I wanted to share my experiences with patch testing/allergy testing since it sounds like mine was a little different from everyone else's (very positive! Just very different).

First, for mostly insurance reasons, I ended up going to an allergist instead of a dermatologist to get my patch testing done. I'd been to a dermatologist before and they'd basically handed me an prescription antibiotic for my cystic acne and told me to use CeraVe; they were fine, just...not super helpful when I asked about skincare allergies. My skincare symptoms included small occasional hives, and some acne no matter what I did, including while on prescription antibiotics and after almost a year of Differin. This time around I opted to go to an stand-alone allergist since I suspected I had food allergies as well, and I figured why not kill two birds with one stone.

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My intake appointment was almost two hours, and extremely thorough. The doctor agreed with my assessment that multiple types of allergies were possible, and then sent me for a battery, and I mean a BATTERY, of in-house testing. I did 2 separate prick testing sessions (one for environmental, one for everything else), a session with injections, and then a patch-testing session. For food allergies, he has blood testing available, but it's not covered by insurance, so we discussed the most likely causes based on my symptoms and we agreed to try cutting down on or cutting those foods out.

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My patch testing was for 120 chemicals, and they covered my entire back. It was a pain, since I had to come in 3 times that week, but I was able to schedule the appointments during my lunch break and the appointments themselves were very quick, like, under 20 minutes. It turns out I'm allergic to 3 skin-related things - Nickel (severe, and I mean, a SEVERE allergy), Cobalt (low-level), and p-phenylenediamine. My food allergies turned out to be dairy, soy, and....a bunch of foods high in Nickel! By the end of it, even though it was a pain, I was really glad that I'd gone to an allergist and I wasn't trying to put this all together on my own. I didn't even know that foods/products that were high in Nickel existed, but apparently it can be a by-product of the manufacturing process and there's no way to know without having the product tested, since it's obviously not on the label.

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My allergist also gave me access to an app called ACDS CAMP, (American Contact Dermatological Society something something something I don't remember what the CAMP stands for), which is essentially a database that they pre-load for you with all your "safe" products. HOLY CRAP, YOU GUYS. Holy. Crap. This saved my life when I was trying to replace all of my makeup/skincare/household products/detergents/anything that touches my skin. The fact that I could put ALL of my allergies into it and it would automatically filter everything and give me a safe list in every category? PRICELESS. I've never seen it talked about on here, so I thought I'd give it a shout-out. It's only available through a doctor as far as I know, but you can ask your dermatologist/allergist about getting access. There was no cost to me for the app itself.

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Anyway, I typed all of this up because I now have the best skin of my entire life (and I'm in my early 30's). Literally, I went back to my allergist this week and I thought I was having a "bad" skin day (I had one pimple) and she was just like "Holy shit, your skin looks amazing." The biggest downside is that my skincare routine is....now extremely boring, to say the least. ACDS is not exactly proactive about adding new hot products and brands to their "Safe" list; and besides, even The Ordinary is out.

Skin Type: Dry, Sensitive

Current Routine:

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Morning:

CeraVe Hydrating Micellar Water

Rinse with tap water

CeraVe Lotion

3W Clinic Intensive UV Sunblock Cream SPF50 Pa (This is my ONLY exception to the ACDS Camp List, since I've been slathering my entire body in this stuff for years and never had a reaction. I also broke out with every new "safe" sunscreen I tried, so I just gave up and went back to this and my skin has been fine again.)

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Night:

Almay Oil Free Gentle Eye Makeup Remover

CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser

CeraVe Lotion (summer) or CeraVe Hydrating Hyaluronic Acid Serum (fall/winter/spring)

And....that's it. Every single thing that goes on my body or that touches my skin (shampoo, conditioner, lotions, cosmetics, hair products, cleaning wipes, detergents, deodorant, hand sanitizer and hand soap etc etc etc) gets checked against the list. I carry safe hand sanitizer with me and don't use the soap in public restrooms. I honestly think that this cross-contamination was doing a lot more harm than I realized. The dietary changes also helped, of course, but it was gratifying to be told that no, I wasn't crazy, and yes, there were products that were hurting me even though I couldn't figure out exactly what ingredient was causing the problem.

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TL;DR: If your insurance will cover it and you think you might have multiple types of allergies, allergists are a great options for skincare patch testing. Was allergic to stuff not listed on ingredient lists, but definitely present in my skincare, so all the ingredient lists in the world wouldn't have saved me anyway. Best skin of my life now, never going back.