I tried everything for rosacea, then a High Street serum transformed my skin... it really is worth the hype

‘AZELAIC acid is a nat­ur­ally occur­ring acid that can be found in grains such as wheat, bar­ley and rye. It has actu­ally been used in der­ma­to­logy for dec­ades,’ says Dr Jonathan Kent­ley, a con­sult­ant der­ma­to­lo­gist in Lon­don.

‘It has anti-inflam­mat­ory and anti-micro­bial prop­er­ties, which is why it’s used to treat both acne and ros­acea. It also sup­ports the healthy func­tion of how skin cells are shed within pores, so can reduce the form­a­tion of black­heads and white­heads that can become inflamed spots.

‘One of its other par­tic­u­larly use­ful prop­er­ties is its effect on pig­ment­a­tion. Azelaic acid inhib­its tyr­os­inase, an enzyme involved in the pro­duc­tion of [the brown pig­ment] melanin, so it can gradu­ally help to fade the dark marks that are often left behind after acne or inflam­ma­tion.’

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