Skin Magazine | I found a treatment for my eye lid eczema that really works!

Kate Blackwell, a 40-year part-time mature model and director of a small production company from Hampshire and eczema sufferer, developed eczema on her eye lids two years ago partly as a result of her modelling work which involves having to wear a lot of make up. She started to develop itchy, inflamed eye lids and was worried that it would start affecting her modelling career.

BY Rebecca Laske4 June, 2007

For Kate Blackell’s career, clear skin is essential

Kate says: “My dermatologist told me that my eczema, which is only very mild and tends to only appear on my hands and arms, had developed on my eye lids, probably as a result of my skin reacting to my make up and the irritants in it. He told me that eye eczema was becoming an increasingly common skin complaint, especially among women, due to the daily application of cosmetics and skin care products containing harsh chemicals,” says Kate. “He said many anti-ageing products designed to exfoliate the skin, contain skin stripping chemicals which could irritate delicate skin around the eye and on the eye lid and lead to eczema-like symptoms such as mine.”

Eczema of the skin around the eyes, known as blepharitis, is common in people who suffer from eczema or atopic dermatitis elswehere on their skin, which accounts for approximately 20% of all children, of which 60% continue to suffer symptoms into adulthood – although recent estimates show a rise in the incidence of adult-onset eczema and dermatitis due to harsh chemicals used in many personal care products as well as environmental pollution in inner city areas. Cosmetics have also been identified as a contributing factor to the rise in particular of eye eczema, due to skin irritants present in many eyeshadows and eyeliners worn daily by millions of women as well as in anti-ageing and beauty products applied to the face.

Not only is eye eczema irritating and uncomfortable, it can cause a number of highly visible and permanent facial skin disfigurations including thickening of the lower eyelids, Hyperpigmented Eyelids (darkening of the skin of the eyelids due to frequent skin inflammation) and a condition known as an Atopic Pleat, which is an extra fold of skin that develops under the eye.

“Throughout my life my eczema has not seriously bothered me apart from a bit of itching and dryness, but when I started getting it on my eyelids, it became much more visible and was very uncomfortable. My eye lids felt hot, itchy and were sometimes swollen, it was very irritating and looked like I had really bad hay fever. I was told by my dermatologist that if the condition got really bad that it could cause permanent discolouration to the skin on my eye lids, which really worried me as I still do some modelling for a clothing catalogue company,” says Kate.

But Skin Shop have developed a novel treatment specifically for eczema effecting skin around the eye could help transform the lives of people suffering from this irritating and potentially facially disfiguring skin condition for which there is currently no definitive treatment available.

Typical treatment for eczema and atopic dermatitis are corticosteroids creams. However due to the damaging side effects of steroid creams to the skin, use of them on the face is largely discouraged. In particular use of corticosteroids around the eyes can cause other health problems including a high risk of Glaucoma, a serious eye disease as well as discolouration, thinning and spider veins in the delicate skin tissue around the eye, which is why it is mostly recommened not to use corticosteroids on skin near the eyes.

Skin Shop’s Cardiospermum Dry Skin Eye Gel is a light natural gel that contains a plant extract of Cardiospermum, which comes from a vine grown mostly in South American regions and both its seeds and leaves have been used in traditional medicine for use on eczema and dermatitis. More recently two UK trials and more than 12 published research trials have been carried out on cardiospermum due to its medicinal effects on inflammatory conditions of the skin including eczema and dermatitis. In one recent double blind study carried out in Germany Cardiospermum was found to have a significant anti-inflammatory effect without any side effects.

Dry Skin Eye Gel has been tested on actual eczema sufferers and developed to be an extremely gentle and light formulation suitable for very sensitive, itchy dry skin around the eye. The new gel delivers the anti-inflammtory anti-itching benefits of the cardiospermum extract without damaging or irritating the delicate skin around the eye and is the first treatment of its kind specifically for eczema, dermatitis and dry skin around the eye.

“I was told by my doctor that I couldn’t use steroids on my face and I didn’t want to either as I know they can cause permanent colour changes and thinning to the facial skin, but I urgently needed something I could use to stop my eyelids from itching so badly, “ says Kate.

“I tried aloe vera gel, which soothed them a bit but didn’t take away the itch. But then I was at a friend’s for coffee a few months ago and she had a brochure from Skin Shop lying about and I saw that they did natural treament for eczema. I took their website address and looked them up on the internet when I got home and was delighted to see on the website that they had just developed a new eye gel for eczema around the eye, which was precisely what I had been looking for.

“I ordered some straight away and within two days of using the new eye gel the itching and swelling on my eyelids had virtually gone. Within a week there was no trace of it. I now use the eye gel every day at bedtime and I have not had any recurrance of eczema on my eye lids since and that was three months ago. When the weather turned warmed over Easter I did get a slight itching on my right eye lid after a day out for a pic nic but I put the gel on that evening and by morning the itch had completely gone.

“I am delighted with the results and have since ordered the Cardiospermum body gel for use on my arms and hands, and the itching and redness there has also dramatically improved which is a huge bonus as I have just started modelling summer outfits which means I have to have my arms on show. I am so glad I found Skin Skop’s cardiospermum products for my eczema, it feels as thought I have finally got a weapon to use against my eczema that doesn’t involve using steroids. And the skin around my eyes now is soft and supple again and doesn’t itch at all. My husband thinks I even look younger, but I am sure that’s just because the skin around my eyes is no longer so dry.”

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