Feeling Flushed? Here's How to Reduce Facial Redness

We’ve all been there – a sudden reaction to a product or lifestyle change has brought your skin out in a flushed, angry redness. The condition is annoying and can pop up at the most inconvenient of times! Those that suffer from sensitive skin or rosacea may even experience facial redness daily.

The good news? This irritating skin condition is both preventable and treatable with a change in both your lifestyle and skincare routine. Often, it may be the case of cutting out a key ingredient from your skincare routine or by making an easy lifestyle change.

We can’t promise you can banish facial redness forever – but here are the best tips and tricks on how to reduce those pesky facial flushes.

Be Gentle to Your Skin

For those that experience facial redness often, gently treating your skin is the first step to combatting rouge skin.

Are you a fan of piping hot showers? If so, it may be time to reduce the temperature. Hot showers and baths are heavy factors in causing facial flushing, as the heat can cause vasodilation. This involves the enlargement of the tiny blood vessels near the surface of your skin, which results in redness of the skin. When you already suffer from inflamed skin or have active acne lesions, the capillaries are already more dilated in these areas. So, extremely hot showers and baths simply worsen the issue.

Another mistake that many individuals make is over-exfoliating. While we’ve been taught that regular exfoliation is beneficial to the skin, it’s easy to over-do. Scrubbing vigorously at your skin too often and for too long can result in redness and feelings of tightness and soreness in the skin. So, remember to exfoliate sparingly!

Improve Your Diet

Diet plays a huge part in the health of your skin, and there’s a big chance that consuming the wrong foods may contribute to facial redness. Ever noticed facial flushing coming out at full force after a brie binge, for example?

Dairy is one of the worst culprits of red skin, so try not to overindulge on the cheese boards this summer! Likewise, spicy foods, alcohol, hot drinks, caffeine, and foods that are highly processed and sugary are all inflammatory and can contribute to facial redness.

Instead, opt for fresh veggies and fruits, whole-grains, and plant-based proteins to help soothe stressed-out skin.

Often, red skin can also be an indicator of dryness, so be sure to drink plenty of water and eat hydrating ingredients. These can include cooling foods like carrots, apples, celery, cucumbers, spinach, and broccoli. These healthy foods are packed full of antioxidants that hydrate your skin from the inside out.

While we aren’t saying you should cut out all foods delicious from your diet, it’s a good idea to monitor what you’re eating. Everything in moderation, after all!

Fine-Tune Your Skincare Routine

If you suffer from facial redness, it’s important to select the right products to incorporate into your skincare routine. After all, for all you know you could be using a product that amplifies the problem rather than helping it.

Dermatology studies have shown that niacinamide can reduce redness and blotchiness in the skin. Likewise, it can also act as an antioxidant, improve epidermal barrier function, decrease skin pigmentation, diminish fine lines and wrinkles, reduce yellowness of the skin, and improve skin elasticity. How’s that for a miracle skin ingredient?

Look out for products that list niacinamide in the ingredients. The PCA Skin Intensive Brightening Treatment containing pure retinol, resveratrol, and niacinamide is the ultimate go-to overnight solution for those suffering from discoloration of the skin. Wake up with an even, bright, and radiant complexion!

Products with 1% hydrocortisone, which is a low-potency topical steroid, can also work well with reducing inflammation and the redness of acne blemishes. Another great choice from PCA is their PCA Skin CliniCalm 1% which is a soothing treatment to target redness, inflammation, and irritation of the skin. However, due to the potency of topical steroid creams, it’s important not to use them on the face daily for more than a week at a time. This is because with constant use side effects can include thinning of the skin – which we all know isn’t a good look at all!

And the products to avoid? Look out for benzoyl peroxide, sodium lauryl sulphate, and ammonium lauryl sulphate on your product bottles. These harsh ingredients can all cause irritation and skin sensitivity, contributing to redness.

Lastly, it’s important not to avoid wearing sunscreen, especially during the hot summer months. The redness of skin may be due to sun exposure, and the harsh rays of the sun certainly don’t do any favours for underlying issues of facial redness.

Pop on a layer of sunscreen that’s at least SPF 30 before leaving the house, even if it seems cloudy. You can also choose facial moisturizers, foundations, and other makeup that contain sunscreen for optimum protection.

Check out our article 5 Physical Sunscreens Your Skin Will Thank You For for five of the best sunscreens on the market.