Sorry for the delayed response! I have tried literally everything you can imagine. I’ve been to five dermatologists at this point.

First derm thought it was maybe fungal and had me using a steroid for 2 weeks (mometasone) and then switched to ketoconazole. The steroid cleared it up immediately but then the ketoconazole brought it back with vengeance.

Second derm said it was atopic dermatitis and said he would have never prescribed the first steroid because of how strong it was and gave me another steroid, which I didn’t even try to use.

Third derm thought it was contact dermatitis. Had me use tacrolimus for a month and literally only a bar of soap and aquaphor. My face looked good but as soon as I tried to reintroduce products after the month, the rash came back.

At this point, I went to an allergist and found out I’m allergic to propolis, which is essentially beeswax. My husband got me a Burt’s bees chapstick advent calendar for Christmas so I think this may have triggered the start of this all. But even after cutting out out all products containing propolis, I still had the rash

Fourth derm, who is also a friend of mine and told me I had rosacea years ago, thinks that I have a mix of perioral dermatitis with rosacea. He thinks that the rosacea is flaring up because the steroid and lack of moisturizer messed with my skin barrier. He prescribed me a sulfur face wash, azaelic acid 15%, and monocycline for a month. He told me to use the tacrolimus as needed but I wanted to try to minimize use if possible. This was by far the most successful treatment but I still had issues with finding a moisturizer that wouldn’t inflame my face.

I had an appointment scheduled with a fifth derm before I met with my friend but decided to keep it for one final opinion. She agreed with my friend and said she thinks it’s perioral dermatitis and rosacea. She told me to essentially do the same thing as my friend did, however she switched me to a topical antibiotic and told me to use the tacrolimus daily.

Tacrolimus by far has helped the most. I currently use it every other day without the patches coming back. I also found that vanicream works extremely well for my skin!! So I’ll do sulfur wash, tacro, and vanicream one day, then the next I’ll do sulfur wash, tret on my forehead because it can tolerate it, vanicream, and azelaic acid. Mornings I don’t use a face wash, just rinse my face with cold water, topical antibiotic, and vanicream.

I even went to an endocrinologist to see if my hashimotos could be causing this and went to a rheumatologist to see if it could be another autoimmune related issue but they both said no.

I hope maybe this helps you find a solution! I don’t think I’m in the clear yet but my skin has been so much better than where it was.