Winter weather can be harsh on skin prone to rosacea but for 33-year former care assistant, Nathlie Rose from Shropshire, the cold weather made her skin crack open and bleed causing her to suffer terrible bulling at work.

Natalie says,

‘When my rosacea was at its height, I was bullied by my boss, mocked by my work colleagues, insulted by complete strangers in the street and even told I needed cometic surgery by an ex boyfriend. It was little wonder I ended up hating myself and at my lowest point feeling like I wanted to end my life.

 I tried to hide away and hated being seen and being questioned about my red face and people making fun of it. I was made to feel ugly and disgusting.

I had my first signs of rosacea at about aged 14. I had bad acne like many of my friends did but I also got really red cheeks, and when I did sports it was noticeably worse and was often made fun of at school about my tomato face. My grandad had rosacea really badly so I think it must be genetic.

As I entered my 20’s my acne got a bit better but the redness of my face just got gradually worse and worse. I felt pretty hopeless and weird like I was the odd one out. All my friends had gone on to have flawless skin, while mine was just going from bad to worse.

I have asthma and at first the doctor told my mum he thought my blotchy red face was due to some kind of skin reaction I was having to the medications I took for my asthma.

After numerous more consultations by which time was skin was so raw and red I was eventually diagnosed with rosacea which they told me was triggered by stress and I should work on trying to be less stressed and use E45 cream on my skin. That was literally all the advice I was given.

I tried E45 cream, I tried washing my face all the time, I used facial wipes, all sorts. If I saw something advertised, I would try it and I covered a variety of skincare brands and nothing helped. I realised my skin was fragile and volatile and most things I tried would just make my skin feel even more sensitive and furious.

The process of trying new  creams or treatments became waring and traumatic as well as expensive. Each time I tried a new wonder product I would get my hopes up and then my skin would just react to it and often end up worse than it was before and I’d have to throw the product away. it would make me feel even more hopeless. I felt like nothing was ever going to help me.

I was having constant flares and breakouts, in the summer and winter, although winter was way worse.

One winter it was really cold and it snowed. I went outside just for a little while and my face went bright red and swollen and then once I got back inside it began to bleed. After that every time I went out in cold weather my face would inflame and start to bleed. I developed a phobia about the cold as a result due to the rection my skin had to it.

When my face became such a mess I started getting really badly bullied by my boss at the time who mocked me in front of my work colleagues because of the state of my skin and told me to cover it in make up as it was upsetting clients. He even told me some has complained to him about me as they thought it might be contagious. He made me feel like an ogre. In the end he was sacked due to his behaviour but the damage to my mental health had already been done.

When you have a skin condition everyone thinks they have a right to say things to you. Even things like getting on a bus, I’ve been called ugly by complete strangers and even told to consider cosmetic surgery by an ex-partner. In past relationships and during my marriage, I always excused bad treatment of me because I felt I was so ugly and they could do better so I just needed to put up with it. I really struggled to see any self-worth.

I got pregnant in 2018 and the redness and swelling became even more constant and pronounced while I was pregnant. I sadly lost my daughter in late pregnancy and had a breakdown as a result of the grief and ended up on sick leave from work and eventually I had to leave altogether. I was extremely depressed and stopped wanting to even leave my home. I developed crippling anxiety and my self-esteem and confidence hit rock bottom.

Not long after I lost my baby, I was so low I had to get therapy and I ws put on antidepressants to try and cope. The bullying I’d experienced at work, being ridiculed by clients, even my friends had nicknamed me alien and then going through a divorce and then having a miscarriage, I just felt overwhelmed. It was the most traumatic period of my life and I have not been able to return to a communal work environment since.

I was googling rosacea and doing my habitual scan of new products or research on it in the hope of finding some kind of breakthrough when I came across a review of Kalme rosacea cream. There were a lot of accounts from people who I could tell were completely real from what they were saying. Many of the things resonated with me as I had experienced things like that too. There were several people talking about how much they had been bullied at work and in their personal lives due to their skin.

Having recognised that trying products and them not working had added to my depression and anxiety about my skin I was quite wary of trying something else new. But it was the nature of the reviews for Kalme products that eventually convinced me to take another chance. Even so it took me almost a year to summon up the courage to try the products. I was terrified that once again I’d get my hopes up and then have them dashed again.

There was a day and night cream and a cleanser in the recommended basic pack. I had never even used a cleanser before.

Within four weeks there was a noticeable difference, my skin wasn't bleeding or flaky anymore. It felt smoother and calmer and mush less painful.

By the time I moved onto the second Kalme pack I had seen a drastic improvement in my skin. I then also added a new Kalme TeQ Serum they bought out to deal with the extreme dryness and tightness that can come with rosacea and this accelerated the improvement in my skin even more as it made my skin the smoothest it’s been in as far back as I can remember.

I have been using the Kalme day rosacea cream, night cream and cleanser ever since and its the best rosacea cream I've ever used and I will never stop using it. I often talk about them to other people suffering from rosacea online where I post on Instagram about my skin and am part of several discussion and support networks for rosacea. I do this because their effects have been truly life changing for me.

I know I’m always going to have rosacea as there’s no magic fix and I still get flutters of anxiety when I get a skin flare, but these products have helped significantly manage the symptoms better than anything else I have ever tried and reduce the redness and bumpiness, which is the most upsetting and visible part of having rosacea.

Even though I still clearly still have some rosacea I no longer have people starring in horror at my skin or calling me names and I have learned to start loving my skin for the first time in my adult life. Knowing that I have something that can control the worst of the symptoms has hugely eased my anxiety about my skin. I feel so much more confident that on many days I’m OK going out make up free, which is honestly miraculous for me.”