Eczema and the sun, best sun cream for eczema, and pigmented skin.

Hey everyone – here is my highly requested blog regarding eczema and the sun, the best sun creams for eczema and skin pigmentation. Hope you like it!

Eczema and the sun

Firstly – I’ve talked about this previously but my eczema gets notably better after sun exposure. I know that psoriasis can be improved as well. Whenever I go on holiday it seems to miraculously disappear. I don’t know whether it is the sun itself, the weather (i.e. humidity), the pollution (i.e. less of it), the water, the food/drink, or the fact that I’m usually more relaxed. I suspect it is a combination of everything – but it is SO noticeable. I come back to London and I notice the itching/redness creeping back almost immediately – although this year I haven’t had it in London either! Everyone says “oh you’re always on holiday”, I only get 24 days holiday a year like most people, but I try my best to maximise my time away in sunny climates because of my health condition (it’s a great excuse ha) and because I absolutely love it! We all have vitamin D deficiency in the UK! Last year I purposely went away in the winter because that’s when eczema typically gets worse. My skin survived the winter which I am very happy about! I do, however, hate when (yes, it always happens) I get too sunburnt on the first few days of a holiday and then the whole red skin/peely skin/flaky skin saga ensues. I don’t know what it is about English people (in fact I probably do know), but the second we get some sun we go absolutely crazy, we strip off and wear minimal sun cream all day, then after our evening shower we go into a state of panic as that embarrassing shade of pink shines through. You can always spot a Brit abroad haha. I can go quite tanned but usually burn on the first few days – I honestly hate the feeling of sunburn and on my most recent trip I was determined NOT to let that happen. My skin has been amazing and I didn’t want to damage it anymore.

I have been using sunbeds sparingly which have helped me a great deal both with calming any signs of eczema and giving me a base tan for holiday. I went to Thailand and the sun is fierce there. I did lots of prep beforehand and asked around for sun cream recommendations because so many sun creams have ingredients in them that are bad for sensitive skin and cause more harm than good. I got so many recommendations and a lot of them were the same so I am confident that what I am reporting back to you guys actually works! There’s this app called ‘Think Dirty’ that scans barcodes of all sorts of creams/products and gives them a rating based on what ingredients are in them. If you know of a particular ingredient that you are allergic to or you don’t like – it helps you avoid it. I would say that sun exposure isn’t always amazing – at least not immediately. Sometimes the sun can make skin worse before it gets better – especially if you haven’t been exposed to the sun in a while or if you burn/dry out. I would ease in slowly and use protection always – perhaps part of the problem is that we expose ourselves to too much and get too hot and stressed when instead if we relaxed in the shade/partial sun and used proper protection and stayed hydrated it would work out much better!

I learned a bit about sun exposure, SPF (sun protection factor) and UVA/UVB from my disastrous experience with phototherapy! Glad I got something good out of it! Sun cream essentially contains chemicals that both reflect the sun’s rays away from the skin and prevent the rays from penetrating the skin by absorbing them instead. As these chemicals can irritate the skin – you could try a patch test before your holiday to see whether you react. SPF is an estimated indicator of how long sun cream could protect your skin against UVB rays. For example, if you skin starts to burn after 40 minutes of sun exposure, spf 30 will allow you to stay in the sun for 30 x 40 minutes (i.e. all day)! If your skin starts to burn after 20 minutes, spf 15 will allow you to stay in the sun for 15 x 20 minutes (i.e. 5 hours). In reality – we should be applying sun cream much more frequently than that, especially after swimming or in my case last week, sweating after being outside for 30 seconds! The ‘once a day sun’ creams contain chemicals that can irritate skin (and turn everything green) so I prefer using sun cream that is good for sensitive skin and re-apply throughout the day.

UVA is the sun rays that penetrate deep into the skin and UVB is the rays that touch the surface of the skin. UVB is therefore what causes more immediate sunburn and redness after sun exposure, whereas UVA is what can cause skin cancer. Look out for the stars on sun cream bottles under the UVA label – that tells you how good the protection is against UVA rays.  When I did phototherapy I only got UVB exposure because eczema lies just beneath the skins surface rather than deep inside and UVA is much stronger – and I still burnt like never before. This worried me a lot but I was told I would need to use these machine 300+ times a year for my risk of skin cancer to increase above a normal level. I hope that is true – I honestly felt like my skin suffered so much doing phototherapy. Normal sunbeds are much better for me because they’re way less strong.

Sun Cream

I bought the La Roche-Posay Anthelios sun cream range as so many of you recommended it. I got 30 spf but you can get much higher protection. This particular bottle is lightly perfumed and I didn’t react at all, but you can buy the range without perfume as well. Whilst sunscreen doesn’t block out 100% of sun radiation, I felt like this cream really did block most of the sun – so for those of you who get prickly heat, heat rash or react in the sun I’d recommend trying this product. The higher the spf, the more sun radiation is blocked (but you still produce vitamin D as normal which is a bonus). For the first two days of my holiday I wore this cream all over! I re-applied literally every hour because I was so scared of burning and I didn’t want to start the week all sore and annoyed at myself. I didn’t react at all and it totally protected my skin. For the first time ever I nailed the tanning process! For the rest of the week I used a mixture of sun creams as I wanted to test as many as possible for you guys. I also used tanning oil (with spf in) which I like because it moisturises my skin but I won’t go through that here because it’s not the best for this audience! For those interested though, I use Hawaiian Tropic tanning oil and it smells lush too 🙂

UltraSun, Evy and Vichy sun cream are three amazing brands for sensitive skin. I didn’t try these myself but I had so many great recommendations for it so I thought I’d share! I bought Evy to try on my next holiday – it has five stars for UVA protection so again for those who don’t get on well with the sun – this will be really good protection. Sun cream is definitely the type of product that can be quite expensive – usually the better rated products with higher protection are more costly. The cheaper products may result in less protection and more harmful chemicals.

I think sun cream is a huge investment and one definitely worth making – especially if you have sensitive skin. I was on holiday with 12 other peope so I kept my La Roche-Posay cream in my room rather than in the communal area for everyone to use – I recommend keeping products like that to yourself as otherwise if you run out and have to switch. all the problems will start. I also recommend leaving your cream/after sun in the fridge – feels so nice when it goes on nice and cool!

I used SunBum 30 spf on my face (broad spectrum means it covers all UV wavelengths i.e. UVA and UVB). I like the consistency of using a stick as it is more like non-greasy light Vaseline rather than thick lotion/cream which can irritate the face.

I really liked Nivea Sun – it is very moisturising. Whilst not directed at people with sensitive skin, it is good sun cream. I use Piz Buin as well – they have an allergy range which is great for people with skin conditions. This particular bottle isn’t from that range but I got on well with it and I’d definitely recommend their products.

After sun wise – I love pure aloe vera, Soltan after sun, Piz Buin after sun or regular emollient creams. I also tried using Garnier Summer Body moisturising lotion which is gradual tan – I really liked that on my skin as well and I didn’t react. I’m actually not allergic to any ingredients and I don’t react to too much. It could just be that because my skin is good at the moment I’m not reacting like I would have done during a flare up. I can’t imagine any of these products (apart from the ones particularly for eczema/sensitive skin) will be great directly on cut weeping eczema! Anyway that’s what I used on holiday and it worked well for me. I’m always keen for more tips though so I’d love to hear what worked for you!

Pigment

After about day 5 in the sun I noticed my skin pigment started to change on my arms/shoulders/back/stomach. I’ve had pigment issues previously, it started a few years ago on the inside of my elbows (only when I had a tan) and it gradually spread exactly in line with how my eczema spread. If I’m not tanned you can’t see any difference in my skin colour (i.e. it is just pale lol). However when I am tanned, certain parts of my skin go white pretty much the day after sun exposure. I was hoping this year the pigment wouldn’t come back but it did (although not straight away this time). It takes a certain level of tan for it to be obvious i.e. after day 5 of a sunbathing holiday using tanning oil. When I am medium tanned it doesn’t show up; only when I go darker do the white spots come through. Other people have said eczema makes their skin go darker, but for me it stays white. Then when I tan again the white spots go red within the first 24 hours of sun exposure and when I wake up the colour has gone again – it’s like it will just not take the sunshine. Anyway I have posted some photos below of how my skin looked on the last day of the holiday. I will admit I felt pretty rubbish when I saw it had gone pigmented. Obviously you want to show your tan off – not cover up again! I also had to try so many angles for it to show up on camera – how ironic! People spend so much time hiding imperfections and there I was trying to capture the pigment as best I could! Anyway, I have learned that I’m probably way more worried about how it looks than anyone else and to just accept it – but it is really hard and it still does of course bother me. I felt like the Garnier gradual tan helped even out the colour – so that’s worth a try. It is now one week post-holiday and the pigment has gone again – so it really only lasts for about a week (when I am most tanned). I’m guessing it’s because my tan fades quite quickly (thank you dry skin).

I spoke to my doctor about it because I wanted to check whether I had Vitiligo. He said I didn’t because if I had it I wouldn’t be able to tan there at all, whereas I can tan all over it just fades quicker where I had eczema (and where my skin is more dry) than others – although who knows! I have read up on it and severe stress/sunburn can cause it (I have had both). The doctor said it isn’t that obvious with me because I have white skin, whereas for people with darker skin it can be evident all year round. The obvious solution is to not get tanned but that is just not an option for me! I loooove the sun and tanning! He said it would go within months/years. Let’s see. I’d be interested in anyone else’s thoughts and tips on treatment/prevention 🙂 On our way back through Bangkok coming home I went through airport security and the guy by the x-Ray started staring at me and pointing at my skin like oooh what’s that – literally like I was a zoo animal. The worst feeling ever – quite good I was in airport security and not on the street as I would have told him where to go 🙂 it’s obviously not intentional but it can be so hurtful when people make thoughtless comments! Anyway I hope by sharing these photos some of you will find comfort that you are not the only one suffering! Just when you get rid of eczema and think you’re troubles are gone – does pigment come to surprise you! If all else fails – have a lychee martini!