My Eczema's Battle with Atopiclair

The cream in its full glory.

The Eczema Business
So, to start things off, what is eczema? Basically, it's also called atopic dermatitis. Your skin is prone to an allergic reaction either to the foods you eat, the products you use, to anything that might be abrasive to your skin. And it is not contagious. If left untreated, tiny bumps filled with fluid may appear and your skin can get itchy. Your skin is extremely dry and you will have to use a moisturiser on the affected area; in my case every time after washing my hands.

That's what I've been suffering from since I was a kid [not the four-legged kind].

For the most part of my childhood, the routine was a regular visit to the doctor, and had been given all sorts of creams, liquid prescriptions to little to no effect. For the most part of my adulthood however, I have been using Diprocel, a corticosteroid ointment to control the itching and inflammation.

The Atopiclair Business
So, I got tired of steroid-based ointments. All of that steroid in your system can't be good for you, so I thought. I walked into a pharmacy and asked for an alternative. The pharmacist suggested Atopiclair [Amazon | eBay] and I thought, why not. It's that simple.

Now, on to the cream itself; it is, as alluded above, steroid-free. The texture is more like a lotion than a cream, which I like. The instruction is to massage it onto your skin three times a day. It doesn't feel greasy at all, but it leaves a slightly powdery finish; nothing uncomfortable though.

To give this cream a fair chance, I stopped using my Diprocel for about five days; not prior but at the beginning. The non-steroidal cream provided some relief to the itchiness, but it might also due to the spillover from the corticosteroid ointment. The tiny bumps, which were already kind of sparse, seemingly disappeared. And I didn't have to use a moisturiser. However, after five days of continuous use, the tiny bumps reappeared and so did the itchiness. It became unbearable that I had to go to my Diprocel to seek help.

The Concluding Business
It seems if you have more than moderate eczema, which apparently I do, you will still have to use this along with whichever corticosteroid cream you're using; something which I later found out on Atopiclair's own website. If that's the case, I can achieve that with Diprocel and a moisturiser I've grown to love, the Palmer's Olive Butter Formula Concentrated Cream, which costs a lot less than Atopiclair. I was hopeful to replace my steroid cream or even [silently] hope cure my eczema. But it seems my eczema won the battle with this cream.