5 Reasons for Skin Redness & How to Treat It

Facial redness is one of those mysteries that people are never quite sure how to solve. It's apparent when the face seems more flushed than usual, but it’s not always clear what should be done about it or even why it occurs. Have you ever wondered why your skin is red in certain areas or flushes red for long periods of time?

The Breakdown of Skin Redness

There's a wealth of information out there on the many types of facial redness, but it can get incredibly overwhelming to sort through it all. Instead of suggesting that you google multiple variations of "Why is my face red?" and play a guessing game, this article will go over the most common causes of redness and how to treat each one.

For the most part, your face becomes red when blood vessels dilate. This means that more blood rushes to your skin, giving it a red appearance. From there, however, it gets a lot more complicated. Below are some of the best tips for identifying, soothing, and treating any kind of flare-up, from over exfoliation to seborrheic dermatitis.

1. Rosacea

Rosacea is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you try to self-diagnose facial redness. But it's not always the case, so it never hurts to get a second opinion. Rosacea is a condition where your skin is sensitive and overly reactive to environmental triggers. These triggers include extremes in temperature, stress, spicy foods, and alcohol.

It also varies in appearance. It was previously thought to show up as a persistent flush under your skin, but it can manifest in multiple forms. The commonly seen "flat" redness and flushing is the easiest to spot. But you might also notice papulopustular rosacea, which characterizes as redness with a primary feature of pimplelike pink and red bumps, some with whiteheads.

As far as treatment goes, there are two things to know. First, there is no permanent "cure" for rosacea, although it can be managed, which is recommended to do as early as possible to prevent progression. Second, what you do depends on how mild or extreme your specific case is. Having the right skin care products to manage and soothe it daily is ideal!

2. Eczema

Ah, eczema, the brooding mystery of skin conditions. This one can be surprisingly tough to diagnose, as eczema and allergic contact dermatitis are difficult to differentiate from clinical evaluation alone because both have inflamed, pink dry patches that cause significant itching or a burning sensation.

Keep your skin care routine full of gentle, mild ingredients, and avoid fragrance altogether. Steer clear of retinol and embrace hypoallergenic labels, and you should see an improvement within one to two weeks. These conditions generally flare with cold weather, change of climate, or change of skin care products, so they tend to respond readily when conditions are optimized.

3. Over Exfoliation

Using facial peels or AHAs seems like a good idea, but it's not such a good idea to use these on any area with redness, particularly if your skin is dry or dehydrated. If the barrier function is damaged, skin becomes vulnerable to infection from microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungus, and leads to sensitivity and redness. To get things back on track, put down the exfoliants and reinforce your barrier function with lots of moisture.

3. Contact Dermatitis

This is basically a fancy way of saying that you bought a new product and had an allergic reaction to one or more of the ingredients, whether it's because they're causing direct irritation or because your immune system has a true allergy. Some common irritating ingredients are things you might find in your acne treatments, like salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide. Other common causes include fragrances and preservatives.

Your best defense is to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

4. Seborrheic Dermatitis

Not to be confused with the similarly named contact dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis shows up as redness that tends to concentrate around your nose and eyebrows. It's thought to be similar to dandruff but affects your face instead of your scalp. We all have yeast living harmoniously on our skin. In areas of your face where you make more oil, yeast levels can rise, causing inflammation, redness, and scaling in some cases.

Treatment is interesting and will likely go against all your instincts, but it's expert-approved. You need antifungals to lower yeast levels and subsequently reduce inflammation and redness. Antibacterial ingredients to kill off germs are a great option too, with natural ingredients being the most important!

5. Acne

Acne redness is concentrated by pustules or papules. A severe case would cause uneven texture, bumps, or skin thickening. To quickly bring down breakout-caused inflammation, it’s recommended treating your pimples when they are fresh. And this is the one case where you're allowed to pile on the ingredients you should avoid when dealing with the rest of this list, like exfoliants, but mainly anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antimicrobial.

So the real question is: where can you find these skin care products?

Wild Naturals Skin Care for Redness & All Other Skin Conditions

Every Wild Naturals product contains zero soap, is pH balanced to match your skin’s pH levels, has no fragrance, parabens, preservatives, mineral oil, petrolatum, phthalates, dyes, or sodium lauryl sulfate. Plus, the key ingredients were all chosen for their incredible benefits for skin care, especially sensitive skin, and severe skin conditions, like rosacea, psoriasis, and eczema. These Wild Natural ingredient stars are:

• Aloe Vera
• Manuka Honey
• Coconut Oil
• Cehami Flower Extract
• Shea Butter
• Blue Green Algae

Each of these is naturally rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins, hydrating properties, and healing benefits. It can be time-consuming to learn and buy the right products for any type of skin condition or troubled skin problem. Wild Naturals makes it easy to stock your bathroom with skin care that will show you the difference you’ve been looking for!