8 yrs, 6 mths ago

What to do after a bad reaction to a product

I tried a new Nuxe moisturiser yesterday and today throughout the day my skin has become increasingly irritated with red itchy flaky sections of skin across my forehead, nose and cheekbones and some red bumps as well.

I’m so sad! I was so excited about that cream. Luckily it was just a GWP deluxe sample from Adore Beauty. I guess it could be a coincidence because it seems like an awfully weird thing to be allergic to!?!

I’m very lucky in that I’ve never had a reaction this severe before. Any advice? I’ve been applying my skincare as usual except for without my Glycolic toner. Should I stop?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

10 comments 32 voices

Replies

  • 8 yrs, 5 mths ago

    I was gifted a body shop cream and started applying it, I ended up with a itchy raised rash with welts. It was horrible. I never have reactions. It was a relative new product on market.
    I ended up needing hydrocortisone cream for the rash. Was horrible yuck. I’m so dissapointed

  • 8 yrs, 5 mths ago

    Uuuuugh! I’m at work and the air con is so strong (which is good in a way… it’s 30 degrees out there!) and my poor tortured face is burning like nothing else. Luckily it’s not my whole face just my worst impacted areas, my eyebrows, nose and a patch on my forehead the size of a 50 cent piece.

    The only thing I have with me that I think could be ok to put on it is unscented lanolips but I’ve never put lanolin anywhere but my lips… thoughts???

    Damn me for leaving my dermaveen at home… 🙁

  • 8 yrs, 6 mths ago

    I just found the tube and it has the full list on the back! It’s SOOOO long and fragrance is so high on the list! I’m wondering if that’s it? I try to go low fragrance where possible (where it’s one of the last 3 things on the list).

    Also, ethically I wouldn’t buy a moisturiser with palm oil.

    I got the below list from http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ which I had never heard of before. They pull out certain ingredients that people are prone to reactions to etc. Very interesting! I’ll have to research to find out their reliability but at least it’s a good resource for ingredient listings.

    Aqua (Water), Glycerin, Glycol Palmitate, Cera Alba (Beeswax), Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Macadamia Ternifolia Seed Oil, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Oil, Coco Caprylate/Caprate, Butylene Glycol, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Extract, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil Unsaponifiables, Hydroxystearic/Linolenic/Oleic Polyglycerides, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behenyl Alcohol, Arachidyl Alcohol, Dimethicone, Coco Glucoside, Mel/Honey, Parfum/Fragrance, Tocopherol, Argania Spinosa (Argan) Kernel Oil, Capryloyl Glycine, Sunflower Oil/Palm Oil Aminopropanediol Esters, Tocopheryl Acetate, Arachidyl Glucoside, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Sodium Hydroxide, Citric Acid, Ethylhexylglycerin, Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Hordeum Vulgare Cera/Spent Grain Wax, Carbomer, Dehydroacetic Acid, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil, 10 Hydroxydecanoic Acid, Sebacic Acid, 10 Decanediol, Polysorbate 60, Sorbitan Isostearate, Solanum Lycopersicum (tomato) Fruit/Leaf/Stem Extract, Beta Carotene, Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Root Extract, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Glyceryl Distearate, Polysorbate 80, Linalool, Limonene, Benzyl Salicylate, Citronellol, Farnesol, Coumarin, Citral

  • 8 yrs, 6 mths ago

    Your reaction doesn’t sound strange to me! I only buy natural skin care products, so thankfully I don’t get many reactions to skin care. I sometimes get into trouble when trialling samples I’ve received as a gift with purchase (so I can review them for BH), and the samples are mostly chemical-based products. If I’m going to react to a facial product, it usually is due to a synthetic fragrance, SPF or another ingredient. My reactions are usually in the form of a few pimples and/or blocked pores the next day. I once had a reaction to a moisturiser for wrinkles that made the wrinkles around my eyes look worse. Once I reacted to an eye makeup remover and an eye pencil that made the skin around my eyes itchy for weeks. I assume that it was from a synthetic dye.

    I have a variety of natural products at home for skin irritation, so I use something like calendula oil (from the health food store) or petroleum-free pawpaw. There are some fantastic products for soothing irritation such as Kosmea Rescue Balm and Billie Goat Soap Eczema & Psoriasis Balm. Whenever I’ve had irritation on my face from a product, I stop all skin care and just use rosehip oil for a while.

    I tried to find the full ingredients for your Nuxe moisturiser but I couldn’t find any. I quite often find ingredients listed on Beautypedia, but Nuxe isn’t listed there.

  • 8 yrs, 6 mths ago

    I wonder if it would be worth your while to email the company? A 1800 number would be better, but not every company has an office in Oz. Some ingredients are known for sensitivities, the company might be able to tell you, that might save you a lot of the guess work.

    & good luck!

  • 8 yrs, 6 mths ago

    At the risk of sounding like a walking disaster, a patch test, while an excellent idea, won’t necessarily prove anything. Someone can become allergic to products they have previously not had a reaction to AND it is very often a build up of product so it won’t necessarily show up immediately.

    I’ve recently had a nightmare discovering that an alcohol allergy dating back over 40 years has extended to ALL my skin care and makeup. I’ve had allergic reactions to various products for years and not been able to isolate the problem. The product that sparked the last reaction was a new organic eye cream and I’d used it for 5 or 6 nights before I started to feel ill without reason. Previously a reaction had been where I’d used the product. When I checked the ingredients alcohol jumped out at me so I asked my trusted Pharmacist – I now need to avoid all beauty products containing any alcohol as well as not going near it in food or liquid.

    Sorry about the essay, people, but I just wanted to point out that it isn’t necessarily easy to work out what is causing a reaction and it is sometimes a combination of products.

    Hope you’re much better now, Steph Speth.

    OH – I need to add that I’ve never used anything that wasn’t regarded as a good quality brand !!!

  • 8 yrs, 6 mths ago

    If you develop a reaction to any product, best to stop using it immediately.

    If it’s a daytime moisturiser, I would check and see if it contains Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate – it’s a chemical sunscreen ingredient that’s commonly found in a lot of moisturisers/foundations. While most people are fine with it, sensitive skin users like me are unfortunately allergic to it. So best to check, it might be the culprit.

    Coincidently I recently had a nasty reaction to a Nuxe product. It was their famous Reve de Miel lip balm. The lip balm packaging has no mention of SPF rating, yet it contains Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate – I didn’t noticed it on the ingredient list at first, though I found out the hard way. Within 24 hours of using it, my lips got swollen and itchy and started to peel. I used my trusty pawpaw balm and my lips recovered quickly.

    Luckily I got it from Priceline, and they refunded me with no questions asked.

    I have had reactions to other skincare products before (with chemical sunscreen ingredients), while my skin was sore and swollen, I used very gentle products like Sukin and QV until it recovered, hope that helps

  • 8 yrs, 6 mths ago

    Steph Speth!!! OMGG! You’ve stopped using it on your face, yes? Do you still have the blotches? Do you have a neutralising cream, like something with a colloidal oat in it? That will help soothe the skin. If it’s super itchy, you might even want to consider going for a steroid cream and then put a layer of something like Dermalogica Barrier over the top to help with the moisture lock.

    If you have some raw oats, you can soak them in water in a clean stocking and then put the wet stocking on your face on the itchy bits; the ‘juice’ from the oats will help with the itch. This is an old-school remedy for kids with irritated skin.

    Burts Bees also has some great sensitive skin care, however you will have to be careful if you are reacting to bee venom or pollen rather than honey or wax. Their sensitive eye cream was a saviour for me when I had a rash (on my eyelids of all things).

    Email me if you need anything babes.

    TUD x

  • 8 yrs, 6 mths ago

    Oh Steph Speth, I haven’t had a reaction that severe, and I’m sorry to know this and hope it improves for you. Have you looked at the ingredients to see if something seems obvious to you?

    Whenever I try to test out a product in my routine, I only use 1 new product at a time, so it’s controlled and I will know which product is causing the problem. Or what product out of my usual ones it’s reacting to.

    I hope your skin heals soon.

  • 8 yrs, 6 mths ago

    That’s a bummer! 🙁

    Do you have a good multi-purpose skin cream that you can apply to the affected area? Human+Kind’s Family Remedy Cream is AMAZING! It heals all kinds of skin irritations – and fast! Egyptian Magic is another good one. Something like that would keep your skin hydrated while the irritation heals.

    I wonder what it was in the cream that you reacted to? I love Nuxe’s Huile Prodiegieuse and lip balm, but I stopped using their hand cream (which I loved at first) because it has dimethicone, which sometimes irritates my skin.

    I hope it clears up for you soon!

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