Tips On Choosing A Moisturizer
Finding a moisturizer that works can be a challenge. What works for one person may not work for another. As the condition of your skin changes so can the effectiveness of a product. A manufacturer may also change the formulation of a product from one year to the next. The best eczema lotion, cream or moisturizer is the one that works for you.
Take the following steps when introducing a new product to your skin:
The 7 Best Creams For Eczema According To Dermatologists
Eczema is a skin condition that results in dry, flaky red patches of skin, and can even cause blisters and sores. It can happen anywhere on the body, and is most often caused by a combination of genetics and immune system triggers, like allergies or contact with irritants. It’s a super frustrating condition that affects over 30 million Americans, according to the National Eczema Association.
Dermatologists recommend treating eczema with moisturizers and creams that help protect the skin’s moisture barrier, since it’s weakened with eczema. Here are the products to look for per our derm experts.
How To Choose The Best Eczema Cream For You
Ready to shop until your eczema flare-ups drop? Here are some tips for finding the best cream for your needs.
- Check the ingredient list twice. Some products may look tempting and nearly eczema-approved, but its best to avoid ingredients like alcohol, parabens, urea, and fragrance, just in case.
- Try a trial size. Try to purchase the smallest size of a product to test it out before you commit to your forever cream . Many derms offer sample sizes of both prescription and over-the-counter lotions, so consider heading to your doc.
- Dont assume more $ = better. Thankfully, when it comes to eczema creams, theres something with legit ingredients at every price point. You really dont need to splurge to secure an effective product, and whats more expensive wont necessarily work better for your unique needs.
- Consult the pros. You might want to look up products in the National Eczema Association directory to see if theyve received a Seal of Acceptance. The association considers these products legit for those with eczema or sensitive skin based on a variety of criteria. Products have to apply for the label, though, so some quality products might not have the seal, but it may help you narrow down your search.
Still not sure where to turn? As Graf explains, the reality is that everyones treatments are unique based on the severity. If your symptoms get worse or dont go away, she always advises seeing a dermatologist for treatment.
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How To Find The Best Eczema Cream
When considering over-the-counter creams, Dr. Hayag suggests keeping an eye out for occlusives, humectants, and emollients. “Occlusive ingredients to look out for are petrolatum and silicone derivatives such as dimethicone,” says Dr. Hayag. “Humectants are hygroscopic moisturizers that actively pull and absorb water and hydrate the outer layer of the skin,” she adds. You’re likely to find humectants, such as glycerin and hyaluronic acid, in many of the skin-care products already in your arsenal. Shea butter, colloidal oatmeal, and ceramides are all emollients that are great for moisturizing the skin, as well.
Those with eczema should lean into moisturizers that have high oil content over water content, as this will actually draw more water into the skin and reduce water loss. An ointment is actually a far better option over a lotion, notes Dr. Hayag. Why? Ointments have the highest oil content of all the products, so they don’t generally burn when they’re applied to sensitive skin and are very good at sealing in moisture, she explains.
If you’re looking specifically to relieve flare-ups, Dr. Hayag recommends creams featuring ingredients such as pramoxine hydrochloride, niacinamide, and hydrocortisone, which work quickly to soothe itchiness and irritation.
Also Check: How To Treat Eczema In Kids
Best For Body: Cerave Moisturizing Cream
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Too heavy for face
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Thick texture
Dr. Saedi is a huge fan of Cerave products, including their Moisturizing Cream, which has ceramides to help strengthen the skin barrier and will help lock in moisture while keeping potential eczema-triggering irritants at bay. Your skin will also reap the added hydration benefit of hyaluronic acid. This giant tub of ultra-rich moisturizer is perfect for your body, but probably too heavy for your face.
Ingredients: Glycerin, Ceramide Np, Ceramide Ap, Ceramide Eop | Uses: Moisturizes, restores and maintains skins natural barrier
Learn More About Moisturizers For Eczema
MyEczemaTeam is the social network for people with eczema and their loved ones. On MyEczemaTeam, more than 34,000 members come together to ask questions, give advice, and share their stories with others who understand life with eczema.
Are you living with eczema? Add your comments and questions below and get valuable insights about moisturizers from other MyEczemaTeam members. You can start a conversation by posting on your Activities page.
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What To Look In The Best Eczema Cream
Eczema creams are designed differently and will work differently on different bodies: what works for you might not necessarily work for the other person. Consequently, it is essential that you keep looking for what works for you best. With that regard, here are the standard components that will help you establish whether a particular eczema cream product will work for you.
- Usually, dermatologists will often recommend for thicker moisturizers eczema cream. Before purchasing, check for a product that has humectant ingredients such as glycerin and hyaluronic acid. They help keep the skin hydrated.
- Secondly, look for a cream with skin moisturizing and protecting ingredients such as ceramides, colloidal oatmeal, and petrolatum. These components help protect the skin from irritants by reinforcing the skin barrier.
- It is also essential that you avoid creams with fragrances and exfoliating acids, such as salicylic acids, retinol, lactic, and glycolic acid. Cream with these components will most likely irritate your skin by drying it out.
Era Organics Super Balm Treatment
- Doesn’t relieve itch as well as others
- Spendy for a small jar
- May cause irritation for some
This little tub of skin loving goodness gets high marks from us for its organic formula. It contains the big hitter, colloidal oatmeal, along with a list of other amazing botanicals, including one of our favorites, Manuka honey. This 16-in-1 formula tackles eczema and psoriasis, along with a host of other dry skin issues.
It contains blue-green algae, which is high in proteins and fatty acids, rich in minerals and helps to strengthen and firm your skin. Naturally antiseptic calendula oil fights inflammation and speeds healing. Chamomile soothes irritated and itchy skin and adds natural antioxidants to the mix. Vitamin and mineral rich aloe vera provides deep hydration along with healing properties, and coconut oil is a super moisturizer thats naturally antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial. Sounds good, right?
As if all that goodness wasnt enough, this cream also contains MSM, a mineral that promotes skin regeneration, and helps to boost collagen and keratin for overall skin health. This creamy formula is great for ongoing moisturization, especially for those with extreme dry skin that tends to itch.
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Best For Lips: Vaseline Lip Therapy
For Dr. Markowitz, Vaseline Lip Therapy is a go-to because of its simple formula. âThe best lip balm for eczema is one that is thick and doesnât have too many preservatives,â she shares. With the brandâs famous petroleum jelly at its base, this pick infuses inflamed, chapped lips with rich, soothing moisture and locks it in to prevent future dryness. Not only is it great for long-lasting relief, but its non-greasy and non-sticky formula ensures comfortable wear. For those who prefer a tinted lip balm treatment, Dr. Markowitz also recommends the Neutrogena Revitalizing Lip Balm. She adds, âI really like this because it also has SPF in it.
âWhen my lips are super dry and cracked, this is the only product I’ve found that truly helps,âone reviewer said of the Vaseline Lip Therapy. Another shared, âI had a skin reaction to something and it’s recommended by my dermatologist. Soothing and helps healing.â
Should I Use A Product That Earned The National Eczema Foundation Seal Of Approval
The National Eczema Association created the Seal of Approval acceptance program to help sensitive-skinned consumers properly select skincare.
The NEA Seal of Approval criteria includes a list of ingredients that are known for causing irritation, Dr. Mack explains. The Seal of Approval review panel evaluates ingredient and formulation data. Lastly, the Seal of Acceptance makes the products ideal for sensitive skin types easily identifiable.
Also Check: How To Cure Really Bad Eczema
Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream
This Eight Hour Cream is legendary in skincare circles. While not developed for eczema specifically, I’ve found that a tiny amount of this goes a long way toward treating my issuesit’s thicker and stickier than most of the others on this list, but it also sits more comfortably on my sensitive skin than any other premium skincare product. In particular, if you get eczema on your lips , this is perfectmake sure you get the fragrance-free kind.
When it comes to a one-size-fits-all skincare lines for eczema-prone skinas opposed to using different brands for cleansing, moisturizing, toning, etc.CeraVe is widely considered the best. It’s gentle, well-established in the industry, and offers a range of products, from cleanser to hand cream to eye cream, that you can use without worrying about new ingredients upsetting your skin.
“This is mild and moisturizing,” says Dr. Gohara, who adds that Dove is her go-to cleanser recommendation for patients with eczema.
Calm Skin With These Gentle Effective Topicals
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Eczema, also referred to as dermatitis, is a relatively common skin condition impacting approximately one in ten Americans at some point in their lifetime. Eczema is a group of conditions that causes inflamed, irritated, and itchy skin, says Nazanin Saedi, MD, director of the Jefferson Laser Surgery and Cosmetic Dermatology Center in Philadelphia. Eczema can appear all overyour face, hands, on your elbows, behind your knees and other places on your bodymanifesting as a pink to red, scaly patch of dry skin, she explains.
There are plenty of factors that can potentially trigger eczema, and genetic and environmental factors may be influential. Cold, dry air can definitely make it worse and we need to be aware as we go into colder months, she says, adding that unfortunately, there’s no cure. Its often chronic and the inflammation leads to a disruption in the normal skin barrier.
We researched dozens of lotions and evaluated them for reviews, key ingredients, consistency, ease of application, scent, and usage.
Here are the best lotions for eczema on the market.
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Act Gold Bond Ultimate Eczema Relief Skin Protectant Cream 8 Oz
Act Gold Bond Eczema cream is a new eczema cream solution. The new product has continued to receive positive reviews from users. The cream solution contains 7 moisturizing components and 3 skin vitamin essentials that ensure that your skin remains hydrated and supple at all times. It helps relieve skin dryness, skin scaling/peeling, and roughness. It has a 2% colloidal oatmeal composition that ensures that your skin is protected from skin irritants. The cream product is fragrance and steroid free and extensively tested by Dermatologists which has made many users believe that is one of the Best Eczema Creams around. Act Gold Bond Eczema cream goes for only $10.64.
Gold Bond Eczema Relief
- Doesn’t stop the itch as fast as others
- Issues with pump bottle reported
This thick and creamy lotion is formulated with two percent colloidal oatmeal to help skin heal, along with seven moisturizers that include soothing aloe vera, jojoba oil, shea butter, ceramides and vitamins.
With Shaquille ONeal as their pitchman, its hard not to like Gold Bond products to begin with, but this eczema relief lotion is a real boon for those who suffer from the embarrassment, pain and itching of eczema.
This lotion also features ginger root extract which has been lauded for being rich in antioxidants to help prevent free radical damage. Its also known to improve skins elasticity. In a clinical study, eight out of ten eczema sufferers experienced significant improvements in dryness, scaliness, and rough patches with twice daily use, while nine in ten saw reduced redness.
Gold Bond also makes an Eczema Hand Relief Cream with a skin protecting formula and it comes in a convenient tube. And if you have both eczema and psoriasis, try the Gold Bond Ultimate Psoriasis Relief Cream.
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Bria Organics Relief Repair Replenish Skin Cream 60ml
Best: Overall
Described as highly moisturising this intensely rich cream seriously delivers. With the texture of whipped butter, it is a supremely oily mousse that manages to pack in borage seed oil, jojoba seed oil, rosehip fruit oil, sunflower oil, chickweed extract, and of course, shea butter. Oh and some vitamin E, too. And thats literally the entire ingredients list. Nothing but intensely nourishing natural ingredients your skin is crying out for.
This is no lotion and it does sit on the skin as any oil would for a period of time as it is absorbed. However, we found this comfortable and it felt like slow-release nourishment. We found it a perfect night treatment for the face and driest patches of skin to keep them supple.
We also loved the Bria Organics relief repair replenish balm which is even richer though were baffled how this is achieved and is perfect for smoothing on to dry eyelids, lips or chapped elbows.
For more products that are kind to your skin, read our review of the best moisturisers for sensitive skin
IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testing.
Cetaphil Healing Ointment $1699
Enter one of Cetaphils newest launches and one Dr. Libby is excited about. Making the sensitive skin line complete, this fragrance-free, hypoallergenic healing ointment is lanolin-free and is formulated with 71.5% petrolatum, shea butter, and vitamin E to protect and heal dry, irritated without leaving behind a greasy residue, she explains.
Oh, and Dr. Libby labels it her new favorite petrolatum ointment, too.
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Ingredients To Look For In A Cream Or Moisturizer For Eczema
Weiser says the following ingredients can help soothe eczema symptoms:
- Petrolatum
- Ceramides
- Fatty acids
Need more help choosing products? The National Eczema Association recognizes products that are suitable for care of eczema or sensitive-skin with the NEA Seal of Acceptance. Acceptance of a product means that the product has been evaluated to determine that it does not contain ingredients or contents that are known to be unsuitable for use by persons with eczema or sensitive skin conditions. You can find the NEA Seal of Acceptance logo on product packaging and labels.
With that in mind, here are our picks for the best creams and moisturizers for eczema:
Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream Fragrance Free
Hands can be especially challenging to treat for eczema as theyre so often exposed to the elements and you need to wash them often throughout the course of a day. To help combat the damage, slather on a Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream every time after your hands come in contact with water. A small dab of this glycerin-rich formula goes a long way to soothe and protect your hands instantly. Its fragrance and dye free, and has the NEA Seal of Acceptance.
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Neosporin Eczema Essentials Daily Cream
Neosporin Cream is an essential daily moisturizing skin care cream available for people from all walks of life. It helps protect and ease minor skin irritations arising from eczema infection. It is also made of moisturizing components that help hydrate your skin and reduce the itchy effect. The product is steroids and fragrance-free and thus making it a one of the Best Eczema Creams you can use. After 3 days of use, you will certainly begin to see some positive changes to your skin. Neosporin is National Eczema Association accepted and is available to you for only $14.09