Squalene for rosacea



Squalene is an oil that occurs naturally in your skin, so it seems to make sense that a moisturizer with it would be good for rosacea. Not for everyone. Not for me, anyway.

Squalene is a component in ZenMed and Dermastart products, and your own skin has a lot of it, but that decreases as you age.

Now I'm going to talk about something confusing. There is squalene and there is squalane. So what? Both occur in your skin, but squalane is the hydrogenated form of squalene--wow, that brings back memories from organic medicinal chemistry! Hydrogenation makes it more stable, less susceptible to oxidation and deterioration. Your skin has both squalene and squalane naturally.

I tried a squalene cream because I had heard it was good for rosacea, very soothing, natural. I found a cream with very few ingredients, and it seemed wonderful. But then it broke me out like a teenager, and the acne was then very hard to get rid of because I couldn't use anything strong to get it under control. I used the rest of it up on my hands, and I will say that they were very soft!

I really wanted squalene to work for me because it has antioxidant properties, and it sounded like it could help plump up some wrinkle lines as well as comfort my rosacea. Not so. But there is a chance that a product with squalane would work for me. Since I have oily skin, squalene, which is rapidly absorbed, may have been too rich for me.

If you have oily skin, like me, you are probably better off trying squalane rather than squalene.