The flare diary your dermatologist wishes you kept
By the time your appointment comes around, last month's flare is a blur. Thirty seconds a day here — severity, itch, where, and what you suspect — builds a dated record with a trend line and a printable one-page summary you can hand across the desk.
Today's entry
Saved only on this deviceThe last 30 entries, at a glance
Severity, 0–10Your diary
Attach photos from your photo log
Flares photographed while they were active are the single most useful thing to hand a dermatologist — pick the shots that show what the diary describes. Photos come from the Photo Tracker on this device.
No entries yet. Log today above — the trend chart appears after your second entry, and the printable report is ready whenever your appointment is.
Saved only on this device — and browsers erase site data. A history clear, a private window, or Safari's automatic deletion after seven days without a visit will take this log with it. The fix is a free Dermington account: it backs this up automatically and puts it on every device you sign in to — details in how storage works.
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How the diary works
Each entry captures the things dermatologists actually ask about after a flare: an overall severity rating and an itch rating on 0–10 scales, the body areas involved, suspected triggers from a standard list (stress, sweat, heat, cold or dry air, new products, fragrance, diet, alcohol, the menstrual cycle, sun) plus any you add yourself, whether the flare disturbed your sleep, and every product that touched your skin that day — picked from the Dermington database or typed in manually. Entries default to today but can be back-dated, edited, and deleted.
As the diary grows, a bar chart plots severity across your last 30 entries and the tool compares your most recent seven ratings against the seven before them to call the trend improving, worsening, or stable — alongside your most-noted trigger and most-affected area. When an appointment is coming up, one click builds a printable report: the summary plus a compact table of your last 14 entries. Everything lives in your browser's local storage; nothing is ever uploaded, and this record supports — never replaces — an evaluation by a board-certified dermatologist.
Common questions
How do I track skin flare-ups?
Rate the same things every day — overall severity and itch on a 0–10 scale, which body areas are involved, and anything that might have set it off — and write it down the day it happens, not from memory a week later. Consistency matters more than detail: thirty quick daily ratings reveal patterns that three long retrospective essays never will. This diary structures exactly that and keeps everything on your own device.
What triggers eczema flare-ups?
The usual suspects are stress, sweat, heat, cold dry air, fragrance, harsh or new products, certain foods, alcohol, hormonal shifts around the menstrual cycle, and sun exposure — but the mix is personal, which is why guessing rarely works. Logging suspected triggers alongside daily severity lets you see which ones actually line up with your bad days. Remember that an association in your diary is a lead to discuss with a dermatologist, not proof of cause.
Should I keep a skin diary for my dermatologist?
Yes — dermatologists consistently say the hardest part of a flare consult is reconstructing what happened between visits. A dated record of severity scores, affected areas, suspected triggers, and the products you were using turns "it was bad a few weeks ago, I think" into data a clinician can actually act on. The printable report in this tool condenses your diary into a one-page summary built for exactly that conversation.
How do I know if my skin is getting better?
Day-to-day skin is noisy, so single good or bad days tell you very little. Compare averages instead: this diary averages your severity over the last seven entries against the seven before that and calls the trend improving, worsening, or stable. A falling weekly average, fewer high-severity days, and less sleep disruption are far more reliable signs of progress than how your skin looks in this morning’s mirror.
What should I write down before a dermatologist appointment?
Bring dates and specifics: when flares started, how severe they were on a 0–10 scale, where on your body they appeared, whether they disturbed your sleep, what you suspect triggered them, and every product — prescription and over-the-counter — you used on your skin during that time. If you log those daily in this diary, the print button assembles all of it into a compact table covering your recent entries, ready to hand over at check-in.