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Allergy Season & Your Skin

By Ava Najafabadi, LME – Expert Skin Solutions

If your eyes are itchy, your nose is running, and you’re sneezing nonstop, you already know it’s allergy season. But what many people don’t realize is that allergies don’t just affect your sinuses – they also show up on your skin. If your face suddenly feels tight, red, itchy, or reactive to products that usually feel fine, your skin is likely telling you it’s overwhelmed.

In this blog, I’ll walk you through how allergy season affects your skin, how it can change the way your treatments feel, and what you can do to prevent that irritated, inflamed “everything burns” feeling.

How allergy season shows up on your skin:

During allergy season, your immune system is already on high alert. Pollen and other environmental triggers can cause your body to release histamine, which leads to inflammation. You feel that as sneezing and congestion, but your skin often gets involved too.

Common skin changes during allergy season:

Redness around the nose, cheeks, eyelids, and mouth

Dry, tight, or flaky patches that weren’t there before

Itching or stinging, especially when you apply skincare

Puffiness under the eyes and a dull, “tired” look to the skin.

On top of this, the environment tends to be drier – either from indoor heating/AC or from windy, fluctuating weather – which can pull moisture out of your skin. When your skin loses moisture, the barrier (your skin’s protective layer) becomes weaker. A compromised barrier lets more irritants in and lets more water out, so products that used to feel perfectly fine can suddenly tingle, burn, or cause redness.



If you have eczema, rosacea, or generally sensitive skin, allergy season often makes those conditions flare more easily and more frequently.

How allergies affect your skin treatments:

Because your barrier is more fragile during allergy season, professional and at-home treatments may feel stronger than they did a few months ago. It doesn’t always mean something is “wrong” with the treatment – it may simply mean your skin is already inflamed and needs a gentler approach.

Here’s how different treatments can be affected:

Chemical peels & exfoliating treatments:
If your skin is dry, flaky, or actively irritated, chemical peels and strong exfoliation can be too aggressive. You may experience:

• Intense stinging during the treatment
• Excessive dryness or tightness afterward
• Uneven flaking or longer recovery

During heavy allergy weeks, we may choose a lighter peel, focus on hydration instead, or reschedule if your skin is visibly angry when you arrive.

Laser and heat-based treatments:
When the skin is already red, reactive, or inflamed, lasers and other heat-based treatments can:

• Increase flushing and visible redness
• Take longer for your skin to calm down post-treatment
• Feel more uncomfortable than usual

In these cases, I may adjust settings, layer in more barrier support, or recommend that we restore the skin first and then come back to higher-energy treatments.

Microneedling and active facials:
Microneedling and active, “corrective” facials work best on skin that is calm and intact. If your skin is:

• Itchy or rashy
• Open, cracked, or heavily irritated
• Reacting to every product you use

…then stimulating it further may not be the best choice right now. We’ll likely pivot to calming, barrier-repair facials until your skin is stable again, and then safely return to more aggressive treatments.

At-home actives (retinoids, acids, scrubs):
This is the most common area where people get into trouble during allergy season. You’re already inflamed, but you keep using:

• Retinoids nightly
• Strong acid toners or exfoliating pads
• Physical scrubs

Stacking these on top of allergy-irritated skin can turn mild sensitivity into full-blown inflammation. Sometimes the smartest move is to temporarily pull back, then slowly reintroduce actives once the skin has settled.