My Experience Treating Rosacea with IPL

ByCordelia

My Experience Treating Rosacea with IPL

You guys asked for it, here it is! I share my experience with treating rosacea with IPL in a video. I currently keep my rosacea in check by taking Oracea pills every other day (unless I’m having a break out, then I take Oracea daily). In about 6 months I will be going back for another round of IPL to help manage my rosacea. I feel like IPL is the best way for me to treat my rosacea and I have not had a painful flare up in quite a while at this point.

My Experience Treating Rosacea with IPL


If you like this video please give it a thumbs up, comment and subscribe.

I am no longer having a rosacea flare up after every workout at the gym, or after a hot bath, hot tubbing, etc. IPL has eliminated most of my painful flare ups and the worst I see is a pink overtone on my skin, a few zits, or both. Sometimes the pink overtone isn’t there. I wish the pink overtone (at the center of my forehead, my cheeks, my nose, and my chin) was 100% gone, but so far that hasn’t been the case.

I still feel that I need light to medium coverage makeup most days to mask the pinkness from my rosacea. Thank goodness I have my CC Cream to cover the pink!

If you are interested in IPL to treat rosacea, you need to talk to your dermatologist. As I mention in the video, I am not a doctor or a medical professional. I am merely sharing my experience with rosacea and why I feel it was the best treatment option for me.

Seriously, I’m so mad that I kept trying medications rather than IPL (because I didn’t know about IPL as an option for me) for 2 years because I feel like my skin is in better shape from the IPL than it was before I was even diagnosed. The rosacea meds made me feel dry, and sometimes dried me out so badly it felt like my skin was coming off in strips. So the medication was just as bad, if not worse, than the rosacea flare ups themselves were for me.

Cordelia Frost is the creative force behind Phyrra, a treasure trove for cruelty-free indie and goth makeup enthusiasts. She's the author of the game-changing 'Hooded Eyes Makeup Manual' a must-read for hooded eyes makeup.

Cordelia's world is a kaleidoscope of alternative beauty, gothic fashion, and life-enhancing tips, making every visit to Phyrra a journey into a more colorful and inspired self.

39 Comments

  1. I have really been enjoying reading through ur blog due to being able to relate with rosacea, sensitive, dry skin! Yay us! Lol
    It’s hard and I have been wanting to do IPL for a while but when I read up on it there are A LOT of bad reviews of the skin being ruined. Any advise on this? I’m just scared but then I see ur post so it makes me really want to do it! Thx!

    1. I feel you on the skin issues! I have had 7 IPL treatments and my skin has improved from it. I think if you find a good doctor, you will be fine. For me, I wanted to stop having a flare up everytime I worked out (I work out 3 days a week and my face would flare and burn and hurt for hours) and IPL has stopped it from doing that. I still have some redness though. For me, the topical medicines that I initially took – Aczone and Metrogel really screwed up my skin and I wish I had NEVER gone on them. That’s why I went from oily skin to dry skin.

      Because of my new Paula’s Choice Skincare Routine with the Calm products + the new night cream, I just realized today that I haven’t had to take my Oracea pills in over a month. This is an amazing improvement for me.

      1. Wow! That’s great. I’m actually fixing to order some paulas choice based on ur recommendation! Then I just saw they came out with a whole new Calm line of products! Have u tried them??
        Also, I agree with u on the meds. My doctor put me on Finacea in the morning and Atralin at night and I HATED them and also feel my skin has never been the same!! Wish I would have NEVER EVER used them. But what’s done is done so now I’m just trying to find the right products to help control it.

        2. My reviews on the 2 Calm products I’ve tried so far will be up Monday & Wednesday this week. I ordered more of the Calm products but they won’t arrive before I leave for my trip. So far I’ve tried the Serum and BHA and LOVE them!
          For me, IPL treatments + Oracea pills helped control my rosacea. Now I’m relying on the Paula’s Choice products and doing really well. I will still probably get another IPL treatment in the next 6 months to help keep any excessive redness at bay.

  3. Hi Phyrra, just curious- how do you get your Oracea? Does your derm give you a coupon? Currently, my health insurance is only paying half and after that it’s still $300 🙁

    1. Hi! I have really good insurance through my husband’s company. For my most expensive prescription, Mirvaso, it’s about $50 (and I don’t use this very often). For Oracea I don’t have a copay. They just recently switched me to a generic for Oracea called Doxycycline USP (30 mg immediate release & 10 mg delayed release), which seems to work just as well.

  5. That has to something that gets frustrating to deal with, but I’m glad you’ve found something that really works well for you.

  6. So glad that you’ve found something that has worked for you! I know you have really tried so much to try and resolve it, so it must be really encouraging. I know a few people who struggle with rosacea so I’ll have to share this with them. Thank you for your recommendation on the Paula’s Choice Resist system by the way! I’ve finally found something to deal with stubborn pores, small breakouts/redness that’s not too harsh. I’m trying to improve some stubborn red spots that are left over from breakouts on my jaw area, I just purchased the new PC 25% Resist Vitamin C Spot Treatment, it seems to be working so far! Do you still use the Silk Naturals Vitamin C Peptide Serum?

    1. Yes I’m on my 2nd bottle of the Silk Naturals Vitamin C Peptide Serum. Love it. I need to use the PC 25% on specific spots to see how that works in addition to the peptide serum, which I use all over.

      1. Awesome, yeah let me know how it works for you:) Do you think the Silk Naturals Vitamin C would work for someone with Combo to Oily Skin or do you think it’s best suited for Normal to Dry/Sensitive?

        1. I think it would be fine for combo to oily skin. It’s not a moisturizing product so much as an anti-aging product (if that makes sense?). I use a moisturizer on top of it. Right now I’m doing 1. SN Vit C Peptide 2. PC oil moisture booster 3. PC RESIST Clear Skin Hydrator (the anti-aging night cream w/o retinol).

          1. Yes, makes sense thanks so much! Oh I haven’t tried the Resist Clear Skin Hydrator yet, just the other Resist products for pores and the daytime SPF. Is it working well for you? When I run out of these products I have I’m going to invest in the Resist Advanced Kit, it comes with everything, including the SPF one for daytime.

  7. I’ve had IPL for hair removal but had been working for the plastic surgeon when they first started using it to treat rosacea and my past patients did enjoy it. I’m so glad to hear it is working for you!

  13. Thanks for this update, you know I find them very useful as I have rosacea as well. I’m glad the treatments made such a big difference for you. My current rosacea medications (Finacea in the AM & Metrogel in the PM) seem to be helping and I don’t flare that often. Sometimes I’ll get red spots but they go away in a day or two. The Finacea dries my skin, but moisturizer helps. I don’t think it dries it out to the extent that the Aczone was doing to you though. I’m still afraid to do laser because of the pain (even though I had laser for hair removal on my chin and it wasn’t so bad, but maybe on my face it would hurt more), but I’m thinking I can hold off because my flares have been minimal lately.

    1. Honestly, I think if you can handle laser for hair removal you can handle laser for rosacea. I think it’s a nearly identical machine. I just feel like the metrogel and aczone killed my skin, dried it out and made it look awful. The pain for IPL is over with within 20-30 minutes.

  14. I’m so glad to hear that the IPL treatments are making a difference for you. If I had some extra cash, I would try IPL to help fade my dark spots, though I think the combo of my derma roller and vitamin C serum are finally starting to fade them quite nicely

    2. Oh yeah that new Paula’s Choice Paula’s Choice 25% Resist Vitamin C Spot treatment also might really be great for you, I just ordered it. I have some stubborn red areas from old breakouts that I’m trying to get rid of. Thanks @phyrra:disqus for that product feature by the way! I haven’t used it long enough yet to tell but it seems like the results are positive. Also there is the Silk Naturals Vitamin C Peptide Serum that Phyrra featured that might be nice for you too.

    1. I wish i had known from the beginning. I wouldn’t have wasted my time or money on the medications to ‘control’ rosacea. They suck, in my opinion.

      1. That’s actually what my dermatologist told me in fact. I don’t have rosacea my redness is different but when we were talking about the different options he was saying that they can have bad side effects like you talked about, and they really aren’t effective. At least now though you have found something that you know works and you have a good skincare routine and makeup routine with the Cover FX CC Cream!

        1. Agreed! I just wish the drs had said IPL from the start. I would have skipped the topical medications which suck and gone straight to IPL and used that to manage the rosacea rather than meds which dry out the skin.

          1. Yes totally. I have had the same problem with many topical “acne” products, mostly because the acne I have is minimal and my skin isn’t oily enough in some places to take it. I do use one RX gel but the others were too drying for me. Like you, I wish I would have known that before. Thankfully I have a really great dermatologist now. So far the Resist Line is working well for that post breakout redness that I deal with around my jaw and it isn’t too harsh. But just like you, I’m glad that the COVER FX products are a great solution for me to cover any redness, and I love the Blemish Concealer.

Comments are closed.