Whilst looking despairingly at my face in the bathroom mirror (as I do on a regular basis) I saw this out of the corner of my eye. Like a magpie drawn to silver, I swooped upon it and claimed it as my own.
After a wee bit of research (after I plastered it on my skin) on the British National Formulary (a medical database for health professionals) I found out that it is a topical corticosteroid. Now these have few side-effects but should be used 'with care'. They are to be used in inflammatory conditions such as eczema or contact dermatitis.
I have NONE of those, however, I was desperate to try and 'fix' my skin, so I slapped it on regardless of any side effects or indications for use (quite silly of me really).
Now this is what the tube looks like. Very medical-looking and not so pretty. Although I like the wee lion on the tube and the red and yellow stripe...
It's in a 30g aluminium (I think) tube, which I think are the best tubes to put cream in. I don't like plastic tubes very much, I don't know why, I just prefer the metal ones.
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So it comes out of the tube as an opaque white cream. It's not really that thick in texture, it's quite light, which I totally wasn't expecting. I would have thought it would have been a thick heavy-weight cream, but not so.
There is a smell associated with steriod creams, and the only way I can describe it is that it reminds me of the faint smell of PVA glue, you know, you glue you stuck pasta to paper when you were in little school?
It might be quite unpleasant to some people because it is quite strong, but personally I don't mind the smell.
But if you don't like strong-smelling creams then this clearly isn't for you.
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After you've rubbed it in (or as I do, let it soak into the skin), it doesn't really leave any residue upon the surface of the skin. There is a slight shine (which you can't actually see on my hands-it looks quite matte!), but I mean, that's to be expected with a prescribed steroid cream such as this.
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So this is what it looks like on my skin when applied, and then when it's sunk into the skin.
As you can see, I put a lot of the cream onto my skin, but even so it's all gone and only left a small smear on my nose.
It has left a slight shine, but this is irrelevant, because I would only use this overnight, because it is so intensive and doesn't have an SPF.
It does feel light upon the skin, and doesn't feel as though it's smothering it. Which is good, because skin needs to breathe otherwise it'll get clogged up with cream and other nasties. It was quite smoothing too, I think because it's for inflammatory skin conditions, it really helped sort out the redness resulting from my Retin-A.
Aaaand this is what my skin looked like in the morning. No peeling, no dead skin, no irritation. Just the nice healthy moisturised feeling which makes a girl like me so happy.
Obviously, it is a medication, so unless you go to your doctor (or possibly the black market-I JOKE) you won't be able to get your hands on this.
I won't be able to use this everyday because of the side-effects (just Google it and you'll find lists of side-effects) and the fact that just dry, peely skin IS NOT what it's meant to be used for.
I think it is to be used in the case of emergency and when I'm near a mental breakdown because my skin is playing up.
This is kind of an irrelevant review in light of the fact you can't go out and buy it off the shelf, but I'm just showing that it has helped me and my skin.
If you do have any of the ailments (psoriasis, contact dermatitis, eczema) then it would probably be quite helpful. Obviously I'm no doctor so I can't say 'people with this should go on this and that blah blah blah' but it might be something to look into.
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