Women's face care products and skin allergies

[cubiclejockey]

I am sorry if this is not the right place to post but I am interested in learning of other people's experiences with allergies and women's face care products.

I have been on an eight year journey with trying to figure out why the skin on my face was breaking out/welting up/turning into rashes (and no where else on my body). I had fairly normal blemishes when I was a teenager and relatively blemish free skin as an adult. When I turned 40ish, the skin around my lips started chapping and blistering and I couldn't figure out why. The face cream I was using at the time ran out and I didn't replace, then my lips cleared up. Didn't think much more of it, and assumed the cream didn't agree with me and stopped using it.

Then a couple of years later, the skin on my face started breaking out again. Hence a long period of facial detective work ensued. I eliminated products, spent more money on products, changed face products, shampoo and diet. I was despairing and covering my face with makeup which I knew was part of the problem but I was embarrassed.

Then I was working away and for simplicity didn't bring my normal face routine and just brought one benign and cheap drug store travel sized sensitive skin moisturizer which I used for a few days. And then my skin started getting better. And it's been 2 months now and I am barely needing makeup to cover redness. I am beyond relieved and baffled.

I know I need to do an allergy test eventually but I am really taken aback about how my skin problems, for years, were literally self inflicted with the products I was using on my face. Which I invested money in, and were all purportedly for "sensitive skin" and, to be honest, had "anti-aging" claim properties. I know as humans we are all different and have different sensitivities. I am just interested if anyone else has had a similar experience and maybe has some advice?

Thanks for reading.

Absolutely me. I got sucked into the Pixi/Ordinary/Nip n Fab recommendations here which only a dermatologist prescribed month long course of antibiotics cleared up my perioral dermatitis.

I live abroad and so p, with my health insurance, have access to a dermatologist and see her whenever I have a flare up. I'm on La Roche Posay Toleriane cleanser and Bioderma moisturiser, with Elidel topical cream for my eczema around my mouth. I can't help feeling I've messed up my skin now, I never used to have any problems whatsoever.

It tends to be the preservatives in skincare that cause an allergic reaction. Sodium Benzoate is the worst for this.

After putting a sensitive skin baby sunblock on my face and ending up in hospital with a head like a pumpkin I'm scared to put anything at all on my face .😞

Thanks for your responses and shared experiences. I had never even heard of the term perioral dermatitis before but that is absolutely what I had. I even went to the doctor a couple of times but all they did was prescribe me anti-rosacea ointment which did nothing.

I am definitely going to be more judicious about what I put on my face from now on although it is distressing to know that the cause of the rashes were the result of the moisturizers I was using. It really impacted the quality of my daily life for a long time.

Yes, definitely. I have had tests now and know what my skin doesn't like but tried so much 'sensitive' stuff with SLS in that just made me dry and itchy (and also gave me perioral dermatitis in some cases). My advice is to get the tests done!

I am under immunologist care and tbh they try to test in batches. I’ve had common allergens which mainly raised food stuffs, but I know that some products are awful for me. The boots perfect and protect is the worst, but I doubt any test will reveal it anytime soon. Keep a diary!