To be devastated that I have become allergic to makeup ?

[Ceriane]

I am in my early 40’s and have worn makeup since I was a teenager. A few years ago I began having problems with sore/dry lips so I stopped wearing lipstick as it seemed to be exacerbating the problem and drying them out. I didn’t think it was an allergy. Not wearing lipstick doesn’t bother me and I always wore all my other makeup no problem, foundation, bronzer, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara and blusher. Never entered my head I could become allergic. Then 3 weeks ago I tried a lipstick just to see if it was all of them. My problem has spiralled from there. I had burning, itching, dryness and tingling in my face and tongue. My lips were red, sore and uncomfortable for a week afterwards, but I thought okay so I won’t wear lipstick, fair enough. I’m also allergic to hair dye but have accepted I will be embracing they grey, as long as I keep my hair in a good style and in good condition, wear nice clothes and do my makeup nicely I’m okay with it. Then over the last week or so I have noticed an uncomfortable burning sensation on my face when using foundation. I thought at first I was imagining it, a couple of years ago I had an obsessive fear of anaphylaxis and food allergies etc which I got completely better from. However yesterday my face was burning a lot and felt really uncomfortable and my face is puffy and feels a bit swollen. I have had some blood tests and my GP is going to refer me to dermatology. I really hope when this reaction has healed I can find products I can use as it feels really devastating to not be able to wear makeup anymore and my fears about allergies have now become sky high. 3 weeks ago I was calm, happy and felt like I looked good, and now I’m anxious and can feel myself spiralling into a deep depression over this. I know it’s only makeup and there are more important things than how you look, but I don’t look good without it and it really does feel like a huge loss.

I'm allergic to make up too but I've got used to it. I was never a big make up wearer so it's annoying for special occasions but I've accepted that I can wear a small amount of make up for a couple of hours a couple of times a year at most.
I take some antihistamines and wear minimal make up for as short a time as possible.

It's crap though and I'm sorry it's happened to you.

Oh so sorry OP that sounds awful. I've started reacting to all make up removers! I can wear make up but removing it means I can't wear any again for a few days. Started about a year ago. I'm mid 50's ffs and worn make up for 40 years. I hope someone can find a solution for you.

When I was in my early 30's - a long time ago now- I started having problems with my right eye. The eyeball was perpetually swollen noticeably larger than my left one . And I got a lot of pain in it. My optician was totally perplexed as she couldn't find any explanation.

Then I started to notice that when I used my moisturiser or night cream my face started to feel itchy and a skin crawling feeling. So I concluded that I had developed an allergy to it and stopped using it. And straight away the problem with my eye cleared up.

The face care products I was using that caused the allergic reaction were quite heavily perfumed. So for a long time afterwards I used only Simple skin care and avoided anything heavily perfumed.
In recent year I've e added a few different products in - like retinol and facial oils. But I do so with great care and try to vary them so an allergic reaction doesn't build up again.

I was referred by the NHS to get my eyebrows tattooed on a few years ago - I have no eyebrows due to alopecia. Before the tattooing they did an allergy test . And when they did this test I chickened out because given my history of allergic reactions I couldn't bear the thought of what problems the tattooing might cause, especially being so close to my eye.

This happened to me. I wasn’t actually allergic to all makeup. I was allergic to certain, very common ingredients.

For example, I can’t touch shea butter. It’s in nearly everything and the claim is that it is hypoallergenic.

If you figure out the ingredients, you can still find products. makeup will often be expensive and less exploratory, but there are things out there that work.

You will also learn to patch test everything, even if the ingredient list looks ok. A rash on your arm is much better than swollen eyes.

I think it will be specific ingredients OP - I spent most of my teen years with bright red eyelids and undereyes due to the cheap carriers in body shop make-up. (It did not occur to me at all that it was make-up, it was certainly a look). I also had v chapped lips that could not be lipsticked.

You might need to come off everything for a bit, but it should settle down. I find Clinique good but there are other brands.

You lips might just be dry so moisturise a lot, lanolips 101 is good. .

Try bare minerals powder - with out the serum/liquid base

Always been allergic to make up though I’m fine with Clinique. What you will find is that as you go in to perimenopause allergies can become worse or new ones pop up, my Dr told me this. I am also allergic to hair dye but it didn’t start till I was 48, I have found one I’m not allergic to is Daniel Field hair colour, it’s a postal service and I had an online consultation with them.

IME people tend to be allergic/sensitive to specific ingredients rather than all make-up.

I'm allergic to and ingredient in 99.9% of hair dyed called PPD. It's also in a lot of black/dark make-up such as mascara and eyeliner. I also have a nickel allergy, and people with nickel are often also sensitive to CI77492 and other iron oxides, which are in a lot of pigmented make-up

I would push the GP to refer you to a derm for patch testing, but it'll take a long time cos the NHS.

In the meantime my advice is that there is no such thing as "clean" beauty until you know what you're actually reacting to, so don't be sucked in by anything selling itself as clean or natural! Having said that, generally, the shorter the ingredient list the lower your risk will be. Best of luck.

Thank you all so much. That is so reassuring. I'm thinking....obviously lipstick is out, but I will be sure to moisturise my lips (providing I find a moisturiser I'm good with). I've got some No 7 moisturisers in the cupboard, that I have not tried out yet and a serum. I think hydrating my face will make it less irritated, as I've been stupidly using cleanser as a moisturiser as I started to become scared of reacting to things, and then I wondered if I was reacting to the cleanser as sometimes it stings a bit (however it's winter, I'm perimenopausal so could just be that my skin is a bit sensitive and stripped of all moisture at the moment).

With the foundation....the one I used is actually quite a heavy product, and I don't even like it....makes my skin look like I've painted it beige and quite a dull matte look, so to be honest I don't want to use it anymore even if I am not allergic as it's horrible and really quite drying which is the last thing I need, so maybe I just used a nasty product that didn't agree with me, after being more sensitised by what happened with my lipstick. It happened after I switched to this product after panicking that I might be reacting to the other one (when looking back I'm not sure I was, I think my lips were still just tingling from the original lipstick reaction). The one I was using before was nicer.

I want to find a foundation that's a bit lighter and go for that more dewy look, so maybe a tinted moisturiser or tinted serum....I've had a look at bare minerals and Clinique so I might try their products next, patch testing on my arm first (my GP advised me to do this before putting anything on my face, particularly near my lips). I'm hoping it was just that the product I was using was just a bad one for me and I'm hoping that I am able to find lighter and friendlier products I can use.

Concealer I was using a cheap Rimmel one, so I may try a bare minerals or Clinique one instead and only apply as and when needed.

I think as long as I can moisturise my face and find something like a tinted serum/moisturiser I can use I will be happy with that and hopefully forget about this whole saga (that has stressed me out so much).

Eye make-up I seem to be alright with so will continue with the same eyeshadows, eyeliner and mascara. I also have a No 7 cream blusher that I have yet to try out, instead of the powder one I've been using, which is a cheap brand.

As for bronzer....I have been using this Laura Geller foundation, that is a powder....if I use a foundation I'd rather use a moisturising cream one not a powder and I thought this may also have been making my face burn and feel uncomfortable....I always used to use a Rimmel bronzer that I never had a problem with before.....so I may switch back to that if I'm looking a bit pale.

Lips I won't bother with, just keep them hydrated I think. I may try a hypo-allergenic gloss one day?

As long as I can use some kind of tinted moisturiser, make my eyes up and a bit of blusher, that's all I need. So fingers crossed I can find some products that work well for me.

I think maybe it's just time to review my make-up as I don't think what I've been using is great at all, I think I've been using it out of habit and I want to go for that more glossy, dewy kind of look rather than a matte powdery look.

Fingers crossed that I haven't become allergic to every product under the sun (which is what I fear). The fact I have developed allergies really scares and bothers me though, after worrying about allergies for so long and then this happens.

I hope the dermatologist gives you advice, but is it worth just taking a complete break from all products for a bit, and see how you go? It might let things calm down?

Thank you. I really hope so. Tried a Clinique moisturiser on my arm and I’m allergic to that as well 😢

I can’t use almost anything from Clinique. They are fragrance free for the most part, but they use Benzoic acid and balsam of Peru ingredients regularly. These are common allergens. They are not nearly as hypoallergenic as they claim.

try the Cerave pm facial moisturizer. Not anything else, it has to be the pm moisturizer. Nothing stopping you from using it in the day if it works. You can get spf from a different product

You're reacting to certain ingredients, not product categories per se.
Perfume is the obvious offender but if Clinique gets to you as well, then that’s a great place to begin looking for the offender.
(The ingredients lists on their products make it clear that they are concerned only with perfume allergies, and no other forms of high sensitivity.)
So youll find a few alarming things in a Clinique moisturiser, or a foundation, say.

A dermatologist should first give you topical allergy tests (and so should your GP have arranged it) and if diagnosis is made without that step, you have a charlatan in front of you.
Steroid creams are routinely given for dermatitis and eczema, but this is not a solution, just a quick fix.
In order to recover, you have to calm your skin down and keep it happy.
First thing is finding basic products which won’t make it worse, and Im convinced that a small range of English-made potions called Balmonds is the best youll find. Composed of only bland, neutral plant oils. You could eat it!

Plant-based skincare is usually what heals stressed and reactive skin, so avoid the ubiquitous petrochemicals in most mainstream brands, including Clinique and 90% of the specialist brands made for ‘sensitive ‘ skin.
In most cases, these are merely slick advertising of very unsuitable, certainly ineffectual products. Beware the hype!, .

I could go on at greater length, as this was a personal odyssey about twenty years ago, but great resources now exist to give you info about ingredients in skincare, and which ones to embrace etc, and they include essential books by the skincare wonderful skincare guru Liz Earle, and a pair of British beauty writers whose moniker de guerre now escapes me, wouldn’t you you know it. It'll come to me in a moment and Ill add it. Something like the Beauty Book, anyway)

A couple of other very reliable and high quality brands to try immediately are Green People and Trilogy.
If you are skint but need instant help, use just a little olive oil, to keep the skin unstressed (no Vaseline)

Don't freak out about makeup in the longterm, by the way.
You may very well find that identifying your irritant in your skincare, and instead using creams etc which nourish and strengthen your skin, will let you carry on using big names you love, once it’s operating normally again.

You do have to watch out for the steroid creams. The pharmacy may hand you one that contains your allergens. That is one reason they sometimes make things worse not better.

since I have had skin patch testing plus figure out additional as I have gotten more sensitive with age, I’m able to give my pharmacist a specific list and then we find a manufacturer that is safe. They still mess up and hand me the wrong tube sometimes.

constant vigilance.

I think you need to wait till you've seen a dermatologist before you spiral about allergies. I have Rksacea and my skin has in rhe past gone through phases of burning and there are certain products I know not to use on it but once I worked out the main triggers for a flush I realised it wasn't cosmetics themselves but once my skin became stressed it overreacted. I also now get bouts of what my Dr says is dermatitis which needs steroids to get back under control whilst that flares, again I can't use anything other than very simple natural products, think beeswax based lip balm, oat based moisturiser like Aveeno.

Also how old is the lipstick you've been using, ingredients in make up can go off. My eyes are very sensitive and I can tell my Mascara needs replacing as my eyes begin to itch. I also know withing about 5 mins whether a Mascara is a brand I can tolerate.

Thank you, this is so helpful.

My GP is going to refer me to dermatology. I have left everything off for now and am thinking of trying aveeno as a face moisturiser. I use their body lotion no problem.

The lipstick was brand new. I

Sorry, posted before I had finished typing.

I need to replace my mascara as it’s over a year old.

I think it may be they dyes, however I won’t know until I have had tests, and my worries about allergies have spiralled out of control as certain drinks contain food colourings etc.

Another theory is that my skin has become sensitive as it just needs hydration. I’m peri menopausal, it’s winter, I have been using cleanser as a face moisturiser for six months as I started to worry that I may be reacting to moisturiser so that is probably stripping my skin of hydration as well and maybe once my skin is hydrated again I may be okay to go back to wearing makeup.

It just seems strange that I have only just started having these problems in the last 3 or 4 weeks since the lipstick incident.

This is so stressful but I am so thankful for all of your responses.