Thank you so much to Kimberley from Oh That Kimberley for writing to me with her review of the Selexir Peace Balm. Kimberley was one of the lucky winners when I ran a giveaway last year, and she’s done a really thorough test on the product including before and after photographs! I’ve linked to Kimberley’s post at the bottom of the review so that you can pop on over and have a look at those – it’s a very interesting write-up! Here’s the review that Kimberley has written for me:

“About a year and a half ago (November 2011) I started to develop a rather stubborn form of eczema on my hands, due to the stress of being a student in their final year, commuting to another city for part-time work, my family having just moved to another country, and living with my long-term boyfriend for the first time. I was stressing over every aspect of my life, and it clearly showed on my skin. The eczema started as an itchy patch of skin on the top of my left hand, and soon spread to all over both my hands no matter how many moisturising creams I tried. By the time exams and my dissertation came around, it had developed into “dyshidrotic” eczema. This means that after a part of the skin initially starts to itch, the skin develops these little dots called ‘vesicles’ filled with clear fluid that itch even more; once you scratch them they break, so your skin essentially has open wounds which need to heal… which also itch. So basically, you are constantly itching.

Having had a variety of skin problems before, and all of them related to some form of stress, I knew that unless I eliminated or reduced the amount of stress than I could not hope for a complete ‘cure’. I could only try to manage the symptoms and reduce the itch to allow the skin to heal. Unfortunately however, I could not change the initial causes of my stress immediately, and alot of medicinal creams for eczema cannot be applied to open wounds or “wet” eczema as they also call dyshidrotic eczema. Paraffin creams, emollient creams, and hydrocortisone creams somewhat reduced the itch but never when the eczema was healing and never for long. I had to constantly apply every hour when I was least stressed out, and every minute when I was really badly stressed out -not ideal! Also, I was beginning to have patches of skin begin to flake off, even though my skin seemed pretty moisturised.

And when my stress did ease – with my graduation, landing a full-time job and moving to London – my eczema didn’t improve much at all. At this point, I had an array of products, some of them prescribed to me by doctors, some of them alternative medicines, and some of them known to help ease eczema (all of which you can read about on my blog -see link below). Which is why I had given up complete hope… until the A Model Recommends post about a new product by a Swiss brand, Selexir. After I read Ruth’s initial post on the product, I thought it might have been one of those overly-priced products which would do no more to eczema than coconut oil (which is great, by the way). But then I visited their website, and I realised that their Peace Balm was their only product. Hmm… that’s interesting… Usually when companies only have one product, then that’s their speciality right? And soon after, Ruth posted a little giveaway to give her readers a chance to try Selexir’s Peace Balm. It was the first time I had ever won anything! Sound too good to be true, right?

Well, it kind of is and kind of isn’t. I have now been using Selexir’s Peace Balm for 4 months, and I have definitely noticed a difference. The balm has completely gotten rid of the vesicles and I have not had them since, it definitely does reduce the itch for hours, it moisturises like nothing else thereby preventing flakiness, and it has completely gotten rid of the eczema on my hands. However, it has not stopped my eczema from spreading, as I now have it on my forearms rather than my hands, and it does not reduce redness for me. But I must say that Selexir has helped more with my eczema than any other product I have tried! So if you have a stubborn type of eczema, please give this a try. It may just be what you were looking for!

It is also great to take around with you, including to work, as the packaging still looks good after months of being in my handbag, and the smell is herbal and peppery, but not too overwhelming or unpleasant if you don’t mind such smells. The balm does come out green, and looks much more like a thick cream at first, but it melts into skin like a balm and leaves only a little residue which sinks into skin in only a few minutes -so no sticky residue like when using Vitamin E Oil (which can also help with healing)!

Also, just a quick note to say how excellent Selexir’s customer service is! I had a bit of trouble with a 30ml Peace Balm separating, so they sent me a 75ml by next day delivery free of charge -how amazing is that? They also deliver all of their orders very quickly, and with blue tissue paper and a booklet -making it feel that little bit more special.”

As mentioned, Kimberley’s full review with pics is here:  http://www.ohthatkimberley.com/2013/03/dyshidrotic-eczema-creams-i-have-tried.html