. These are products that work well for my rosacea patients and the exact products that I use for myself. 

      best rosacea skin care treatment dermatologist's routine

      If you wear makeup, apply it on top of your sunscreen. Consider using a pure mineral makeup powder. This is the best choice as it’s hypoallergenic and well tolerated by sensitive skin.

      For additional information I invite you to watch my video describing my Rosacea Skin Care Kit. Please note I have now switched from Suntegrity to Sheer Strength Tinted to get the advantage of iron oxide in the Sheer Strength; iron oxide blocks visible light that can trigger sensitive rosacea prone skin as well as worsen skin pigment problems.