EML (Eczema My Life) SOTD

SOTD 

Eczema style

Cleanser: LUSH Dreamwash

Shampoo: Neutrogena T-Gel and Hair One (Jojoba type)

Exfoliant: LUSH Ocean Salt 

Moisturizer: LUSH Dream Cream

Ugh, today's shower unfortunately was more of a battle of epic portions between myself and my eczema. If you aren't familiar with what eczema is you can read all about it here if you'd like. But the general consensus:

"The term eczema is broadly applied to a range of persistent skin conditions. These include dryness and recurring skin rashes that are characterized by one or more of these symptoms: redness, skin edema (swelling), itching and dryness, crusting, flaking, blistering, cracking, oozing, or bleeding. Areas of temporary skin discoloration may appear and are sometimes due to healed lesions. Scratching open a healing lesion may result in scarring and may enlarge the rash." - Wikipedia

There are various types of eczema. I thankfully only have Atopic Dermatitis which is more so just itching and open sores that are caused from scratching the skin raw. I thankfully don't usually ever have any sores, mainly  because my eczema is not chronic just sort of flares up when it wants to be a jerk. And when it is REALLY bad, it effects my scalp. I only use Neutrogena's T-Gel shampoo in those cases aka today. It's shpeel is "Controls The Symptoms of: Dandruff, Seborrheic Dermatitis [scalp eczema], and Psoriasis" which is very true. When using T-Gel though I try to keep it centralized to strictly on my scalp and roots because it can be very drying to the shaft and ends of your hair. I let it sit on my scalp for the duration of my shower then after I wash it out I follow through with a conditioning cleanser, today's choice was Hair One.

In all of my years of various eczema treatments I think hands down the two best products that have helped me are LUSH's Dreamwash and Dream Cream. I'll let LUSH explain the products them self; these are directly copied from LushUSA.com

"Dreamwash: This creamy Smoothie is made for those of you with sensitive, itchy, rashy and sunburnt skin. We put the most soothing ingredients in for optimal results, including calamine powder, aloe vera gel, rose and chamomile. It smells rather herby because it's full of herbs. Lather this soft pink soap all over to calm down your skin and when you're done in the shower, rub on our best-selling body lotion Dream Cream to make your skin so happy it'll think it's dreaming."

"Dream Cream: If you've got skin with severe problems, you could spend your whole life dreaming of a clear, trouble-free epidermis. Give our best-selling Dream Cream a try; we get loads of emails about how well it works. With a base of oat milk (traditionally used to calm skin), it's packed with every calming plant we could find: tea tree, lavender and chamomile, moisturizing olive oil and loads more. If it seems nothing works to calm your skin, apply a healthy dose of this, our best-selling cream. You can thank us later."

From what it seems like to me they're essentially (minus a few ingredient variances) are the same product just one a lotion and one a cleanser. If you're like me and are looking for something new to sooth your skin I STRONGLY suggest you try both of these. In my opinion if you're looking to help treat eczema with these, there's no point in you getting one with out the other. Even if you just simply have sensitive skin and no eczema I think these would do a wonder for you and are AMAZING together on sunburns.

On a day where I have time, I lather Dreamwash all over and just sit in an empty tub for maybe 5 to 10 minutes before I start my shower so the chamomile and calamine can help calm my skin down. Then start up the shower and rinse it off. If you don't have time to soak in it's goodness a bit before your shower than you can just use it like a shower gel, but giving it just a little time to sit on the skin even if it's 30 seconds helps calm your itchy nerves. I even use it on my face. I will use what ever facial treatment sort of cleanser I reach for that day, wash it off, and directly apply Dreamwash all over sort of like it's a mask and then it just ends up washing off as the water jets down through out the rest of the shower. After getting out of the show the key is following up with Dream Cream, it just seals in all the goodness (sort of like a ziplock bag) Dreamwash has just done and adds it's own touch of softness to your skin.