What To Do If Your Skin Is Redness Prone

So you’ve got sensitive skin. You feel as if you could never tame the spontaneous flares of red, and you never know what exactly causes your skin to be redness prone. Anything from exercise and spicy food to red wine and allergies can cause red flares. We’re here to help, and we have everything you need to do for redness prone skin.

Keep your skincare routine gentle

Caution is the name of the game. There are so many fun products out there—and more products now than ever—but you must take caution before plunging into a skincare splurge. You never know what ingredients could make your condition worse, so it’s best to stick to fragrance-free, natural, organic, and overall gentle products. Look for soothing ingredients like cotton extract, shea butter, olive oil, coconut oil, or aloe.

Minimize spicy and inflammatory foods

While we’re not telling you to cut out your favorite foods—it seems the things we love the most are the ones that do us no good—we are encouraging you to minimize your intake and spicy and inflammatory foods. These are known triggers for redness prone skin. Alcohol, caffeine, and spicy foods are at the top of this list. Sugar and gluten are both inflammatory and are often culprits for irritated skin. Eating hot food can even be cause for red skin. Keep a food journal and take note of any irregular reactions you may have to your food and see what your personal triggers may be.

Maximize healing foods

We’re not going to tell you what not to eat without giving you some good ideas of what you should be eating. Healthy fats are essential to skin health—think nuts, seeds, and avocado. Alkaline foods like fennel, celery, and cucumber are cooling foods that can get rid of excess heat in the body. Increase your intake of nutrient dense foods like squash, beets, dark leafy greens, mung beans, lemon, garlic, onions, ginger, and turmeric. Stock up on antioxidants from fruit and sip on cooling herbal teas like peppermint, parsley, and dandelion root.

It’s time to start jade rolling

Jade rolling is soothing and can help the skin’s lymphatic drainage process to reduce the appearance of puffy skin. The cooling effect of the jade stone is perfect for soothing red skin. Use your jade roller after applying moisturizer to help the skin absorb the moisturizer. Allow the moisturizer to sit for 30 seconds before jade rolling, and then apply light pressure to your jawline, cheekbones, sinus area, and across your forehead. For maximum benefits, put your jade roller in the fridge before you use it!

Give yourself a little spa treatment

Take some time for self-care and slice up some cucumber, get the eye cream, and a grab a cold, damp cloth. Place eye cream under your eyes, apply the cucumbers over top, and place the cloth over your entire face. This particularly targets the sensitive eye area, but this self-care ritual soothes the entire face.