It came out of nowhere. As I paced with
pre-presentation jitters at a Nolita boutique,
where I had come to speak on relationships after parenthood
(an unlikely specialty of mine following a book on the subject),
my face blazed like a space heater. Just a few days earlier, a
livid red rash had spread across my cheeks and chin. I’m firmly
53 and well past those years of skin unpredictability, so the
inflammation took me by surprise. Now, broken capillaries
had surfaced on my cheeks, too—and no amount of Armani
foundation could disguise them. I was going for “coolly
composed self-assurance,” but my complexion betrayed me.
“It’s rosacea,” Joshua Zeichner, M.D., director of cosmetic
and clinical research in dermatology at Mount Sinai,
confirmed when I showed up at his Upper East Side office
the next morning. Known in rosacea circles for working
miracles, Zeichner gives me the bad news first. “No one
knows exactly why some patients develop it,” he says of the
chronic, inflammatory skin condition that is thought to
be the result of an immune-system overreaction to a certain
bacteria called Bacillus oleronius, or the outsized presence
of skin microorganisms called Demodex mites. Often flaring
up without warning, it afflicts 16 million people, strikes
women three times as often as men, and is diagnosed most
commonly between the ages of 30 and 50.
A list of rosacea triggers reads like everything that’s good
in the world: spicy food, a hard workout, facials, sunshine,
red wine (and now, according to a study in the Journal of
the American Medical Association, white wine, too). Stress,
however, is the leading offender, which might explain
why my face went up in flames just as I was about to address
a roomful of people.
I have erythematotelangiectatic rosacea (ETR), Zeichner
tells me as he peers at my skin, which presents as redness,
flushing, and visible capillaries. Much like papulopustular
rosacea (PPR)—which results in redness, swelling, and
acne-like breakouts—it cannot be cured. “But the good news
is we can keep it under control,” Zeichner says, laying
out a two-pronged attack plan with proven results. “First
we repair, then we treat.”
The repair part comes easy. When I get back to my
apartment, I clear out my medicine cabinet of culprits that
could be responsible for impairing my skin barrier—scrubs,
glycolic acids, anything heavily fragranced—and replace them
with products “designated for redness and sensitivity,” at
Zeichner’s suggestion. Dr. Barbara Sturm’s Calming Serum
with purslane, her signature anti-inflammatory ingredient,
is a quick favorite, and Dr. Jart’s Cicapair line, which contains
chlorophyll-rich Tiger Grass, an anti-redness hero ingredient,
immediately soothes my skin.
Treatment is more involved—and is usually ongoing, warns
Hilary Baldwin, M.D., clinical associate professor of
dermatology at Rutgers Robert Wood
Seeing Red
Winter is coming, which is bad news for a rosacea diagnosis.
But a host of new treatments is designed to help
you keep calm and get better skin, writes Jancee Dunn.
SKIN CARE>96
SKIN CARE
GIRL ON FIRE
WITH NO KNOWN CURE,
THE INFLAMMATORY
SKIN CONDITION CAN BE
MANAGED WITH ORAL
AND TOPICAL DRUGS,
LIGHT THERAPY—AND AN
INCREASED FOCUS ON DIET.
94 DECEMBER 2019 VOGUE.COM
MODEL: BJARNE X TAKATA/TRUNK ARCHIVE. COLLAGE: PARKER HUBBARD.
VLIFE
