Soaps!

Lets talk soaps!!

I am finally ready to review the soaps that I have been using for basically the last six months. There are positives and negatives for each but I have found my holly grail soap and just ordered a bunch. I am being mysterious because while I will not list the soaps in any particular order, I do want to end with my favorite one :)

The things I look for in a soap or shower gel are:
1. It had to be moisturizing like VERY moisturizing
2. It has to leave me feeling clean
3. It absolutely can not be irritating

Soaps:

L'Occitane en Provence Extra-Gentle Soap in Lavender From L'Occitane

L'Occitane lured me with their promise of France and even though I do try to avoid fragrances in my soaps, I had to give this guys try.
Pros: At 250g (net wt 8.8 oz) this soap lasted a long time! I liked this soap a lot, it was moisturizing, felt clean, and surprisingly the fragrance was not irritating at all. Cons: It's $10, so a bit pricy. They do have a smaller one for $7 but the large one last so long that it makes sense to get the larger one.

Basis sensitive skin bar From amazon

 

I found this while looking for all natural soaps and decided to give it a try. I paid  something like $4 for it, although you can get it for a couple of dollars cheaper if you order a pack of 6 from amazon. I liked this soap overall because it did have that clean feeling and it was not irritating at all; however I was looking for something a bit more moisturizing. I am really looking for something that has an intense moisturizing effect which I though this one lacked.

The next set of soaps I do not have link to or much details on because I forgot to take pictures of them but it is the Sprouts brand soaps. Here is a link to their website Sprouts. As far as I can tell they are mainly located in the south-west. All of the health and beauty products that Sprouts carries are cruelty-free and paraben free which is why I decided to try their soaps. I chose two fragrance-free ones and liked them. They were both fairly moisturizing and clean feeling but most importantly not irritating. I would prefer soemthing more moisturizing but at something like $2 these will be my back-up in case I ever run out of my holly grail.

*I will take pictures next time I am in a Sprouts

The Body Shop shower gel for earth lovers in Cucumber and Mint

This might have been discontinues since I can not find it on the website but I will double check when I'm in the store because this gel is wonderful. It smelled great but did not irritate my skin! It was super moisturizing and clean feeling. It would be my holly grail, except I am not a big fan of shower gels. I know a lot of people love them but I just prefer soaps and cleansing bars. Part of the problem with gels is that I have to add gel to my sponge several times. I do have long legs and arms so maybe there is just more of me to cover but I get annoyed when the gel disappears and I am not done cleaning. It's just one of those weird things about me.

Finally my the soap I liked was: The Body Shop soap in mango From the Body Shop

I found this soap to be super moisturizing and rich. It was not irritating and clean feeling but I just cannot get over how rich it felt. It was just a wonderful feeling and the worst part was that I only bought one and I made myself wait to use up other soaps before I could but more of these beauties. I did place a new order today and I am going to try a few of the other scents. I used to be so afraid of scents in my soaps but I've found that there are other ingredients that are more important. The key might be how irritating the fragrance is and how it fits in with the rest of the formula. I'll have to see what other scents work for me, I am excited to get my order in!

Stress and Eczema

After an online discussion with another individual with eczema, it hit me that my eczema is probably triggered by stress. In the past year I have spent a lot of time cutting allergens out of my life. I have not cut very many foods from my diet but I have watched for outbreaks that happen after eating certain foods. I have noticed no correlation between my diet and eczema outbreaks. I thought that perhaps there were environmental causes and since my last outbreak I have gone about being more diligent about cleaning, wearing gloves when washing dishes, and switching to beauty products that contain less chemicals.

I believe that the steps I have taken have helped and actually spent a good 3-4 months without an outbreak. Then in December I has another hand eczema outbreak. The difficulty in determining what caused the outbreak is that it could have been one of two things (my diet did not change). One it was my cat. I am very allergic to cats and after discovering this a few years ago, I sent my cat to my parents. When the holidays come around, I get to see my gorgeous kitty again. This usually lead to my asthma being triggered and some bad days and nights. This time around was WAY better because I did now allow my Luna to sleep in my room and limited the amount of time I held her. I still let her sleep near my on the couch and played with her, so I still got my Luna time.

My little allergen: Luna 

So now to stress. Holiday stress gets to all of us. I had a great time with my family and there was no drama but still. I had a layover getting home and my first flight was delayed making me miss the second and apparently last flight home. That was stressful. Spending two weeks away from my significant other was stressful, especially after he got sick. I also lay awake at night thinking about finishing my dissertation and my future, so that was stressful... In short there was plenty of stress despite the happiness of getting to spend time with my family and the new puppies (Rory and Amelia).

RORY

Amelia

I now suspect that along with environmental factors, my eczema is triggered and/or worsened by stress. In 2014 I hope to work on this. I hope to spend time on my hobbies and get this dissertation finished. Over the last few years the dissertation was been a major source of stress and I really can't wait for it to be done. In the meantime here is a list of things I plan on doing to help reduce stress:

• exercise 
• leisure reading 
• baths 
• meditating 
• spend time on my hobbies (makeup and art) 
• spend time talking to my family 
• going out with close friends 

So, there you go. Hopefully you all are staying eczema-free!