I’ve been dealing with eczema for about a decade now. It’s annoying as f*#@, particularly when it flares. Which it does a couple times a year and then takes months to subside.
I have a number of moisturizers, along with calamine lotion, witch hazel, and hydrogen peroxide (yes, it stings!) to help bring a wee bit of comfort to my eczema (well, maybe not that hydrogen peroxide, but it helps me keep the eczema patches clean so they don’t get infected). The various products I have tried on my eczema are shown in the photo above.
What I use on my eczema changes with where I’m at in the flare (active versus waning) and the season. I can’t use heavy moisturizers in the summer. It’s like having a waxy coating applied to my skin and I just want to get it off ASAP. But I need heavier moisturizers in the winter. The calamine is good for when my eczema is excessively itchy or bumpy or weepy. If it’s weepy, which is a sign of infection, then I add some antibiotic ointment to the calamine (I put one on and then the other).
Whenever I have a flare that is getting out of control and nothing I have feels good, I start shopping around for new products to try on my eczema.
Have you shopped for moisturizers lately? They are hella expensive! Particularly ones that are formulated for eczema or psoriasis.
Often they come in very large containers. That’s fine if you know the product works for you. It isn’t so great if you’ve never tried the product before and you don’t know how your skin will react. If your skin hates it, you’re stuck with a giant vat or tube of moisturizer that you’ll never use again. Of the products shown in the photo above, there are at least 4 that I never use. Aloe vera does not work for me, nor do products that are mostly petroleum as the primary ingredient.
You know what we eczema and psoriasis sufferers need? Samples of moisturizers.
I’d gladly pay a buck for a sample of moisturizer so I could try it and not have gobs to waste if it doesn’t work for me.
Only one of the products in the above photo is a sample size. It’s the little round container with the blue lid roughly in the middle of the photo. It’s Aveeno Baby Eczema Therapy Nighttime Balm in a 1 ounce container and it was actually sold as a sample on display furniture that had the sample sitting above the full-sized container. Yay, Aveeno!
What would be even better is if pharmacies carried a rack full of samples for eczema and psoriasis that had smaller samples, like the flat foil wrapper that contains .17 fluid ounces of Earth Therapeutics Tea Tree Oil Foot Repair Balm pictured below.
A rack of skin product samples would make the lives of those of us with eczema and psoriasis so much easier, especially when first diagnosed.
What do you say, manufacturers and pharmacies, do you think you can make this happen?
