perioral dermatitis

I shared on Instagram a little bit about my struggle with this pesky skin situation.

Thought I could share a little more in depth and give more background info.

Last year, same exact time, I broke out in this rash around my mouth that I had never had before in my life. Yes, I’ve struggled with acne but this was clearly not the same thing.

What I had around my moth was tiny red bumps that never came to a head like a zit. It was inflamed, itchy, hurt like a sun burn and was scaly. Super annoying and embarrassing.

I made a dermetologist appointment and sure enough if was not acne. She called it perioral dermatitis. I had never heard of it.

Great.

She told me that hormones are more than likely the reasoning but that there were some other symptoms or causes.

Spicy food.

Mint – Gum, toothpaste, mints.

Fluoride toothpaste.

Sugar.

So that’s great. I switched toothpaste, quit chewing gum unless it was cinnamon & stopped eating as much sugar.

She also gave me a cream to use. All fine and dandy until it comes back when you stop using the cream.

I honestly don’t remember when it was finally gone or how long it took but the rash did go away. I thought I’d never see the stuff again.

Wrong.

Last week it showed up again. I thought maybe it was an actual breakout at first because hello, super stressed out lately.

Nope. It’s definitely not acne. So once again I was feeling frustrated. I immediately went and got fluoride free toothpaste because I had been using a whitening toothpaste for the last few weeks which could have caused it.

I also realized I had been eating spicy food a lot. Like give me all the tacos and hot sauce. Also could be the reason for breaking out.

Annnnd I live in Nebraska so the weather is so up and down it could drive a person batty. This could also be the reason. Bless.

After Pinteresting I even got diaper rash cream to help sooth the inflammation. ( This didn’t work by the way. So now I have a tube of diaper rash cream and have no babies. Ha)

I’ve been using Monat’s skincare like since November and have seen a big difference in my skin. So for this to happen really surprised me. I haven’t even had any real acne since starting this line.

Monat has a berry scrub that is all natural that I thought I’d give a whirl. At this point I’ll try anything to help this stuff go away.

Turns out this scrub is life changing. It helped the redness go down and the dry flaky skin go away. praise Jesus!

I had also heard from other girls in the Monat world that deal with perioral dermatitis that they use the rejuveniqe oil on their breakouts. Also a game changer. This oil is liquid gold. Sooo many uses for hair and skin it’s ridiculous. If you haven’t tried this stuff- hit your girl up because your life will be forever changed.

I’m going to order the sensitive skin skincare line from Monat and hope that it will be gentle enough for these times. Anyways, I’m hoping these little changes help heal this mess and I can move forward.

I’ll post an update in a few weeks and share the progress. If you deal with this pesky stuff let me know. Would love to share tips and tricks!

XO