How to Get Rid of the Red Patches on Your Face

There are a couple of reasons your face could have red patches. It could be rosacea, or it could be seborrheic dermatitis. But if your red skin patches are itchy and dry, it’s likely to be atopic dermatitis which is more commonly called eczema. Let’s discuss how to quickly get rid of your red patches from eczema.

Not sure what kind of facial redness you’re dealing with? Read this description of the five kinds of facial redness and identify the one that looks most like yours.

Step-by-Step Treatment for Red Patches

Your skin naturally has a barrier to protect itself from irritants. But when the barrier is gone, your skin isn’t protected, and that’s when you see red patches of irritation and inflammation. It’s your immune system’s response to the irritants getting into your skin. So let’s talk about how you can give your skin back its protection while soothing the irritation, all in 6 simple steps.

Step 1: Cleanse

Wash your face gently both in the morning and at night. Make sure that the cleanser you use is sulfate-free, because harsh foaming sulfates can end up stripping even more of the lipids that make up your skin barrier and remove what’s left of your skin protection. So look for no sulfates and a hydrating, gentle solution. This one from GlowBiotics is built for daily use on dry skin and is gentle so it doesn’t strip your skin.

Step 2: Hydrate

Immediately after washing and cleansing, while your skin is still slightly damp, you want to apply a hydrating serum to send moisture deep into your skin. When you do that, it calms the itchiness of your red patches and reduces the appearance of redness too. This hydrating serum from PCA Skin has hyaluronic acid, which helps moisture penetrate. It’s a great choice for inflamed red skin.

Step 3: Repair

Now it’s time to work on rebuilding that protection that your skin is missing, so that it will naturally prevent the irritation from happening before an eczema flare-up. Your skin’s protection is made of lipids, so you want a cream that will replenish those lipids. Look for a product with emollients, which are ingredients that create a shield over your face to block out those irritants. This cream from Dermalogica is perfect for this repair step.

Step 4: Calm

Sometimes you have certain patches of redness that are extremely severe and stubborn. Those patches need targeted care to calm them down and get them to stop being so itchy and red. Here’s where we get a little more active and use something a little stronger to convince these red patches that it’s time to go. The recommended active ingredient for tough eczema patches is hydrocortisone. You need a cream with the maximum concentration of 1% hydrocortisone. Like this one from PCA Skin, which also has honey and lipids with the strong hydrocortisone. This cream should work quickly to relieve the itching.

Because this stuff is so strong, though, don’t use it for more than seven days in a row. If your patches are still stubborn after seven days of this cream, consult your doctor for advice.

Step 5: Protect

After your morning cleanse and skincare routine, you always want to finish with a mineral sunscreen to protect your sensitive skin from sun damage. For complete protection you want a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 50, acting as a shield on your face. This Colorescience sunscreen is a great option, as it even includes encapsulated pigments that help even out your skin tone so you look your best. It’s great on its own or under makeup (if you do wear makeup, make sure your makeup products are super gentle when your skin is this dry and red.)

Step 6: Recover

When you finish your nighttime cleanse and skincare routine, give your skin an extra boost in its nighttime replenishing with a nourishing facial mask. Look for a mask that has ceramides, as ceramides build back up your skin barrier. This facial mask from Dr. Brandt has the ceramides and the soothing you’ll love, making your face feel like a new thing when you wake up in the morning.

With gentle, consistent care, you can heal your red patches more quickly than you think, and reveal your natural skin glow.