Danielle, 26, a retail Supervisor from Birmingham began getting the first symptoms of rosacea when she was just 19 years old.
Danielle says;
“My rosacea started on my right check when I was nineteen. Before that I had had no acne of any other skin issues.
It then spread to my other cheek and then to my nose. More recently, it spread to my chin and forehead too.
I have Papulopustular Rosacea, which means I also get painful puss filled spots of all sizes, along with my redness and bumpy skin.
I’m unsure how it began, I’ve found that stress is one of my main triggers but I am now tracking my diet to see if there are any dietary triggers that are possibly effecting my rosacea and acne breakouts.
I honestly didn’t know what to do when I first started getting symptoms. At the time I thought I was having a late acne spell from puberty. People, including most doctors, think rosacea only effects older people but that is not correct. It can start in your teens as it did with me. It can also start anytime in your 20’s or 30’s. This is a fact that needs more awareness as rosacea is often misdiagnosed in younger people as doctors assume it’s just normal acne.
As time went on and I got older, the flare ups continued and my rosacea started to be evident all the time and progressively got worse. It became clear to me that this was something other than late onset teen acne.
My rosacea progressed to cover nearly my whole face. The redness also deepened and my breakouts have because more frequent and aggressive too.
I went to my GP several times about my skin and received many types of creams and a very strange dab on liquid to try and treat both my acne and rosacea. None worked as I think they were all meant for normal acne and I was eventually referred to a dermatologist.
The dermatologist diagnosed me with rosacea and gave me a cream that seemed to calm it down for a few hours a day. However, after prolonged use, it wasn’t having the same effect as it did at the start.
My rosacea has made me feel terrible for years. Looking at myself in the mirror every day. Seeing how the rosacea was spreading was worrying and it progressively started damaging my confidence, self-esteem and my mental health as there was no reprieve.
A few months ago, I suffered from a very aggressive breakout. It was covering my chin and forehead and on the side of my mouth. I’ve struggled mentally with my skin disease as its had got worse. It’s been hard to have feelings of positive self worth, especially when trying to get into relationships and keeping a brave face when at work.
It’s a vicious circle too, when you’re suffering mentally already and then look in the mirror and can feel and see your skin hurting. It was hard to stay positive, especially when you are constantly having to deal with people’s reactions.
Last year I was making my way to work. The train was quite crowded and a lady took the empty seat next to mine. As she got up to leave the train, her son, who was about 15 years old followed her off and as they left he said; “Let’s get off before you get infected mum”.
It scares me that I might have rosacea for many more years. In some cases it can go away but often it stays well into your 40’s and even older. I’ve came to feel more at ease with my rosacea but I find it very hard when I get a really bad flare up. I used to feel alone with my skin disease but since finding positive influencers on Instagram and seeing more people go through what I do, it helps me stay a bit more positive
Since starting my Instagram account about my rosacea, I’ve been posting more of my bare skin and showing my bad flare ups instead of always trying to filter photos or trying to cover up my rosacea with thick make up. It was through this that I heard about Kalme skincare for rosacea.
I was quite sceptical at first as I’ve tried so many products that either don’t work or make my skin worse but I did my research and read many other testimonials from people who had tried the products and you could tell they were genuine. It was these that really convinced me to try the products.
It was a matter of weeks before I started to see a significant improvement in my skin after starting to use the Kalme products.
I was having quite an aggressive flare up when I started with the products and within days I noticed my skin become smoother with far less texture.
After a month of using the Kalme rosacea cream set, my skin is so much smoother and my painful breakouts have hugely reduced and in several areas of my skin they have completely cleared.
I used the whole skincare range, which is recommended, but the Kalme Chameleon Concealer is the standout product that really worked wonders for me.
It has a long list of ingredients in it that help combat the various symptoms of rosacea from redness, dryness to sensitivity as well as a mineral SPF to protect against UV related flares. Then on top of all that it contains a rosacea concealer that covers redness but looks really natural due to clever tone-matching technology that adapts to the daily changing skin tones that come with having rosacea. Each day my skin can be a different tone, but the concealer adapts to this.
It feels like everything you need to combat the different and difficult issues with rosacea have been put it into one little bottle.”
