P.S. I am sad. Ever since my single foolish use of that neutrogena retinol product, my rosacea has been acting up and I can't get my skin looking like itself again. I have a papule that won't go away (usually they go away as soon as I treat w/ metrogel, this one is just sitting there stubbornly lol) and one whole side of my face is blotchy with more prominent dilated blood vessels. I just thought I'd whine here since other women understand these things. Wish I had followed my own advice about people with rosacea not messing with any type of irritant.

Thanks Lela! I'll take you up on that. I used tone correcting moisture spf 30. Incidentally, Paula's choice has retinol-containing products that are recommended for rosacea, but I think it may be playing with fire. Ouch, my skin hasn't been this bad since I got diagnosed w/ rosacea. The depressing part for me is the blood vessels, because those don't go away once they surface. But it's not horribly disfiguring, I'm dramatizing a bit (vanity).

Hmm. I've certainly heard sunscreens can be irritating, but personally I've never reacted to a sunscreen before. I'll have to check if it's a different active ingredient than the others I use. I was a little concerned though when the package mentions redness and peeling as side effects to expect.

isodecane is used to create a matte finish and a longer lasting formulation but it's a potential irritant, the aforementioned vitamin c and the product is fragranced.
any one of these ingredients could cause a problem, but off course it still could be the retinol.

Give it time, I find with my skin when I over-acid, applying a pure silicone product such as a primer (or lubricant!) helps calm it too. And any product with a high concentration of Bisabolol has been successful.

i have very mild rosacea and use paula's choice serum with retinol and have no reaction. i do get severe reactions to mentol products

Thanks for your input Ally. It's funny how everyone's triggers are so individual. I was considering that very product (PC retinol) but I'm afraid to now because of how I reacted to the neutrogena. It was really pretty dramatic for me, more dramatic than any symptoms I've had since diagnosis (again, it's all relative--my rosacea is mild, like you). I'll wait until my skin calms down and see how bad the blood vessels look. If I have permanent changes from it, I may forego retinol products altogether to be safe.

Lela, thanks for telling me about the hourglass mineral primer. One issue I've had with physical sunscreens is they look white as a ghost on me (even Paula's choice mineral sunscreen, which has a nice texture). So if this is any less white it could be a good thing.

My skin is doing better, still not 100% back to itself, but much less red and sensitive. I still have some visible blood vessels, though, in some areas I didn't used to, but they may fade.

No, I pretty much just eliminated the retinol product and continued my normal routine of metrogel, eucerin redness relief and cerave (which I use at night).

Here's my experience with retinol. I don't have rosacea, so this might not be helpful for those with rosacea. I do have skin that gets itchy and red in reaction to fragrances and soap, and that breaks out in zits from titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, so it has its issues.
I use a prescription retinol cream that doesn't have any other active ingredients, and no fragrance. I put a little bit on at night, then use mineral oil or aquaphor ointment over it to seal in the moisture. The first time I used it, and every time I run out of it and then start using it again after a lapse, my skin peels after a few days. My skin gets a little bit grey or ashy looking, then gets kind of powdery/flaky for a few days. I deal with this by using an exfoliating cloth, the thin kind that they sell at Chinese dollar stores and usually in drugstores too. I put oil on my face, exfoliate gently, then use more oil or Monistat Chafing Relief Powder Gel (the Smashbox primer substitute) to disguise the flakes. The flakiness is worth putting up with, because the retinol really makes skin look younger. It takes about 3 months to see a noticible difference, so it's a commitment. It makes my skin smoother, bouncier (ie younger) and less zit-prone.
I've also heard that people try a very low % retinol cream, or mix retinol with a gently moisturizer to let the skin gradually adjust to it, but I haven't tried this myself.

So I kind of got curious (I know, curiosity killed the cat) and tried mixing in a really small amount of the retinol spf 30 stuff w/ a normal amount of my regular moisturizing spf 30 sunscreen, since my skin had recovered pretty well from the earlier flare--it's definitely a LOT better than full strength.  So if that continues to be tolerable, I may be able to work my way up, incredibly gradually--or I might just keep using a low concentration.  In the meantime, I'm using it full strength on my hands where I have a layer of toughened skin (partly sun damage).