The Best Skincare Ingredients For Treating Rosacea

What do Prince William, Sofia Vergara, Bill Clinton, and Brie Larson all have in common? They all have rosacea, per Skin Shop. They join over 14 million Americans with the chronic skin condition, according to John Hopkins Medicine. It can ebb and flow, with flare-ups and remission, and typical symptoms of rosacea include easy blushing, visible blood vessels, and redness on the nose and cheeks that can come on suddenly and last for days or even weeks.

While anyone can get rosacea, women with fairer skin and those in middle age are more likely to have the condition. And here's how you can have rosacea and not even know it — sometimes rosacea can get confused for acne or psoriasis. The underlying cause for rosacea isn't currently known and there is no current cure for the disease, and there are some things that can make your rosacea get worse, like stress, heat, alcohol, spicy foods, and even certain skincare ingredients like benzoyl peroxide and witch hazel. So choosing the right skincare is vital for helping to manage rosacea; here are some of the ingredients to look for if you're looking for rosacea remission.

Before diving into the different ingredients, it's important to remember that there's no one right product that will help everyone to treat their rosacea. It's always a good idea to check with a dermatologist about what would work best on your skin specifically and the type of rosacea that you have since there are four subtypes. All of them will likely give you red, inflamed skin, but one subtype may give you dry, itchy skin while another gives you oily skin, so you need to know what you're working with. In general, if you have rosacea, you should look for skincare that's gentle and formulated for sensitive skin, like GladSkin's line of products for those with rosacea. Anything too harsh could end up further irritating your skin. Broadly speaking, looking for ingredients that help with inflammation is a great place to start.

If you're at the beginning stages of a rosacea outbreak or if you have mild rosacea symptoms, like persistent facial redness, you could try using honey. But not just any honey. Manuka honey has anti-inflammatory properties, and since rosacea is an inflammatory disease, it's a clear winner. And then there's kanuka honey, which is produced from a native New Zealand tree like manuka, that was shown in a scientific study to improve rosacea symptoms.

Another natural ingredient to help combat mild rosacea is calendula extract. Made from marigolds, like honey, it has natural anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, which can help soothe irritation from rosacea. Check out Tata Harper Skincare's Reactive Skin Essentials line, which includes a cleanser, moisturizer, and mask all with calendula as one of the main ingredients. Along with calendula, chamomile extract helps with inflammation brought on by rosacea, as noted in the Journal of Clinical Medicine. Eminence Organic Skin Care has an aptly named Calm Skin Chamomile Moisturizer that combines chamomile and arnica extracts as main ingredients, and you guessed it, arnica is another great anti-inflammatory ingredient.

And even if you don't see calendula or chamomile extract in the ingredient list, you might see bisabolol; it's an active ingredient in both calendula and chamomile, according to the Journal of Chromatography A. It helps combat the redness that comes with rosacea, and overall, it helps with skin healing, via Vogue Scandinavia.

Jojoba oil and rosehip oils both work to tackle inflammation and promote healthy skin, so using those during a rosacea outbreak can definitely help, though it depends on the rosacea subtype you have. If you have the rosacea subtype that comes with acne-like symptoms and oily skin, skip the oils, as noted by Byrdie. But for other types, check out Ogee's Jojoba Glow Face Oil that you can put on before your moisturizer, and Pai's Rosehip Cleansing Oil, which is gentle enough on skin.

Azelaic acid may seem like it's a harsh ingredient since it has the word acid in it, but it's gentle and effective for treating rosacea. The acid is naturally found in some grains, and it acts as an anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and antioxidant. And according to a scientific study, a 15% azelaic acid gel worked well to treat papulopustular or inflammatory rosacea, so if you get acne-like bumps with your rosacea, azelaic acid may be ideal. It also comes in foams and creams, and it is safe to be used by people who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

You might see niacinamide listed as an ingredient in anti-aging or skin-brightening products, but did you know it can also help with rosacea? You might also see it listed in an ingredient list as vitamin B3 or nicotinamide. It can soothe your skin, lessen redness, and calm inflammation, per Cleveland Clinic. Maelove NIA 10 Calming Serum harnesses the power of niacinamides combined with white tea extract.

And both white and green tea extracts are ingredients that can help you win the battle to put your rosacea in remission. It may not be called tea extract on the box but as Camellia Sinensis instead. But it means the same thing. It can help with the rough patches that you might get from rosacea as well as the general inflammation and redness.  Tea extracts also help hydrate the skin and moderate oil production, so they work for multiple subtypes of rosacea whether it leaves your skin overly dry or overly oily.