Not for Redness: Only Works on Calm Skin

Makes redness worse. Azelaic acid treatments should come with a disclaimer that they aren’t meant for use on actively flaring skin, because they commonly cause burning, stinging, and increased redness regardless of formula, application, or percentage. They’re constantly recommended for rosacea or sensitive skin, but the instructions don’t clearly say you shouldn’t apply them during a flare. Instead, you’re expected to wait until your skin is already clear, which makes it merely a preventative product than something that actually treats redness. They can’t claim it treats, soothes, alleviates, or “calms” redness if it can only be used on days when the skin is ALREADY calm and clear. This is useless for people with sensitive skin, where our baseline and threshold for reactivity never “goes away.” I tested this by using it only on the rare days I didn’t have a significant flare, and over a few months it did nothing except trigger more redness. This isn’t like other actives that can be used at any stage. If I’d known it wouldn’t be usable for most days, I would’ve skipped it and chosen something I could use consistently (a product that actually heals redness). That’s the whole point of mild, barrier improving skincare anyways. I also think Anua should address claims that the stated 10% azelaic acid isn’t stable in this clear liquid formula (and clear packaging) and may not actually be delivering that percentage to the skin. Be so for real. What kind of redness treatment only calms skin that is already calm.

Originally posted on sephora.com