Any recommendations for dry, flaky, red skin?

[lvillafana7]

Hi, new here and was looking at the skin care section but I am unsure of what exactly would work best on my skin. If any of you here have some experience with some of the skin care products please feel free to let me know how it worked for you. I'm personally trying to figure out what combination of products would help my skin.

For reference, I have very dry skin, and it tends to get flaky. The flakiness makes it hard to find makeup that works for my skin as everything I put on always looks cakey. I also have a lot of redness, but its all focused on my cheeks and around my nose, like a butterfly rash. I also tend to get breakouts, though I wouldn't say my skin is highly sensitive to many products. There doesn't seem to be a pattern when I break out, it seems to just come on randomly and when it does its usually big, splotchy, red bumps that mainly pop up on my cheeks and nose and they are always a bit itchy as well. They don't ever look like actual pimples, just itchy, red bumps. I should also note that my skin breaks put heavily in the summer whenever I am in direct sunlight. It sounds weird, I know, but the sun always causes me to break out in hives. (I tried to see a derm for this but he was very passive and barely even examined my skin at all, should note it is also a concern that i may have lupus).

My skincare routine is nothing special. I wash my face with Neutrogena's Visibly Even face wash with a soft facial sponge from The Body Shop. I then moisturize with either FAB's Ultra Repair Cream or Pond's Nourishing Cream for dry skin at night, and Neutrogena's Visibly Even daily moisturizer with spf during the day. An alternative to this is sometimes I'll just use some coconut oil. I'm really just searching for something to take away the redness and help even out my skin, as well as moisturize it and get rid of the flakiness. If any of you have dealt with or are dealing with the same things I am, I would love to hear your experiences and what has or hasn't worked for you as I am pretty much clueless when it comes to my own skin and would love some help or advice. Thanks in advance, and apologies for writing so much, just wanted to include every possible detail.

[JenW]

Do you exfoliate to help get rid of the flakes? It kind of sounds like you have rosacea, but I am not a dermatologist. And then again, you might want to check out the other things your derm mentioned.

A hydrating serum also might help. Apply it before your moisturizer. Maybe the Green Tea & Aloe one. It sounds like the problem is bigger than that, though.