Combat Dry Skin This Winter With All-Natural Eczema Honey Lotion
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There are a lot of cool things out there that make us wonder — do they really work? In our I Tried It series, we set out to use them in the real world and have determined that, in fact, they really do.
On Trial: Eczema Honey Lotion
Tester: Cat Bowen, dry-skinned, allergic to everything, and super picky about products
I have what my family likes to call “cheap skin.” It’s sensitive, it’s dry, it’s prone to eczema and scaly patches, and honestly, just temperamental. From the tips of my toes to the top of my scalp, my skin is a problem. In the summer, trips to the beach and time in the sun make it itchy and red, and in the winter months? Oh, holy heck, I should probably be concerned about developing a forked-tongue for how scaly and dry it is.
And I do moisturize. I have a very strict post-shower body oil routine, and SPF and I are BFFs for life. But it's not enough. My Death Valley dermis requires far more in the way of maintenance.
Looking to add something to my routine, I began the long slog of a search online, hitting up eczema Facebook groups and Instagram hashtags. A ton of my fellow itchy comrades suggested using honey as an intensive moisturizer. But, as much as I love my little pollinating friends and their sweet, sappy goodness, I have no desire to feel as though I'm a crucial part of Rosh Hashanah celebrations. So I got to Googling and found Eczema Honey body lotion — an alleged miracle product that has all of the benefits of the bee's brew and none of its sticky sweetness.
Eczema Honey makes high-quality skincare that's safe, nontoxic, and soothing. It's a company with a goal to make every ingredient they include in their products to have a clear skincare purpose, free of fillers and preservatives common in other lotions, creams, and body products. And, of course, they are harnessing the fantastic power of honey.
It’s a paraben- and phthalate-free body lotion made with honey, oatmeal, shea butter, cocoa butter, and aloe vera to really penetrate into the skin even on the driest days. The two heavy hitters of the lotion are honey and colloidal oatmeal. If you’ve never heard of “colloidal oatmeal,” rest assured, you’re not alone. Before I bought this lotion, I would’ve thought that colloidal oatmeal was something bodybuilders ate for breakfast to get those #gains.
But as it turns out, colloidal oatmeal is oatmeal that's been ground into dust. Because it's chock full of fats, proteins, vitamins, and nutrients, your skin absolutely loves it. It also has anti-inflammatory properties and antioxidants that are critical in calming your skin's reactions and protecting it against the everyday drama that it endures.
The titular honey of the Eczema Honey lotion has similar effects. But because it also has antibiotic and potential cytoprotective qualities (in other words, qualities that protect it from cellular damage), it's thought to be not only moisturizing and nourishing, but also healing. Eczema has a million potential causes and affects a large number of the population, according to the Cleveland Clinic, and unfortunately, treatment is not one-size-fits-all. But in a 2017 study, it was posited that honey could be a potential treatment for those of us who suffer from the condition.
But back to the important topic — me. When I started using Eczema Honey Cream, honestly, I wasn’t impressed. It felt like every other lotion I’d ever used, maybe even a bit runnier. It had no smell (and I mean no smell whatsoever), and I felt like it absorbed really quickly. After all, if I couldn’t feel it 30 minutes later like I do with my body oil, is it really even working?
But since I’d run out of my other lotions, and by the laws of what lives on my counter, I started using it. Every afternoon when my legs started to feel like crickets trying to play a tune, I’d slather some on. I’d douse my hands and arms, too, because my elbows do their best to betray me at every turn.
After a few days, I realized something: The time I felt like I needed to lotion up my legs and arms started getting later in the day. My skin was, dare I say, holding its moisture? (Insert my heavy confusion and skepticism, thinking my skin was playing an elaborate trick on me like the sentient organ it is.)
After about a week, the stubborn patch of eczema that likes to hang out on my shin bone, irritating the life out of me behind the tongue of my running shoes, seemed to shrink. After 2 weeks, it was just a shiny bit of skin. After a month? What eczema? You must understand: I always have a patch of eczema on my skin somewhere. It's the nature of my cheap skin, but a month after using the Eczema Honey Cream, the only patch I have is in a place I mostly forget to moisturize.
Yes, I still use my body oil every single day, and that’s not changing. It smells really freaking good and makes me look all dewy and glowy. But now? I also use this lotion, and I’ve never been happier. No, it’s not perfect. I wish it smelled like, well, like something. But that’s really its only fault.
Closing Arguments: It really works to deeply moisturize my skin, and that's more than I can say for most lotions that I've used. It's made of ingredients that make sense, and while it is on the pricier end of lotions at just over $20, I definitely think it's well worth the investment.
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