Author name: Erik Lindqvist

Last updated: February 2026 by Erik Lindqvist, Nordic Skincare Specialist

Last updated: February 2026 by Erik Lindqvist, Nordic Skincare Specialist

The first product that touches your face every day is the one most people choose with the least thought. The cleanser. It contacts your skin twice daily, it determines the pH environment for everything that follows, and if it is wrong, nothing else in your routine matters. I spent three years using…

There is a specific kind of silence that exists at minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The air is so cold it feels sharp in your nostrils, and the moisture on your eyelashes starts to freeze within minutes. I walk through this silence five months a year in Minneapolis, and my skin has developed very…

I have a confession that will not surprise anyone who reads ingredient labels: I have not used a fragranced skincare product in five years. Not by accident. By design. And my rosacea went from flaring weekly to flaring monthly. Fragrance did not cause my rosacea (nothing “causes” rosacea; it is a…

Three years ago, I spent a week using a new “brightening” serum that a colleague recommended. It contained 10% niacinamide and 2% alpha arbutin. On paper, reasonable ingredients. In practice, the high niacinamide concentration combined with an already-stressed barrier (it was February in…

My grandmother in Gothenburg had three products in her bathroom: a bar of soap, a jar of cold cream, and a tube of sunscreen she used about four months of the year. She had beautiful skin into her eighties. My American bathroom at age 22 had eleven products, most of them making my rosacea worse. It…

Most “best moisturizer” lists rank products by how they feel, how they smell, or how expensive they are. None of those criteria matter if you have sensitive skin. What matters is what is in the bottle. As a cosmetic chemist with rosacea, I evaluate every moisturizer the same way: I flip it over and…

Last January, I walked twelve blocks from my apartment to a coffee shop in downtown Minneapolis. The wind chill was minus 28 degrees Fahrenheit. By the time I arrived, the skin on my cheeks was tight, dry, and flushed red enough that the barista asked if I was okay. I was fine. I just live in a…

I was 22 years old, standing in a Minneapolis CVS, holding a bottle of aftershave that promised to “invigorate and refresh.” Twenty minutes after applying it, my face looked like I had spent the afternoon pressed against a hot stove. That was the day I started learning about rosacea, though it took…