Hi - I had an appointment at the dermatologist today - the doctor that "diganosed" my rosacea a couple of years ago wasn't a dermatologist, but a family physician who didn't really ask too many questions or anything, just wrote me a prescription for whatever I asked for at the time, i.e. metrogel, then finacea (which burned like the Dickens - ugh!).

So I went to the derm for a mole check and to ask about my skin because it's so hyper-sensitive to everything under the sun and I can't find a sunscreen for my face to save my life.  Well, he said I don't have rosacea!  He said what I have is hypersensitivity to chemicals and that my skin is reacting to that with red flares.  He also told me that Cetaphil products are irritating and he doesn't recommend them to his patients anymore because he's had so many people report irritation with them.  He told me to gather all my products up that irritate my skin and cross-reference the ingredients in EVERYTHING and see what the common denominator is and then avoid that ingredient, and that if I need help doing that, to bring everything in to his office and we'll sit down and figure it out.

So I'm making an Excel spreadsheet with all the ingredients of the products that irritate my skin and then I'll sort it and I'll post what I find.  Maybe I should go read some of Inky's posts because she has issues with stinging too - he did say to use Lubriderm for Sensitive Skin as a facial moisturizer because I said that was one thing I have recently tried that didn't sting on contact or turn my skin red.

He also said there are no procedures or prescriptions/treatments for my issues - I don't have a skin condition per se - just hyper-sensitive skin that is reactive to chemicals.

He also didn't have any specific product recommendations - just use what works. Ugh. If I knew that, I wouldn't be in this prediciment!

Interesting.  I thought I had rosacea - maybe I don't?

Beth