5 Green Flags for Finding the Best Cleanser for Rosacea

Finding the best cleanser for rosacea (or any product for rosacea-prone skin) is about a careful selection of ingredients. 

Most people with this chronic facial redness condition have been through the vexing experience of buying a new skincare product over and over (myself, the founder of MeridaSKIN included!) hoping it will finally be the one that doesn’t set their face on fire. And yet, they’re disappointed again without understanding why their skin reacted so negatively to it.

The good thing about cleansers for sensitive skin is that they’re intended to rinse off rather than leave on. The formula is typically in contact with skin for less than a couple of minutes. The upside of this relatively short contact time is that the product has limited opportunity to cause irritation or trigger an allergic reaction. 

Still, highly irritating or allergenic ingredients can cause problems, particularly if there is a lot of the irritating ingredients in the formula. How to know if there is a lot of it in the formula? It will appear at or near the top of the list of ingredients. 

While there are many red flags to look for (read our big list of rosacea ingredient red flags here), there are also some green flags—or minimally irritating ingredients that can help your sensitive skin feel good!

Green Flag #1: Sulfate-free

A common culprit for irritation is the sulfate family of surfactants. These include sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). They are a favorite of formulators and manufacturers because they are low-cost, easy to get, easy to work with, and produce pleasing foam. 

Despite the open secret that they are highly irritating, they continue to be common in facial cleansers, body washes, shampoos, and the like—even the ones marketed as gentle or sensitive-skin friendly. 

The takeaway: Don’t trust that a product is gentle or suited for sensitive skin just because it says that it is. Instead, scan the list of ingredients, or at least look for a “sulfate-free” claim on the label.

Green Flag #2: Mild surfactants

Surfactants, also known as surface-active agents, are the biggest component of a typical cleanser. They reduce surface tension and allow the removal of dirt. So, unless you are an adherent of oil cleansing, surfactants are the ingredients that give your cleanser its performance. 

For people with rosacea and other sensitive skin conditions, sulfates like SLS and SLES are out, but that’s not the end of the story with surfactants. Even non-sulfate surfactants can damage skin lipids and proteins, leading to dryness. Some surfactants stand out as good “mild” choices. 

The milder choices include the alkyl glucosides (such as coco glucoside and decyl glucoside), and the isethionates (such as sodium cocoyl isethionate). An important caveat about the alkyl glucosides: these have the potential to trigger skin allergy and should not be used in leave-on formulas such as moisturizers and sun protectants; the risk is lower in rinse-off products.

Keep Reading: Retinol and Rosacea: Is It Helpful or Hurtful?

Green Flag #3: Ideal pH

pH stands for “potential hydrogen” and it refers to how acidic something is. pH can be measured for anything that has water in it. It is measured on a scale of zero to 14, as follows:

• pH below 7 is acidic
• pH at 7 is neutral
• pH above 7 is non-acidic (also known as basic, or alkaline)

The skin’s natural pH is slightly acidic. The pH of the skin comes from a combination of sweat and natural oils (sebum) produced by glands in the dermis. This thin protective film of sweat and sebum is referred to as the “acid mantle,” which has a pH ranging 4.5 to 6.2, based on a variety of factors. 

• Healthy skin pH is in the vicinity of 4.5 to 5.0. 
• Higher pH is seen in drier skin. 
• Disrupted skin pH is also associated with a number of skin conditions, including acne, eczema, psoriasis and rosacea.

A Little pH Science

Supporting natural skin pH is key to promoting the protective barrier (which keeps water and other good things in, and bad things like pollution and undesirable microorganisms out), and also to keeping a healthy balance of microorganisms. 

The reality is that skin returns close to its baseline pH within one hour of using a cleanser of pH 7 or lower. Some studies have shown that neutral cleansers (pH close to 7) were actually milder than acidic cleansers with a pH close to skin’s naturally acidic pH. 

Take away from that: sensitive skin sufferers might want to think twice before trying acne or alpha-hydroxy acid (AHA) cleansers, which usually have a pH below 4. On the flip side, skin can take longer to recover its natural pH after use of an alkaline cleanser. 

The Takeaway

Bar soap will be alkaline, and liquid cleansers certainly can be if the pH is not adjusted in the formula. Safest practice, if not oil-cleansing, is to look for a liquid cleanser that is pH-balanced or pH-neutral.

Read More: How to Choose the Best Tone for Rosacea Prone Skin

Green Flag #4: Lipids to Combat Dryness

Research has shown that incorporating fatty acids in a cleanser can make it milder by lessening surfactant damage to lipids and proteins. This has the effect of protecting the stratum corneum barrier to decrease transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and dryness. 

Another strategy is to provide moisturization by depositing emollients during cleansing. For clean-conscious consumers who want to avoid petrolatum and mineral oil, triglycerides fit the bill nicely.

Green Flag #5: Dermatologist-Recommended Products

The National Rosacea Society (NRS) has a Seal of Acceptance program, and the list of accepted products is expected to grow as the program matures (it debuted in the last several years). 

Media outlets such as Allure and NBC News publish “Best” and “Top” skincare picks for rosacea every year or two, in consultation with their dermatologist contacts. However, these lists are created with commercial influence and selection bias. 

• For example, the products that carry a seal, or were “awarded” a top or best pick are almost certainly paid to be evaluated and then also paid to license the logo or badge they display. 
• The entity publishing the recommendations typically gets a referral fee or commission for sales that flow through the link in their content. This doesn’t mean that the products in question are poor choices for rosacea, it just means that they may not be as good as they appear to be.

Dermatologist recommendations for rosacea-friendly cleansers perennially feature products from big brands Aveeno, CeraVe, Cetaphil, Neutrogena, and Vanicream. Of these, Vanicream is this author’s only recommendation for its affordability and mostly objection-free ingredients. 

Note of transparency: as of this writing, I have never knowingly interacted with anyone at Vanicream, and is not paid in any way for the recommendation.

Find The Best Products for You

MeridaSKIN was founded by a nurse practitioner with rosacea (me!). We understand sensitive skin and your journey through fruitless products because we WERE you. Our origins commit us to keeping up on scientific advances in dermatology and skin care and only fielding products we believe in and love using daily. The result is clean clinical rosacea care that I rely on to keep my own face problem-free. Check out our suite of products.