Life So Far with CAPB Allergy

In my last post, I discussed FINALLY going through patch testing and discovering that I have allergic contact dermatitis to CAPB and DMAPA.  Since discovering this and avoiding it in every way I can, my eyelid dermatitis has slowly and steadily significantly improved.  Up close they are still a little bit wrinkly looking and sometimes slightly pinkish or slightly dry-feeling, but that is me scrutinizing them, and I would say to the naked eye they are about 90%-95% back to normal.  This is A-OK as I know that the skin’s barrier can take weeks to fully heal, and my patient handout on CAPB said it could take 2-4 weeks or more.

I will also say that things are not completely perfect in skin-world.  I have had (probably unrelated) dry itchy patches on my right shin and right knee that keep flaring off and on for well over 1-2 months now, and now I have a little patch on my right hip and a very slight one near my collarbone that have developed over the past week.  In the grand scheme of things though, these are minor and more just annoying and frustrating.  Better to have rashes on my body than on my face ANY day.  These do not seem related to CAPB, I am not sure what they are related to.  It’s either just eczema being weird, or maybe some mild push-back from my system from using Desonide periodically over this past summer/fall.  I was using Desonide in a “pulse” fashion to keep symptoms at bay, and last used it on my face for maybe 2-3 days around the time of my patch testing, and last used it on my leg patches for a day or two last week.  I don’t know if you can go through TSW twice, but I sure as hell am not planning on being the one to find out.  I think it’s best to just ride out these itchy patches and not use steroids on them any more, even though my use over the past months has been quite conservative, in my opinion.

But overall, this is a huge relief!  I am no longer existing in the day paranoid about my eyelids being uncomfortable or about someone noticing them and thinking there is something wrong with me.  I still find it so weird that the body systems are such where something I put on my HANDS and RINSE OFF immediately can migrate to causing symptoms on my EYELIDS, but hey.  At least I feel so much more relieved knowing the cause and putting a name to my irritant.

My patch testing was a few weeks ago, so you might wonder, how am I adjusting to this new way of life and avoidance of these chemicals, besides enjoying a consistent improvement in my skin’s condition?

The biggest thing for me to be vigilant about is to never use soaps in public places.  CAPB is a surfactant (makes things foam) and is super common in soaps.  Obviously in a public restroom, you don’t really have the luxury of reading the ingredients, so better safe than sorry.

So, every morning that I hit up the gym, I tote my bottle of Free and Clear cleanser with me to wash my hands afterward.  Every day at work when I need to wash my hands, I get out another stored bottle of Free and Clear from my personal locker.  And at home, I of course have yet another bottle of Free and Clear by my bathroom sink.

So, I thought I had controlled for the three common places that I frequent.  But, I’ve had some interesting occurrences along the way.

• Last weekend later in the day on Sunday, my eyelids started to feel itchy.  “WHY?” I thought, and finally had the conscience to mentally re-trace my steps as to where I had been and what had I possibly used.  AH-HA!  I had been at a friend’s house where we were doing a workout, and as a total reflex after the workout, I washed my hands with whatever they had by their bathroom sink without even thinking about it.  Washing my hands with it ONE TIME made my eyes itch (even though soap is something you rinse off), and this re-emphasized to me that yup, this is my new allergy and I have to be very all-or-none about it, no exceptions.
• I did have the foresight last week to think ahead and bring my trusty hand soap in my coat pocket when I went to church.  For a germaphobe like me, shaking people’s hands in church is all fine and good, but it is a requirement that I use hand sanitizer or wash my hands after.  HOWEVER, this past Sunday – OOPS!  I forgot my hand soap in my rush out the door.  Before church, I used the restroom, and suddenly realized that I should not use the provided soap.  Trapped in the stall with this realization, I came to another realization that this meant I would need to leave the restroom without washing my hands.  And now yet another realization that there were other women in there bustling about, and I’d need to make a break for it to make sure no one saw me heading out with unwashed hands!  I heard a bunch of flushes and the door opening for people to leave, and took this as my chance!  I rushed out only to find another person making their way inside the restroom.  I made small talk as I ‘pretended’ to hit the soap dispenser and gave my hands a rinse-off with only water.
• I was at a restaurant over the weekend and didn’t anticipate needing to use the restroom.  But, having more shopping ahead, I thought maybe it would be a good idea.  Well damn, I had left my soap at home.  It’s either “suck it up, bladder” or go in and use the restroom and carefully touch nothing but avoid washing hands.  (I chose the latter).

I also know it is going to get interesting traveling on a plane in a few weeks when I fly for the holidays.  I will be bringing many full-sized products that for me are “medically necessary”, and will obviously have to explain to the airport security why I need these larger-than-2 oz containers so I can have a happy rash-free reaction-free holiday!

Can You Use Topical Steroids AFTER Going Through TSW?

This was the burning question in my mind as of last week.  I scoured the internet, performed all sorts of Google searches, and came up with… nothing.  That’s not to say it isn’t out there, but I personally haven’t been able to find ANY accounts of someone relating their experience of using topical steroids after going through TSW.  (If you come across any, let me know!)

Before I talk more about topical steroids, there were many other burning skin-related questions in my mind that I have been exploring (with an embarrassingly long amount of cumulative time spent on the interwebz), some of which I still don’t have a straight answer to, but some of which I definitely have some hypotheses.  Long post, so settle in!

• Can you be exfoliating your skin TOO much even if it is dry and flaky?  The answer to this in my experience over the past weeks seems to be YES.  The body is very smart and wants to heal itself (as I keep reminding myself!)  Flakes are unsightly, but if they are pretty well adhered to the skin, it most likely does more bad than good to really try hard and scrub them off.  Then you have a vulnerable skin barrier that yes, may be pink and smooth and less dry looking, but is now more exposed to the elements for the vicious cycle to start all over again.
  • One of the most helpful sites I found was actually a woman’s account of healing from a chemical peel under the eyes.  Different scenario than eczema/dermatitis, but same kind of healing – the outer skin barrier got damaged and now there’s some patience in letting it alone so it can heal.  She looked pretty gnarly for the first initial few days of inflammation, then the outer layers peeled right off and she had fresh new skin.  Having had rashes over probably about 70% of my body in TSW, having a rash around the eyes is one of the worst spots.  You just feel so self-conscious and it’s very hard to be patient in letting the area alone.  I’ve thankfully got to have the opportunity to do that over the past week as all my work has been online and I’ve had blessedly almost no obligations, therefore can just allow my skin to BE.  Leaving the flakes alone and simply moisturizing them did require some patience, but a few days in – sure enough, larger flakes were about ready to come off with some SUPER GENTLE pulling with tweezers, which was actually really cool and, sure enough, revealed soft, fresh, new pink skin!
• Can coconut oil be not so great for your skin?  Goodness, it seems you’ll find more divisiveness on this on the internet than most other topics in skincare.  Some say it’s awesome and healed their rashes, some say it’s way too occlusive, some say yes it has antifungal properties but isn’t the greatest oil for most types of dermatitis.  I was using coconut oil on my skin for a while over the past months.  I would wash my face with it in the shower and I would often moisturize with it.  However, no matter what, I always felt… MEH… about it.  It always just kind of felt like it was SITTING on top of my skin and not truly penetrating the barrier or doing anything.  Then, a kind of horrifying thing happened that made me stop using coconut oil entirely.  I opened my normal jar one day and was about to put it on my face, and it smelled… off.  Mold!?!?!?!  Have I just been putting moldy coconut oil on my face for the last days?  GROSS!
  • I still don’t know what caused my raised ‘hives’ that I discussed in this post from a few weeks ago, but I have to think that possibly it was this brewing mold in the coconut oil.  I was using a very reputable brand (Nutiva) and practicing good hygiene with it (i.e., only reaching into the jar with clean hands).  However, the jar DID live in my bathroom, which, though it does have a fan, is not extraordinarily well ventilated, and we are in the hot humid part of late spring where I live.  Lesson learned that coconut oil CAN go rancid and rather quickly at that!
• Can mold and dust mites affect your skin?  Better believe that they can.  I am not super prone to awful seasonal allergies (thankfully) like the typical sniffling, sneezing, runny eyes miserable-ness, but all of our bodies and systems are different and there is definitely lots of evidence to point to dust being something that can irritate skin, especially in people who already have the ‘atopic triad’ (asthma, eczema, and allergies).
  • The “healthy home” guy came out to my place a few days after my last post hypothesizing about mold.  In some ways I was a little disappointed, in some ways I was kind of relieved.  I think that I was hoping he would come out with some special digital “mold detecting tool” and point it at all areas of my home, and then with a dramatic flourish, find some kind of red-flag culprit that I could immediately remove and then be on my way to clear skin.  Now that didn’t happen, and in fact he didn’t find any outright red flags.  Basically, my house is old, not well insulated, and easily prone to dust (but I could have told you that).  But I was relieved that there wasn’t anything severe where, say, I should have started looking for another place to live.  He DID look at my AC units and the bedroom filter one was absolutely filthy.  I am a little ashamed that I didn’t think to open it and look in the filter, especially upon waking up with such severe asthma a few weekends ago.  The good news is that I’ve cleaned both unit filters thoroughly and replaced them and haven’t had any deterioration of my asthma with running them during the night!  He also did recommend getting a vacuum with a HEPA filter and getting an air purifier to run in my bedroom especially at night.  I’m waiting to make a purchase on those because 1., they are rather big ticket expensive items and I like to take a little time to read reviews and price compare and whatnot, and 2., I’m taking a more step-by-step approach rather than buying a whole bunch of things.
• Is “less is more” when it comes to skincare?  I think this is definitely key, especially for any sufferers of eczema, dermatitis, or just sensitive skin in general.  I am NOT a patient person.  AT ALL.  And so, even though I definitely have reined myself in on not trying a bunch of new things (check out my sobering “Visual Display of Futility” from a few years ago, lol) – – the fact is that the less “stuff” you put on your skin, the easier it will be to narrow down if you are reacting to something.  (There are a lot of men and babies out there with GORGEOUS skin… that they use NOTHING on!  It’s kind of unfair that so much skincare marketing is towards women and basically our insecurities of looking old, looking unattractive, etc.  I think that skincare for sure has its place, but that taking care of our whole body system in a holistic and nurturing manner is really the foundation for a healthy outward appearance).  And again, patience is key here.  Healing is not linear, and it’s not really fair to the body’s healing mechanisms to try something (or try giving UP something) for a mere few days and then get impatient and think it’s not working.
  • One interesting “less is more” step that I took recently was actually to stop using my Avene cream.  This worked great for me for a time in TSW.  But guess what?  There are many Avene creams and the one that I got this time around recently actually was NOT the same one!  Yes, it felt just as soothing going on and though it didn’t seem like it did anything absolutely magical, it always felt nice.  But one thing that I realized is that THIS Avene cream contained shea butter.  I wrote about shea butter years ago in this post and how I seemed to react to it.  I also realized that the Aveeno Baby has shea butter, and the natural lip balm that I use daily also contains shea butter.  However, it honestly kind of slipped my mind that shea butter maybe wasn’t favorable for my skin, because after TSW I was able to use many things (shea butter being one of them) that had bothered me before but didn’t crop up with any problems.  If my skin’s barrier is already compromised, then the shea butter ingredient probably was not doing me any favors.  It also might explain the stubborn spots at each corner of my mouth, if those are indirect low-level irritation from applying a balm with shea butter to my lips frequently.
  • I am actually down to being able to count on one hand the number of things (creams) that I put on my skin.  I now use grapeseed oil as my nighttime moisturizer and my daytime natural ‘serum’ if you will.  I use Vanicream Sport SPF 35 Sunscreen over that (have used this favorably for years, as mentioned in this post from 2013), and sometimes I’ll use a little Vaniply (which I talk about here).  And my skin seems to be responding well to those!

    AND NOW TO THE BURNING QUESTION….

• What happens if you use topical steroids again after having gone through TSW?
  • Going through TSW made me a wiser (hopefully) and more skeptical person in regards to what I put on my body and how I treat it.  I’ve read probably hundreds of blogs, articles, and scientific research on TSW and possible “steroid addiction”.  I don’t have time to create an actual scientific research meta-analysis, as much as the scientist in me would like to, but there are a few different facts that crop up, that may or may not be common knowledge among the TSW community.
    • Topical steroids can and do have the potential for abuse.  However, there are also many eczema patients who utilize topical steroids without issue.  (My father and brother for example, are fellow eczema sufferers who also have used steroids periodically on their face, and they did not encounter TSW.  As a female, however, I would venture to say in my younger years that I probably abused its “magic cream” properties for vanity’s sake more so than a male likely would).
    • The nature of the addiction depends on many factors – time of usage, potency of steroid, and the site of applying it (for example, one statistic I came across is that your thick-skinned feet will absorb 0.1% of the steroid whereas the thin delicate eyelids will absorb up to 30%).
    • Steroid creams have been used successfully in many patients since the 1950s and in my opinion, are not inherently evil.  I am not afraid to say that as a former TSW sufferer, even with all the suffering they caused me and a multitude of other eczema sufferers.  HOWEVER as we all know, they have a potential for abuse and dermatologists are still seemingly lacking as a whole when it comes to other alternatives or other measures.  And certainly there ARE extraordinarily sad and downright evil situations out there, such as infants and toddlers going through TSW who had been prescribed something ridiculously strong like clobetasol on their poor little vulnerable bodies, that was just not necessary.
    • Steroids should be used as a last-resort defense in my opinion if nothing else is working.  Skin experts note that they are often best used for a week on, then a week off, etc., no more than necessary, and never in strengths that are excessive.

So.  Based on my judicious research and my own recent skin experience, I have actually been using a steroid cream to heal the skin barrier of my face for the last week.

WHY, you may ask?  Truly as a last resort.  I found myself completely miserable last weekend, feeling trapped in my own body, caught in a cycle of trying desperately to get my skin’s rashes to heal but not being able to catch a break for my skin to just rest and do nothing.  DESPITE following my special diet, DESPITE taking all my supplements, DESPITE the fact that I had relatively good healing skin through most of the month of April.  My face physically hurt because of how dry it was, smiling was uncomfortable, my face kind of looked like that of someone on meth, and I was going out of my way to avoid any sort of interaction with people.  I wasn’t myself, I was avoiding activities, and it sucked.  It had been a relatively downward spiral for a few weeks (and I still don’t know the cause but I strongly lean toward the mold in the coconut oil or maybe a culmination of many small things).  I felt like my skin barrier… was F***ED, and in need of some serious help beyond whatever I could do to futilely try and help it.  My integrative health practitioner, who has been wonderful through this ordeal, supported my choice as well.  I did not make this decision lightly, but finally came to the conclusion in good conscience to utilize a short-term, low potency, topical steroid (Desonide – a class 2 steroid – basically just one step up from OTC hydrocortisone) to give my skin some expediency in healing.   This would allow my skin to have a ‘re-set’, to pare down to just a handful of products, and provide me with some discernment as to what to do for the future.

I’ve been using the Desonide at its minimum effective dose for 6 days now and am now tapering off of it (i.e., only using it once today vs. 2x, and then will use it only once over 2 days, and then not at all).  My skin is immensely better!  My neck rash has completely cleared and the rest of my face looks almost normal.  There are some faint pink spots around my right eye, and my left eye still has some red under it but it is gaining moisture and elasticity again.  A lot of the “bad areas” peeled away after a few days of me being patient.  I also deliberately did NOT put any Desonide on my eyelids (which were prone to redness and flaking) and those are coming along healing on their own just with grapeseed oil at night.  They still have a little bit of flake and redness sporadically, but nothing an observer would probably notice, and they are baby soft and almost smooth.  I feel like myself again – not afraid to interact with people, not an introverted hermit, not completely self-conscious about my face.

I have a slight amount of underlying nervousness as to what next week will hold for my skin, but I know a few things – 1., topical steroid addiction is not immediate and to think that my skin will erupt in worse rashes after 1 week of sparingly using a weak steroid is rather illogical.  2., the body is capable of healing and WANTS to heal, we just have to give it the conditions to do so.  My slight nervousness is made dim by the brightness of my optimism that my skin has now been given a thankful kick-start to healing and will continue to keep healing on its own!

Could it be…. MOLD?

My last post from a few days ago brought up the mysterious evolution of my rash into something that seemed quite different from eczema or atopic dermatitis.  This also seems way different than simply a contact dermatitis as well, and I’ve cleaned up my personal care routine thoroughly over the past months of this journey where, unless I have suddenly developed a sensitivity to something usually benign (like dimethicone, which is in a lot of my products), there is no logical reason for my skin to be acting up in new and strange ways.

Here’s a picture of my face from the other day.  The areas that are irritated looking are red, raised, and clearly delineated; though they don’t itch at all.  I have similar rashes around the other eye (though this eye in the picture is worse), by each corner of my mouth, and on/above one side of my jawline.  All in the same areas that I’ve been dealing with rashes and breakouts on and off over recent months, but in these new raised, inflamed, blotchy ways.

Yesterday was definitely a struggle-bus day.  I woke up and was having some extreme trouble breathing.  I had also woke up in the night with my eyelids BURNING like mad, to the point where I had to wake up to get an ice cube to put on them to soothe them enough where I could go back to sleep.  Not itchy like in the past, but like they were on FIRE.  (This happened another night this week too).  Even though I took my inhaler, the trouble breathing persisted, and I ended up taking my inhaler about 6 times over less than a 12 hour period, which for me is unusual, extreme, and a sign that there is something really not right.

I didn’t have time to mull this unfortunate transpiring over for too long, as I had an event to go to.  I made myself look as human as possible, though my eyes still felt thick and awkward.  I reassured myself that I felt worse than I looked, but once I walked into the event, a well-meaning acquaintance looked at me in a concerned manner and said, “Are your eyes okay?”  Yes, yes, I hurriedly said, I’ve been having a horrible time of allergies lately.  Which everyone understood.

I sat through the event realizing that my chest was still tight with shortness of breath, DESPITE taking my inhaler, DESPITE being on these new histamine support supplements, DESPITE even taking an extra antihistamine (Allegra) before I left home.  I quietly sat and tried not to panic-breathe.  I’ve dealt with asthma enough that I know I’m not going to die, but having reduced lung function is extremely uncomfortable.  Then my nose began to run.  (Also unusual considering I had taken an antihistamine).  Not having any tissues on me, I discreetly wiped my nose on my hand.  Again, and again, and again I did this, while continuing to try breathing calmly; counting down the minutes until the event was over.  I did my bare minimum of social duties and then couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

But oh joy, I had another event to go to in a few hours!  This time, a party for a friend, and even though I was sorely tempted to beg off and claim not feeling well, I knew it would mean a lot if I showed up.  And sitting around at home feeling sorry for myself and my skin sounded even less appealing.  I actually put on my glasses (which I never wear out) to hopefully allow my eyes to feel mildly more comfortable into the night (and to distract from how chewed up the skin around my eyes looked).  I was still having a sporadic runny nose, but this time I brought tissues and it wasn’t too terrible.  I survived the party and had a reasonable amount of fun despite my eyelids starting to feel thick and unwieldy as the night went on.

Once I got home, I started to ponder all of the pieces of this puzzle for the day – WHY systemic issues like respiratory distress along with strange rashes?  WHY would taking an antihistamine not even seem to touch my “allergy” symptoms?  WHY would my skin be seemingly getting WORSE in a non-eczema manner DESPITE cleaning up my diet and being on my supplement regimen?

I don’t know how exactly I stumbled upon it, but in my thought process of putting things together and doing some Internet sleuthing, I hit upon the concept of mold being a factor.  Ah!  This to me sounded extremely plausible that mold could be a factor in my skin’s recent demise.  I live in a home that is close to 100 years old, I have a bathroom that, even with a fan, doesn’t seem extremely well ventilated, and I have a window AC unit that could well be harboring all kinds of spores, as I’ve lived here for 3+ years and haven’t ever had it maintained.

I then began to mentally retrace my days and patterns and think about the days that I had burning eyes and respiratory distress upon waking in the past – and these were days that I was running the window AC unit.  And in fact, my skin getting worse over the past weeks did seem to roughly correspond with running the AC unit at night more frequently.  I resolved to look into this further in the morning and did not run the unit for the night.

In the morning, these extraordinarily dry areas on all my rashes greeted me, like these ones around my eye:

I took this as a good sign that the inflammation (whatever it was) was moving out and the outer layer of skin was shedding off in order to make room for new healing skin.  I’ve experienced this “peel and flake” cycle before quite a few times over the past months and certainly quite a bit back in the days of TSW.  I picked off any big flakes with tweezers and then I did some gentle exfoliation with coconut oil.

I had a blessedly free day of ANY obligations today, so I spent it cleaning my house, looking more into the potential mold issue, and hard-core moisturizing my dry patches regularly (coconut oil, Avene, and Vaniply).  I was super happy to have a complete introvert hermit day and not have to look presentable at all.

It’s always good to be a bit skeptical of things you find on the Internet and not take everything at face value, but it’s a real fact that mold in homes can make people sick, and it seems like my recent symptoms would make sense with lining up to the use of the window AC unit blowing out mold spores into the air which are then causing irritation to my probably-already-compromised-immune system.

I have an appointment with a highly rated ‘healthy home’ personnel in a few days who is going to come and check out my house for potential mold or other hazards.  In the meantime, I am NOT running the AC unit and I am staying positive in my body’s ability to keep on healing itself even if that is going to take a little bit of time!

Current Skincare Routine, and NARS Concealer Review

I had made a post years ago on my current skincare routines, both in TSW and then once I was recovered from TSW.  My skin is overall a LOT better in the past few weeks, so I thought I would share the consistent routine I’ve found through recent trial and error that seems to be working well for me.

First off, even though it isn’t directly skincare, I’ll post all the supplements I’m currently taking as per my integrative medicine practitioner.  Note that this is NOT a recommendation for you to do the same thing (I’m purposely not posting the amounts or the AM/PM regimen), and that these were obviously recommended for me on an individual basis based on my appointment and symptoms.  Most of these were prescribed to me as either anti-inflammatories or for skin barrier/cell repair.  I have been taking the majority of these supplements now for about 3 weeks.  It would be difficult to discern if they are a main reason my skin is better, but they may well be helping my overall health.  My lab reports showed that my vitamin D and my iron saturation was quite low, and there is some research out there that has made links between these and atopic dermatitis/eczema.

• Omega Plus
• Phosphatidyl Choline
• Quercetin phytosome
• Inflama-care
• Meriva (turmeric compound)
• N-Acetyl-cysteine
• Ferrasorb (iron with vitamin C)
• Liquid drops of Vitamin D and K

At night, my general routine is as follows – Remove makeup with grapeseed oil and cotton balls.  Take either a bath with Dead Sea Salts to soak, or a warm shower.  Wash face with Vanicream Free and Clear Liquid Cleanser.  Not pictured is Vanicream soap bar which I use to wash any body parts in the bath/shower.  I am not one for overtly washing everything (unless I have been doing super sweaty work or got really full of dirt) so I only soap up the important areas (armpits, butt, etc., LOL) and I usually leave my limbs alone and just let the water rinse them.

(Sometimes I have been washing my face with coconut oil and then do a light scrub with colloidal oatmeal to get rid of flakes and dry skin.  I will also sometimes use the oatmeal scrub after the Free and Clear if I have very flaky areas.  Honestly now my skin is thankfully seeming to make its own moisture – I’m even starting to get some acne on my forehead – so washing my face with coconut oil feels entirely too greasy to do more than occasionally).  I think the key with eczema/atopic dermatitis on your face is that you want to get rid of any residue or top layer of dead flaky skin, but you don’t want to completely go to town and OVER-scrub your face and risk even more irritation.  Once I am done washing my face, I mix a pinch of Dead Sea Salt in a small cup of water and then splash it on any irritated areas, and pat dry, leaving some moisture on the skin.

Then it is time for creams!  I always currently use the Avene Tolerance Extreme cream as a base layer.  This stuff is wonderful and will not burn or sting even if you have super irritated skin.  It feels very soothing going on; it’s pricey ($38 for small tube online in the US) but a little goes a long way and it is worth it.  It is not super thick, so if your skin is very dry, you will probably want another cream over top of it, as I prefer.

I tend to layer these three creams in this order – the Avene, then the Aveeno baby on extra dry areas, then Vaniply over top of the extra dry areas.  Vaniply is a nice barrier cream that seems to “lock in” the moisturizers underneath.  At night I have now pared down to just the Avene and the Vaniply, because my skin seems to hold more moisture as of these past weeks…. yay!

Another thing that is probably helping out my skin retain moisture is having a humidifier running in my room at night.  I browsed humidifiers on Amazon, reading many reviews, and finally settled on this one, which my boyfriend kindly bought for me as a gift.  I keep it right by my bed and on continuous mode, it will run for about 9-10 hours straight before running out of water!  I think the wood grain looks classy, and it also has 14 different color settings for the lights (a nice touch, though I like to sleep in the dark so I haven’t really used them) and is an essential oil diffuser too (though I haven’t used it with oils and probably won’t, as the main purpose is to just benefit my skin and keep the bedroom environment’s air more moist).  It is small but for me it does the job.  I used to wake up with super dry mouth and super dry eyes and they have greatly improved.  Whether it’s this little guy or a combo of many things, I don’t know, but I am grateful!

Morning routine: I only wash my face 1x a day, at night.  This has always been my practice as I don’t see a point in washing a face that you went to bed with it clean anyway.  When I wake up I will take a washcloth and lightly wet my face and gently scrub off any flakes of skin.  Then I put on my layers of Avene, Aveeno, and Vaniply on any eczema-prone areas of my face.

Makeup routine: Has always been very minimal.  Some products I have been using for years successfully, and some, per my last posts, I have switched out.  Subtle swipe of Ecco Bella eyeliner (Since using them for about a week, I have found the Violet really tends to fade and needs multiple re-applications during the day, which is annoying, but the Seal has decent staying power).  2 coats of Tarte Amazonian Clay Gifted mascara.  Concealer on any red areas and under eyes.  In my last post, I talked about Tarte Creaseless Concealer and how I have been using it with success and no irritation for years, but chose to also try NARS concealer just to assess how it is in comparison.  Tweezer is necessary to lightly pick off any flakes if needed, and Q-tip for gently blending out any concealer that has settled into the under-eye area.

My review of NARS concealer so far: After reading and making comparisons online to see what shade I would likely be in NARS, I chose the Custard shade.  I am Medium Neutral in the Tarte Creaseless and it seemed like this would be the most logical choice.  I have Caucasian skin that tans easily, is not dark, but is definitely not fair, with relatively neutral undertones (neither yellow or pink).

The NARS honestly seems to be a little better of a match for my skintone than the Tarte, which was a pleasant finding.  (The Tarte actually seems a little bit too light sometimes, providing an ever-so-slightly “glowy” and bright look, which isn’t a terrible thing, but if you are dealing with dry skin around the eyes like me, you don’t necessarily want to illuminate the area).

Like any good eczema sufferer, I tested the NARS behind my ear for a full day as an informal “patch test”.  No irritation at the end of the day, so I took that as the green light to try it on my face.  Just to be on the cautious side, I used it only on the “peri-oral” spots at the corners of my mouth, and retained using the Tarte around my eye area and on jawline.

So far, I would say that the NARS and Tarte concealers are really quite comparable.  I’m only using the NARS on a small area so far (I’m going to give it a few more days of trial just to make SURE there is no irritation, and then try it around my eyes), but if I had to compare and contrast, I would say that NARS does seem to be slightly more hydrating, and better hide the look of dryness on my skin.  It overall seems to look a bit more natural as well.  Based on this, I would recommend it and I can see why many eczema sufferers like it!

Reading about other people’s routines is often immensely helpful to me, so hopefully this helps out someone else!  When I read about others’ recommendations, I take these with a thoughtful grain of salt.  I don’t rush out and buy a cream or product based on what one person says, but I like to look for trends and then weigh them against what I am already doing, considering what is working for me and what might not be working.  In the case of the NARS concealer, I kept seeing it come up again and again with people raving about it, and with so many positive reviews and seeing it specifically mentioned as a seemingly very eczema-friendly concealer, that was adequate evidence for me to give it a try.

Any readers want to weigh in with any must-haves for your own skincare routine?

 

On Vanity, Makeup, and a Review: Ecco Bella Natural Eyeliner Pencils

I’ve never considered myself a vain, high-maintenance person in appearance, but this latest bout of rashes and flares on my face and around my eyes had really got me thinking about how us women put so much (possibly unnecessary) stock in our appearance.

I have been a devotee of Tarte makeup for well over 5 years, I own probably every color of eyeliner pencil in the Smoldereyes line that they’ve issued in the past few years, and I was thrilled to have eyeliners that were high-quality and seemed to be non-allergenic.

Once my face started flaring up as of these past few months, and once the rash started spreading to my eye area and not really going away, I started to take some serious thought to altering my (albeit minimal) makeup routine.

I had never reacted to Tarte eyeliners before and had been using them successfully probably every day of my life for years, yet once my eyelids and under-eye area got so red and irritated, I thought that it probably couldn’t be good that I was continuing to apply makeup to them.  My doctor said nothing about it at the visit, and I HAVE done the informal ‘patch testing’ of trying the product behind my ears (with no subsequent irritation).  However, even if THEY weren’t the prime culprit of irritation, at least I could change things up and see what happened.  They are probably not great for me right now with irritated skin, but I don’t think they are the direct cause of my rashes.

I’ve come across a few interesting things in my sleuthing of reading ingredients and poring the internet, and maybe this post will end up helping someone else experiencing the same thing.

I always LOVED the big SmolderEyes from Tarte, but they stopped making them as of a while ago, (and now they don’t even make the skinny SmolderEyes any more).  I always line my lower lash line in a subtle brown, and had been using a skinny SmolderEyes, because my big one was getting small and stubby.  Though my rashes started as perioral ones by the corners of my mouth, about 2 weeks later is when I noticed my eyes starting to get rashy.  The ingredients in the big SmolderEyes are NOT the same as in the skinny one – the skinny ones have aloe, which I reacted to really badly back in the days of TSW.  (Note – Most of the time that I tell doctors that I seem to be allergic to aloe, they always react with surprise, saying “That’s a really soothing substance for most people and seems an odd thing to be allergic to”.  I have never had formal patch testing done for aloe but the fact that I reacted to it so horribly in TSW makes me unwilling to try putting aloe on my body again, so for now I just assume I AM allergic/hypersensitive to it).

So, once I found that out, I went through reading the ingredients of all my makeup products, making sure that none of the other ones contained aloe that I missed.  Nothing else had aloe in it, which was great.  My upper-eyelid eyeliner of choice has been these Double Duty Beauty ones from Tarte, which provides a nice subtle shimmer without looking too fancy or overdone and are a pretty good sub for the now-defunct SmolderEyes.

After totally eliminating the seemingly-offending aloe-containing liner, I was discouraged that it had been a few weeks and the irritation around my eyes was really not getting any better, and some days looked worse.  So, back to the Web for some more informal research.  I read from a fellow blogger that had eye eczema that talc or mica tends to dry out the skin and make eczema worse.  I also read a source of information from a dermatologist said that anything with mica can have sharp edges and make microscopic cuts to the top layer of skin.  Anything with shimmer usually has mica.  Ok – I figured it was worth a try to eliminate mica in case this was causing some secondary irritation, and try out something new.

In going through cosmetic ingredients, let me tell you that it is HARD to find eyeliner without mica!  (And, I also have to avoid aloe and beeswax!  I also wanted to make sure that the eyeliner didn’t have other ingredients generally perceived as not-so-great: parabens, fragrance, dyes, SLS, phthalates, etc.)

Now, you may be saying, “Whoa there.  Wouldn’t the easiest thing just be to avoid eye makeup entirely?”  Yes.  Yes indeed, that would be the most logical thing.  In fact, the source from the same dermatologist mentioned above, said the best thing is to avoid ANY eyeliner entirely, as this skin is very delicate and can take 4 months to totally repair its barrier function.  (4 MONTHS?!?!?!)

HOWEVER, this is where the sense of vanity that I didn’t know I had comes in.  Though I am not someone who has ever made a practice of wearing a lot of makeup (I have never worn foundation in my whole life for example, I have no idea what contouring is, and I have never experienced blush), I am definitely one of those women who looks markedly different with just a tiny bit of accentuating makeup.  The ONLY things I wear daily are a little swipe of eyeliner, 2 coats of mascara, and some concealer where needed, but these make a difference.  The last time I went out in public completely bare-faced, I got countless questions about why did I look so tired, was I feeling okay, why did I look kind of sickly, etc.  I honestly didn’t think I looked that awful, but these unexpected comments actually kind of hurt my feelings.  Natural beauty is definitely a thing, and if you are a woman who goes about your day bare-faced, natural, and radiant, then I applaud you and hope the universe gives you all kinds of sparkly rainbow starry awesomeness.  I, however, am not that woman.  I COULD do it, but I don’t WANT to do it.  Would my face heal faster if I went totally makeup-free?  Possibly.  Is it possible it would make no difference at all and simply frustrate my self-confidence?  Also possibly.

So, resolving to continue on my minimal, yet to-me-necessary trajectory of just a hint of daily makeup, I settled on a new eyeliner to try – Ecco Bella Natural Eyeliner Pencils.  These are touted as being vegan with no synthetics and were pretty highly rated overall.

Ingredients: Hydrogenated palm kernel glycerides, hydrogenated palm glycerides, hydrogenated coconut oil, microcrystalline wax, japan wax, carnauba wax, hydrogenated castor oil, titanium dioxide, sorbitan palmitate, stearalkonium hectorite, iron oxides, ultramarines.

I purchased Violet (a dark purple) and Seal (a deep brown).  These are a true pencil and arrived very sharp.  I actually had to wear them down a little bit because at first they felt very sharp and poky going on my eyes.  Once I got through that, I was pleasantly impressed to experience a relatively subtle, yet buildable color that provided just the right amount of slight accentuation without looking overly made-up.  You DO have to make a few swipes back and forth, the color doesn’t go on super rich with just one line, but once it is on, it has pretty good durability and staying power.  I wore the Seal one through a day that included a workout (though not a super sweaty one) and it stayed pretty much the same as I had applied it.  The Violet seems to fade a bit more, and due to that I would likely choose to re-apply midway through the day to keep the look fresh, but that’s a minor trade-off if it doesn’t irritate my eyes.  They aren’t as pretty or rich as the Tarte ones for sure, but that is because they don’t have mica, so the color is pretty flat rather than a shimmer.  Overall though, this is about what I expected and was looking for; I recommend and would buy again!

Here are my eyes makeup free.  Still rocking the more profound atopic pleats under them but whatever.  I know those will get more faint when my skin heals.  The redness is way better though!  I have relatively long eyelashes but they are stick straight + super faint and fine (note you can barely see that I have lower lashes at ALL!), which is why I choose to wear just a bit of makeup.

Here are my eyes with Ecco Bella eyeliner in Seal on both top lash line and very subtly on bottom lash line.  Also wearing Tarte Amazonian Clay Gifted Mascara, 2 coats, which has been my go-to for over 5 years with no issues.  Not trying to be a glamour queen, just look semi-human and awake 🙂

My next endeavor in switching things up and the content of an upcoming blog post will be a review of NARS concealer.  I have been a devotee of Tarte’s Maracuja Creaseless Concealer for years and sang its praises in this post when I was in the throes of TSW and used it literally all over my face and neck to cover up redness so I could go to work without looking completely awful.  Since then, they have changed their formula from the squeeze tube (which I actually liked, though other people seemed to hate it) to a doe-foot tip application concealer.  It is not *entirely* creaseless, but I have those deep atopic pleats where the concealer can easily settle in, so my trick is to take a Q-tip a few minutes after the concealer is applied and then just blend in the crease.

I’ve had no real issues with this concealer, though as of late, I do find it a little drying (however, my skin has been really dry ANYWAY so it probably isn’t the concealer’s fault).  People with eczema-prone skin seem to like the NARS concealer, so I’ve ordered it and will see how the two compare.  It does have more chemically-sounding ingredients (and more ingredients total) than my Tarte one, but it could be a useful experiment!

 

 

The Canary in the Coal Mine

You might read the title of this post and be like “What on earth, Ms. EczemaExcellence?  What in the world do canaries have to do with the state of your skin?”

Well, if you’ve never heard of this saying, let me tell you how it struck me as a wonderful analogy for continuing along my journey on discerning what is causing me to flare.

See, long ago, starting in the early 1900s, miners would send canaries down into mine shafts.  These animals, according to this historical Smithsonian article, were much more sensitive to carbon monoxide and other poisonous gases than humans.  If the canary became ill or died, this served as an ‘early warning’ that the mine shaft would ultimately not be safe for humans.

I hadn’t come across this expression in years, but was reading an article about reactions, rashes, and flares the other day that compared the skin around our eyes to these canaries in coal mines – this skin is thin, sensitive and delicate and often will react to allergens or irritants first (potentially, even if the allergen or irritant wasn’t something put directly on the eyes – it could be something like fragrances or preservatives in hairspray, shampoo, etc. where miniscule airborne droplets of product residue are still able to get onto the skin of the face).

Now, I have already changed out my shampoo from Dr. Bronners to Vanicream Free and Clear as of last week, on the suggestion of another blogger.  BUT, it didn’t dawn on me until this canary analogy that I was still using aerosol hair care (Tresemme TRES Two Ultra Hold Hairspray level 4, with all kinds of chemical yuckies that you would never want to put directly on your face… though I had been using this for years with no apparent reaction).  I have a short hairstyle that now looks kind of stupid and flat without spray to pump it up, but it’s definitely worth it to see what happens with my skin.

(Regarding other hair products, now the only thing I use on my hair is just a bit of Fantastic Sam’s Molding Mud, just to give my short hair some texture.  HOWEVER, I keep my hair entirely off my face, really just apply the product to the crown of my head so it’s not going to come in contact with my jawline or neckline, and I wear a thin ski hat at night to eliminate any product residue from getting on my pillow and then transferring to my face.)

There are a couple other “canaries in the coal mine” that I am exploring currently:

• Laundry detergent.  People like their clothes to have a clean and fresh smell, and I am no different.  I’ve been using variants of the Arm and Hammer brand for years  with no apparent issue; but these ARE scented.  Once my face started flaring up weeks ago, I started washing my sheets, towels, and washcloths (anything that touches my face directly) in a gentler Arm and Hammer brand for “sensitive skin” but it is still scented.  I’ve since purchased All Free and Clear detergent to use exclusively the next time laundry day comes around again.  What clued me in to the possibility that my laundry detergent could be irritating my skin is that I have a patch of mild eczema behind each armpit; this started in a few weeks after my face began to go through flares.  This is exactly where the sleeve of a shirt starts, and makes sense that a mildly irritating substance continually rubbing there would ultimately cause a flare.  My hand eczema also is not really any better (though in the grand scheme of things it isn’t horrible at all) and so it makes logical sense that something I am touching a lot is preventing it from healing.

• 

  Eczema between my fingers.  The back of my hand is dry and irritated too though you can’t see it here.  Admittedly, I do wash my hands frequently and don’t put barrier cream on these as much as I should.  The other hand does NOT have between-fingers eczema though, which is interesting.  I am right handed so maybe it’s getting irritated from something I am touching, which I would logically touch with my right more frequently.

• Iron levels and Vitamin D levels.  I got my lab results back and both of these were low (and my actual iron saturation was low enough to flag “LOW URGENT” on the lab).  I haven’t really written about how I have been feeling besides my recent flares, but I have been experiencing just sort of insidious tiredness/fatigue over the past few months.  I chalked it up to having lower levels of cardiovascular fitness, as I’ve changed my workouts over the past months to much more heavy lifting/barbell work/Olympic lifts and a lot less cardio.  But when I HAVE done cardiovascular workouts (usually CrossFit style ones or longer endurance ones, about once a week), I have found that I am really unusually fatigued, I struggle to keep pace, and I really just feel a whole-body tiredness with it that can’t be pinned down to muscle, lungs, etc.  I have asthma so my stamina sometimes suffers anyway, but this “felt” different from just being tired due to working through asthma.  So even if getting more iron and Vitamin D in me doesn’t directly affect my skin, I am grateful for this insight so that I can boost up my athletic performance again hopefully.  I AM currently taking an array of supplements recommended by my integrative medical practitioner but have yet to add in the iron and Vitamin D as I want to consult with her first on what type and how much.
• General dryness of the winter.  I have always hated winter because I hate being cold, the cold stresses me out, the cold causes me to seek heat, and all of these add up to me having dryer and itchier skin in general, come winter-time.  I live in the south Atlantic area of the US now, much better than my previous home of the North/Midwest, but winters can still get to frigid temps.  I got a nice little humidifier for my bedroom that arrived this weekend and have been running it each night to see what effect it might have on mitigating my dry skin.

So, how do I feel this week overall in light of all these small considerations?  My feeling about my progress fluctuates (Sunday night I panicked because I felt itchy before bed and couldn’t get to sleep and was paranoid I would scratch at my eyes and make them puffy…. finally took Benadryl and that eventually knocked me out), but last night I slept great with really zero itchy feeling before bed, and today I feel overall more positive, like my skin is trying to make small shifts for the better in healing.  I still wake up with redness and flakes, but it very subtly feels like the rashed skin around my eyes and on my jawline is maybe starting to make its own moisture and not feel so dead and dry.  I haven’t had a day in a while where my face feels like it will crack off, and I can make facial expressions without completely insane creases from the dryness.  Here’s to seeing what this week will hold!

Flares, Puffs, Flakes, and….my liver?

So in dealing with this recent flare-up, I’ve noticed it seems to go through a cycle for the past weeks.  Early in the week will be pretty crappy, then the skin will gradually get better, and by Friday/Saturday I’m looking and feeling pretty okay and somewhat hopeful.

This was my pattern the week before, and has seemed to be my pattern so far this week (more on the craziness of this week, later).

First off, a report on my visit to the integrative doctor last week.  I had a really good experience with her and felt that she truly got to know me and my past medical history.  I left with an actual game plan for overall healing (some lab tests, another food sensitivity test… I know the science on that is mixed and not very conclusive, but it’s worth the experiment… and specific supplements for things like improving my cell membrane barrier and reducing my body’s inflammation, and a COMPLETE understanding that I did not want to ever use steroid creams again, which I really appreciated.  She actually told me she had another patient going through TSW that was so bad he had complete edema all over his legs, and he had stopped cold turkey, but that she had to put him back on some steroids just to allow the body to ramp down from that inflammation.  So I was glad she was already aware of TSW, because conventional dermatologists of my past hadn’t seemed to believe in its existence).  She also recommended Vaniply cream, which I had totally forgotten about but was very useful in my TSW so that my skin didn’t completely dry out and flake off during the day.

So far, I’ve had the first lab tests done (no results yet) and next week will be the food sensitivity test; I’m eager to see the results.  I honestly hope that there is something concrete to “fix”, like liver function or inflammation levels, as all you eczema warriors know there is nothing more frustrating than chasing down the source of your flares only to come up consistently empty-handed and even more confused and dejected.

I also had a bodywork session with one of my friends, and mentioned my recent skin issues to her.  This friend is well-educated and talented in the function of the body, and noted something very interesting – that latent strep/latent EBV (Epstein-Barr virus, aka mono) is purported to be something that can cause underlying inflammation in the liver which then can manifest through the skin.  I found this interesting as I was lucky enough to have BOTH mono and strep at the same time, about 10 years ago, and ever since have had a permanently slightly swollen right lymph node and enlarged and scarred tonsils from that.  Though I’m not claiming this is the case and I tend to treat most things with a slight healthy dose of skepticism at first, I can see that something systemic like this might make sense for me (I’ve also had underlying levels of sporadic fatigue and feeling like my throat is swollen… like a feeling on the verge of coming down with some sickness but not actually succumbing to it).

So, armed with this new knowledge, I sailed into the weekend feeling enlightened and hopeful, plus I was experiencing pretty good skin which was a plus.

On Sunday morning, all hell broke loose and I woke up with the craziest, most puffy eyes I have ever experienced.  I knew I was kind of itching and rubbing them in the night as I would wake up here and there, but didn’t think it would be THAT bad.  They were horrifying and hideous.  It took about 2 hours of intermittent icing them and resting for them to go even kind of back to normal. 

Check out my super special double-triple-quadruple eyelids!  😦

What had I done differently yesterday, when I had been feeling so good and optimistic, and experiencing pretty good skin?  My first thought was to connect the dots from liver function to the fact that I had consumed 2 alcoholic drinks over the course of the day at a social event with friends.  No big deal, no excess, and I had been careful to also drink plenty of water.  But, if my liver was truly struggling to process out toxins from my body, maybe this stimuli (which never gave me trouble in the past) could have completely overwhelmed it.  Luckily, I had no obligations for the day and was able to just stick around home letting my eyes rest.

The start of this week has progressed relatively similar to last week – Monday I have to ice the eyes, Tuesday I barely have to ice them, Wednesday (today) I am still really red around the eyes but look almost normal from a reasonable distance thanks to Vaniply and concealer.

However, the skin around my eyes is going through a cycle (similar to last week) where they will be puffy, red, and horribly dry early in the week, then will go through a flake cycle where I can literally pick flakes off with tweezers, then will be really red but more soft and less dry.

Now my concern is that maybe I have some kind of secondary atopic dermatitis (or maybe this IS the primary issue) from whatever I am putting on my face.  The rash is not getting better overall and now each eye is typically ringed with red on a daily basis, making me look like some kind of weird eczema-raccoon.  (My boyfriend’s slang for raccoon is ‘trash panda’, so when I referred to myself as such, he kindly said, “You are like the ANTI-trash-panda!” [because I tend to love neatness and cleanliness and organization], lol).

One helpful blogger commented on my last post that perhaps I am having a reaction to my shampoo, since it’s really just my face, jawline, and hands which are rashed (of which I have been using Dr. Bronner’s peppermint ‘magic soap’ shampoo, but have now bought Vanicream Free and Clear to switch out, as well as the Vanicream bar soap and hand soap too… by this time I’m back to having the whole array of Vanicream line like I did when I was in TSW.)  My other thought is that maybe I have developed a sensitivity to Tarte makeup, even though in my last post I discussed some things I have eliminated, and the very basic things I have kept are things that I have never reacted to in the past and were fine even through the throes of TSW.

We shall see what the lab test results are and if anything happens when my Free and Clear shampoo arrives tomorrow!

 

My Post-TSW Skincare Routine

Please excuse the very long absence from the blog world.  I have been meaning to make a post-TSW skincare routine post for a while, and then just kept putting it off.  In all reality, this blog will probably have posts that are way fewer and farther between, since now (OH HAPPY DAY) I don’t need to keep documenting progress of my skin, because I am healed and back to normal!  But, I am still here reading the blogs of others with TSW, and still here to give support and encouragement or just answer questions on TSW, skin, eczema, or life in general 🙂

So what do I use these days for general moisturizing, cleansing, skincare, etc?

BODY:

If I want to use some type of moisturizer on my legs and body, coconut oil is really the only thing I use these days. I like the idea of using something completely natural and smelling like a tropical island. Some days I forget or just don’t want to be all greasy, and then use no body moisturizer at all… I don’t think coconut oil is a dealbreaker, now my body’s skin seems to retain oils whether I remember to moisturize it or not!

If I have any little bumps or tiny rashy spots on my legs, I use the lovely Calendulis cream from The Eczema Company.

FACE (nighttime):

I wash my face once a day (at night) with Paula’s Choice Optimal Results Hydrating Cleanser. I used this cleanser all through my TSW days too. It is very gentle and mild and leaves my skin feeling refreshed and clean.

After I wash my face, it is time to exfoliate to get rid of any dull skin. In general, I use Paula’s Choice BHA (beta hydroxy acids) exfoliant. I have tried both AHA (alpha hydroxy acids) and BHA, but for me personally, I think I prefer the BHA’s effects better. Sometimes I will switch it up and exfoliate by giving my face a gentle scrub with very finely ground oatmeal. Chemical exfoliants are best NOT used in TSW…they will sting. Using oatmeal very gently is okay, and is a nice natural idea for healthy skin too!

After exfoliating for the night, I use an antioxidant serum, again from Paula’s Choice. I used this through TSW as well and it never stung or gave me any bad effects. I dab this gently under my eyes and then on other areas prone to eventually show aging, like my forehead and smile lines.

Lastly for my nighttime routine, I use grapeseed oil as a moisturizer, putting a few drops of it over my face.

 

FACE (morning):

I don’t wash my face again in the morning… I don’t feel like I need to, since it’s not like it got dirty in the night with me sleeping. I splash water on my face and sometimes gently go over it with a washcloth. Then I use the Antioxidant Serum again around my eyes, and a few drops of grapeseed oil. My moisturizer every day is Vanicream SPF Sport 35 sunscreen. This is the best sunscreen hands down – I used it through TSW and it was one of the few things that never made my skin burn or sting. It goes on smoothly and keeps my skin feeling moisturized all day without being greasy or oily… plus I’m protecting myself from the aging effects of the sun!

Makeup wise, I LOVE LOVE LOVE these Tarte SmolderEyes eyeliners. They come in a bunch of colors and they literally do stay on all day and are smudgeproof. I have sweated heavily in them, and yes, they did fade a little, but still remained intact… very impressed. I usually line my lower lid in a brown or purple, and sometimes line the upper lid too if I’m feeling fancy.

Tarte Amazonian Clay mascara is wonderful and comes off easily with makeup remover or (my preference) grapeseed oil. It’s not technically waterproof, but I’ve sweated heavily in it without it smearing. Two coats of this and I look awake and ready to greet the day!

So clearly, two of my favorite (and skin-friendly!) brands are Paula’s Choice and Tarte, and I know I’ve mentioned both of these brands in other posts on my blog.  I was not compensated in any way for promoting these, I just think they are two wonderful brands that are gentle on skin and free from irritating ingredients like added fragrances, etc.

One thing that I was really worried about with post-TSW skin was that my skin would be healed, but would be exquisitely sensitive to everything, more so than before.  I am very pleased to note that the ‘sensitivity’ of my skin seems to be what it was before I ever used steroids.  I guess I could truly test it with something I reacted badly to, previously, like aloe…. but since I’ve found a routine that works so well for me, I’m sticking to it.  🙂  If you’re out there still trucking through TSW… have hope!  There is light on the other side!  Normal skin awaits!

 

 

 

Calendulis Cream from The Eczema Company – Great for Healing!

My fellow blogger, Jennifer, very kindly offered to send me some Calendulis Cream to try from her online store, The Eczema Company.  Jennifer has a wonderful blog simply FULL of great resources for eczema and food allergies.

Her online store is just as great…check it out!!  There are creams and balms!  There is soft clothing for babies and kids with eczema! (The onesies that say “Only my smile is contagious” and “Keep Calm and Carry Balm” are adorable).  There are brightly colored mittens for your child to wear at night so they don’t scratch!  (Boy… I wish my mom had had access to this site back in the dawn of the internet in the early 90s, when Ms. EczemaExcellence was but a young girl and had to make do with white cotton socks tied on her hands at night rather than fun and colorful mittens).

It is an unfortunate predicament in the world that eczema exists, but The Eczema Company’s products at least create a more pleasant and less itchy existence.  So when I got the chance to try out the Calendulis Cream, I was excited to see what it would do for my skin – especially since I had first seen it on my blog buddy The Allergista‘s site, and she gave it a great review.

Jennifer had seen my previous posts, where I said that my skin was overall doing well, but that I still had a few residual spots that would flare and itch a bit – specifically my elbow and knee creases.  She recommended trying this cream to help heal those last stubborn flares.  I have been using it 1-2 times a day (morning and night…. I forgot a few times though so sometimes it was just one or the other) for about the past 5 days.  And you know what??  IT IS WORKING!  😀

The very first day I tried it out, the initial thing I noticed was that it stopped my itching!  I don’t get super itchy anymore, but I would catch myself waking up in the night scratching at my legs.  Since using the Calendulis Cream, I honestly don’t think I have woken myself up by scratching at all.  Then as I continued to use it, the dry, flaky patches on my skin started to heal and look more normal.  Remember my previous post with the picture of those tiny bumps on my leg?  Thanks to the cream, they now are GONE!  What an awesome thing to find a natural remedy with NO steroids or cortisone that actually works.

Below I’ve put a BEFORE and AFTER picture of my right arm – I have a very cheap digital camera that may not do this justice, but hopefully you see that the cream really did make a difference!

If you are interested in trying this cream – guess what?  I have a special offer for you, compliments of Jennifer and The Eczema Company!   You can get 10% off using this code as one of my blog readers: ECZEXC10.  Don’t wait though, if you want to give Calendulis Cream a try – the code expires September 30, 2013.

Thank you Calendulis Cream and thank you Jennifer!!  🙂

My right arm BEFORE applying Calendulis Cream, with mini-flares (little red areas).

Right arm AFTER about 5 days of Calendulis Cream.  There are no active flares!!  Any red spots you see are just little scars.  (You may notice my skin has some patches that are sort of “bleached” and lighter than my normal skin tone – this is a product of TSW and not the Calendulis cream.  Other areas of my body, like my lower back, and behind knees, have the same lighter-colored patches.  The skin is just getting back to normal after TSW and I’m sure this will even out in time.  As long as it isn’t red and itchy… I’m happy)!

Six Things That Help TSW and Eczema

Warning!!!  Two more photos of eczema/rash/TSW ahead.  If you don’t like looking at this stuff, then don’t.  Many people have said incredibly kind words commending me for posting photos.  To be honest, it was seeing photos from OTHER people that really helped ME, so hopefully this will help others going through it too.

The flaking and peeling and oozing is a pretty typical sign of TSW.  This picture really seems to demonstrate that this is probably what I have.  It’s very prominent here under my nose and under my lip.  By the end of the day, my skin in some places is so dry and tight that the top layer begins to crack and flake.  Then these flakes, if they are peeled off carefully, reveal new red skin underneath.  And then the next day, the cycle starts all over again.  It’s like I have a friggin’ dandruff mustache and beard!

You can call me Little Miss Frosted Flakes. Except the flakes around my mouth are unfortunately not delicious and made of sugary goodness.

Then when I posted all my photos yesterday, I realized I didn’t take any body pictures, only my face mostly.  I took a couple of my legs, but they didn’t really turn out well, so here is one of my arm.

Left elbow crease. Hurts like heck. Trying not to pick at it. Now I know what other TSW people mean when they said your skin feels like it’s been sunburned and is horribly uncomfortable.

Now…. SIX THINGS THAT HELP ME, PERSONALLY.  Disclaimer that maybe these things wouldn’t work for everyone, but I’ve found them worthwhile enough to share.  In no particular order:

Avène Thermal Spring Water (57%). Avene Thermal Spring Water (Avene Aqua), Glycerin, Mineral Oil (Paraffinum Liquidum), Squalane, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil (Carthamus Tinctorius Oil), Cyclomethicone, Glyceryl Stearate, Sodium Carbomer, Titanium Dioxide.

1. Avene Tolerance Extreme Cream.

I don’t remember the kind blogger that told me about this one, so forgive me if that’s you reading this (shout out to you if so!!), but I took your recommendation and I’m glad I did!  This stuff is NOT CHEAP but after seeing that almost every single person that reviewed it on Dermstore.com gave it a full 5 stars, with some of them saying their face was a red mess and this cream was their savior, and seeing that it had only 9 ingredients (and no crazy long chemical names or bad stuff like fragrance, parabens, etc)., I decided to spring for it.

While I’ve read conflicting things about mineral oil (some people believe you shouldn’t use it, as it isn’t “natural”, and others say that it’s very mild and the skin is quite unlikely to react to it), I figured this product was worth trying.  After all, many TSW and eczema sufferers (myself included) use stuff like Vaseline in huge quantities, and that isn’t “natural” either.  (I would love to switch to purely some kind of natural oil, but an oil by itself isn’t moisturizing enough right now).

Right now it is rare to find a product that doesn’t feel irritating or sting-y going on.  This glided on, helped my skin feel moisturized, and my skin actually looked better the next day!  I’ve only been using it for 2 days so far since it had just come in the mail, but I am really liking it.

 

 

2. EUCERIN CALMING BODY WASH.

This product contains omega oils and is made for
sensitive skin.  My bathtime routine includes soaking in either dead sea salt, baking soda, or oatmeal (to
soothe and stop itching) and then I use this wash over
any really itchy spots.  It isn’t drastic, but it does seem
to help calm my skin a little and lock in some extra
moisture when I get out of the tub.

 

 

 

3. VANICREAM SHAVE CREAM.

I could be the Vanicream poster child, I’ve purchased and/or used at least 7 or 8 of the products they make (not all of them worked well for me, though).  I use their Free and Clear shampoo religiously, and somewhat recently I sprung for their Shave Cream.  Again, it’s not very cheap (about $8-10 a tube) but it lives up to its claims as being made for sensitive skin.

If you’re expecting the huge foamy stuff that sprays out of a can, that’s not what you get with this – it’s literally a cream, kind of the same consistency as conditioner maybe, but not as slick.  I would love to just let my legs go and grow hair, but I don’t like feeling like Sasquatch.  It’s not the most ideal thing to be scraping my already-irritated legs with a razor, but if it has to be done, the Vanicream shave cream leaves them feeling soft and smooth.

4. RUNNING TIGHTS.

Normally I was always one to sleep in shorts.  I didn’t like typical “sleep pants”, as they would either make me too hot at night or wind up all twisted and bunched up around my legs.  I wouldn’t have changed my shorts-wearing habit, except I discovered that I tend to claw at my legs at night while I sleep, and shorts leave them bare and accessible to this damage.

So one day I got the bright idea to don an old pair of running tights instead.  This was a great idea – they’re tight enough where I cannot get at my legs and breathable enough where I stay warm but not TOO warm.

 

5. ANTIHISTAMINES.

Antihistamines have been mentioned by many, many people, but I didn’t develop a unique appreciation for them until the last few weeks when taking them provided me a blissful, nearly scratch-free, zonked out slumber.  In the throes of feeling like you cannot stop itching and feeling like your skin hurts all over, they are a godsend.  I try to take them sparingly though, as I don’t want to develop a tolerance if that is possible.  And the great thing is that they’re cheap!  I bought a store brand and I think I spent about $3.

6. EXERCISE

Yesterday, I was being a big whiny baby, internally.  My legs hurt so very badly that it was uncomfortable to change positions and walk.  One of the symptoms posted on ITSAN is that the skin can be raw and painful, feel like a bad sunburn and be sensitive to the slightest touch.  Yep, I’ve got that!  It’s particularly exquisitely painful because the worst parts are in the creases of my knees – areas that need to bend anytime you want to stand, sit, or walk.  I’m over here hobbling around and lowering myself into chairs and toilet seats with the slow deliberation of a senior citizen.  So today, it feels about the same, but I decided I must stop feeling bad for myself and try a bit of exercise at the gym.

Exercise habits are one thing that TSW has “robbed” me of.  I used to be a pretty avid runner – now I haven’t ran a single step in over a month.  I used to love high-impact, sweaty exercise – now I’m reticent to sweat and move that vigorously.  I’ve been just doing varied incline treadmill walking now a few times a week, and sometimes some weight training.  One day I will get back into my beloved running and Zumba and kickboxing.  So anyway, once I actually got on the treadmill today, I was pleased to find that the very act of walking and listening to music was enough to distract me from most of the itchy and painful bodily sensations.  Even though I was reluctant to do it at first, I’m glad I did, and I have to remember to keep doing it regularly!

What other things would you add to this list as “must haves” for eczema and TSW?