Soolantra

[SaraL]

i've been on Soolantra now for 5 days, i'm feeling really itchy today and a little more red than normal. i'm hoping this is the start of a die off and not irritation from the cream

[antwantsclear]

i've been on Soolantra now for 5 days, i'm feeling really itchy today and a little more red than normal. i'm hoping this is the start of a die off and not irritation from the cream

Yes that's right, experiencing these symptoms after 5 days is likely to be a die off. If you were experiencing them 3-4 weeks after starting the cream, then it probably isn't going to work, but I would give it some time.

[SaraL]

The irritation and itchiness from yesterday is gone and today i've woken up with a ton of very tiny breakouts. i wouldn't call them pimples or pustules, but almost looks like the hair follicles or pores are a bit inflamed (might be called folliculitis?)and raised with very small whiteheads.

Yesterday was so strange, there were sensations almost like vibrating under the skin. I don't even have words for how to accurately describe what was going on

[boris]

The irritation and itchiness from yesterday is gone and today i've woken up with a ton of very tiny breakouts. i wouldn't call them pimples or pustules, but almost looks like the hair follicles or pores are a bit inflamed (might be called folliculitis?)and raised with very small whiteheads.

Yesterday was so strange, there were sensations almost like vibrating under the skin. I don't even have words for how to accurately describe what was going on

sounds like its working as it should to me

[SaraL]

When I talked to the pharmacist he mentioned applying a thin layer, but I found this from Soolantra's instructions

"Apply Soolantra Cream to the affected areas of the face once a day. Use a pea-sized amount of Soolantra Cream for each area of the face (forehead, chin, nose, each cheek) that is affected. Spread as a thin layer across the entire face, avoiding the eyes and lips. Hands should be washed after applying Soolantra Cream."

For an entire face would that mean applying 5 pea size amounts or 1? Right now i'm using about 2-3, which is enough to cover my face and the portion of my neck that gets flushed

[SaraL]

Today is day 13 of using Soolantra and it's been an interesting journey so far. I'm using for what I suspect was a massive demodex infestation called pityriasis folliculorum, which caused really rough sandpaper textured skin with follicular scaling (sometimes called hyperkeratotic spicules in medical literature). I couldn't figure out for years why my skin had suddenly went from very oily to super dry in matter of months, I also had facial flushing and redness that came out of nowhere.

The first 4 days of using Soolantra, nothing happened, then on day 5 my skin felt very irritated, red, and there were buzzing, tingling sensations under the skin. Day 6 I woke up with tiny clogged follicular pimples/outbreaks that appeared in a rash type formation. These breakouts continued for days, then around day 10 I noticed the rash was starting to get better and the follicular scales/flakes were coming out each night when I washed my face.

Now on day 13 and the rash is very faint, redness is still apparent but not as bad as it was before I started Soolantra, the follicullar scales are mostly gone and skin feels much smoother. Now it seems the areas that were the worst are drying out and peeling off, i'm assuming this could be a die off reaction or part of recovery but I have no idea. My pores also look enlarged, I believe this may be from the demodex mites crowding them for years and stretching them out, they're only visible now because they're cleared out.

My skin also feels tight and looks thinned out, i'm wondering if perhaps the demodex were feeding off my skin cells, sebum and collagen for so long that even though many have died off and cleared out of my pores, it may just take a long while to heal. I did read that the epidermis takes a full 27 days to completely regenerate, so I need to be a bit more patient.

I was given a 45 mg tube and my Dr did not want to give out refills, so now that I know Soolantra is working i'm going to have to talk him into using it for at least the 12 week trial period or find another derm who's willing to write a prescription with refills.

[lejaja]

Hi

I was prescribed Soolantra by a dermatologist in march of 2018. He diagnosed me with rosacea and told me about "mites". I started using it (probably close to 6-8 weeks) but had to stop because I didn't really experience much results or I might have reacted to the cream (got a lot of closed comedones). I stopped using it and my skin became much better. Went through the summer without much wories regarding the rosacea but then I got a crazy "brakeout" this fall. I had some soolantra left and used for approx 2 weeks until the tube was finished and got much better.

I got a new tube in december and have used for one month now. Still getting the closed comedones but much less pustules and papules (or what they are called). Does this sound like a typical demodex problem? Should I maybe ditch the soolantra and try other things like the ZZ cream?

[SaraL]

Hi lejaja

I was just reading a paper on demodex treatment and some of the patients still had die off symptoms at 4 weeks but were completely clear at 4 months after use of either daily topical 1% ivermectin, or single dose therapy of oral ivermectin. What I found interesting is patients with oral ivermectin also had the breakouts and peeling skin, so your side effects might not be from the cetaphil base, but mites dying off. I'd try to finish the full 12 week trial.

[RedRecluse]

Still getting the closed comedones but much less pustules and papules (or what they are called). Does this sound like a typical demodex problem? Should I maybe ditch the soolantra and try other things like the ZZ cream?

Yes and yes, but put time into reading about ZZ Cream, how to apply it, etc. Here's my thread - https://rosaceagroup.org/The_Rosacea...rate!-(w-pics).

[Dutch1]

I thought I would add my experiences with Soolantra to this thread.

I used it for about 4 months last year.

On the positive side, I had no initial outbreak, the cream seemed to be quite moisturising and didn't react badly with my skin.

On the negative side, while it did help a little bit in reducing the number of P&Ps, it didn't seem to have much of an effect. I eventually stopped and have had much more success treating the P&Ps using a combination of Rozex cream, Financea and oral minocycline.

Maybe the source of my rosacea is not mite related?