Painting the town red isn’t supposed to mean a girls’ night out with a splotchy complexion. But for millions of us, redness can lead to feeling self-conscious, physically uncomfortable and even embarrassed. After all, a permanent flush of red across both cheeks, like you’ve just hiked a mountain, isn’t exactly the look of the moment.
What is redness exactly? “The majority of redness is due to blood flow,” explains Dr. Tom Mammone, executive director of Clinique research. “It’s triggered by many factors, including food, allergies and sun exposure.” The beauty brand just launched Redness Solutions, an entire line of skin care products devoted to helping women with the condition.
When we see a ruddy complexion, we most often think rosacea, a dermatological condition marked by inflammatory redness, which, over time, also includes the growth of tiny little capillaries, causing the face to remain red even between so-called flare-ups. In addition to the redness come pimples and, more rarely, rhinophyma (or “rosacea nose”), where the skin actually thickens. Thankfully for us ladies, this last rosacea symptom is more commonly found in men.
For those who suffer from their own personal “red tag days,” it is disheartening, to say the least. “When I first had it, I wanted to hide. It was horrible,” says Emily Connor*, a Toronto woman who has suffered from redness for nearly a decade. “It started with three red dots, then thousands of red bumps. I have to use a prescription cream to control it.”
Connor says she has to be hyper-aware of what she eats—she’s especially reactive to spicy foods—and drinks. Otherwise, she says, “My face looks like a road map with dozens of tiny blood vessels. It’s like blushing times 1,000. It’s really crazy red.”
So crazy red that when she plucks her eyebrows, she has to stay home for several hours until the colour fades or else endure the stares of passersby.
However, not all redness is created equal.
“There’s been a trend to call all redness rosacea, which is incorrect because a lot of redness we see is from sun damage,” explains Dr. David Orentreich, a guiding dermatologist for Clinique who also has a thriving Manhattan practice of his own.
This reaction is due to the sun’s ultraviolet light changing and damaging the cells of the blood vessels in the face. The UV light makes a direct hit on the cheeks. Over time, the cells respond by growing more blood vessels, and that produces redness.
The look we want on our faces is just the opposite. The runways of the past few seasons, including Spring 2008, favour the nude face/no-makeup makeup look. No wonder doctors’ offices are flooded with young women who want to stop the red.
With ingredients such as sea whip extract, sucrose, oat and green tea extracts, which have natural soothing and healing properties, and without oil or fragrance, the new Clinique products work together to help get rid of the flush. The line includes a cleanser, a daily relief cream that has a slight green tint to counter the red, a protective base with antioxidants, and an SPF 15 that acts as a makeup primer and also has a green tinge. And for emergencies or sudden flare-ups, including Connor’s spicy food reactions, there’s an urgent relief cream that helps calm down the flare.
