Red blotchy blemish skin

PinkPeach

I suffer from a similar problem with my skin due to having Polycystic Ovaries. My beautician told me that I only need to exfoliate twice a week (as I was also doing this daily). After 1 week of stopping this entirely I noticed a reduction in the redness - I gave myself a 1 week break to make things easier for my skin and then started again twice weekly. I was also told that it's important to do a double cleanse once per day (I do this in the evening) and a normal cleanse in the morning and I also feel this is helping. As I'm getting married next month I'm having a facial every 2 weeks and am doing one at home myself every other week. When i do this I steam my face, extract any spots, exfoliate and use a green clay mask followed by a moisturiser. This seems to have made quite a difference for me. I'm also now only using products which have less 'nasties' in them. I'm not sure if this is also making a difference but I think it's probably better for me anyway. The Amie teen skincare range is reasonably priced and is nice to use.

cattkitt

OCM, definitely OCM. After decades of using all those products, cheap and expensive, I'm actually waking up with that luxuriant feel to my face that some adverts cheesily promote for face and hair, with dancing bluebirds, etc!

And a bicarb face scrub, although I've learnt to skim over/avoid my cheeks for the bicarb.

poorly_scammo

I have oily skin and have tried loads of stuff. Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish worked for a while but left me with a greasy forehead for some reason. I now use ordinary Marseille soap and use a Mudd Mask once a week. My skin looks much better.

Just to echo the other posters: exfoliating twice a day and using harsh products which claim to be for oily skin can make the whole problem worse as they strip too much oil from your skin which makes your body generate more. it becomes a vicious circle. My experience of Clean and Clear bears this theory out. Even though it was meant to be for sensitive skin, it stripped it completely and made my face more oily.

I'd save the exfoliation for once a week, twice at the most (works for me this way) and try to avoid facial washes which are too harsh (some anti-bacterial ones can be like using paint stripper) and those which contain alcohol as they can over dry your skin.

HTH

jenniewb

I have to say, I thought of this thread when I was in a well known Organic store earlier today and tried some very expensive moisturiser. It seemed fine to apply, left my skin shiny (wasn't intending on buying it anyway just was testing!) then went on to sample the blushers....my face! All red and blotchy! It then started to tingle slightly (this is before applying any make up by the way!)

On reading closer, its Rose oil which is the main ingredient and has an unhappy history with me (fickle damn skin doesn't like anything!: coco butter, mineral oil and many other man made ingredients...)

Its worth trying different brands and keeping a log of those that affect you as you may well find common ingredience. I am building up a long lost of man made and natural stuff, its a hassel but atleast I know I am safe to use certain creams now, its worth doing.

gwhizz75

I haven't used it myself but I heard that Lush Dream Cream is really good for calming down redness, lots of people with skin conditions like eczema swear by it. I think it's around £10 for a pot in Lush which is quite pricey I guess, but nothing compared to what you would pay for clinique/clarins etc.

sockdrawer

I think the other posters are correct in saying you're exfoliating too much. I have Psoriasis and mistakenly thought exfoliation would be good for my skin. It cleared up massively once I stopped/became a bit more gentle with myself. If you're worried, then yes, I'd see a dermatologist, just to rule out any medical problems.
As far as expensive creams etc are concerned, I go to https://www.skinactives.com an American site, where you can get the ingredients and recipes for a lot of the skin-care products which are on sale. I use the rosacea serum for surprise surprise, my rosacea, and a custom built psoriasis cream both of which cost me far less than all the other different creams I'd tried, and were much more effective. They also do some basic day/night creams.