Ok, this is probably going to sound a lot like an advert for a product here, and in a way, I suppose it is. Feel free to read along, or not.

As some of you know, I suffer from ecxema. My hands are covered with it (and often are dry, scaly, itchy, cracked and bleeding) and my right elbow is normally an awful, scaly, itchy mass of disgustingness.

Several weeks ago, I was directed toward a place that was offering free samples of their product, Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion, to bloggers. We were to use the product then write an honest review of it in our blogs. Well, having tried everything else under the sun (and some things under the moon, too) I figured it couldn't hurt and I requested a sample. Just a few short days later, a small package arrived on my front porch. Let me say that I was expecting a sample. You know, a handful of those little foil packets that you open and after the first use, it dries out and you can't use it anymore. Well, there were some of those in there, but there was also a 4 fl. oz. bottle of the stuff. I was already pleasantly surprised.

I quickly scanned the back of the bottle and it said to use a small amount of the lotion initially every 2-8 hours until moisture level in skin improves and then every 12 to 24 hours after that. I immediately started out by squirting a big gob on the back of my hand and rubbing it in. I had dispensed enough for both hands and both of my elbows. They are right--a little goes a long way! I admit to being skeptical about the lotion as I was rubbing it into my hands. It is very thin and I didn't think that something that insubstantial could possibly work. It absorbs very quickly and is not greasy at all.

After a few days of use, I started to notice a little bit of a white residue on my hands a few minutes after applying the lotion, but after a few more days, that went away. After a couple of weeks of using the lotion, my hands had completely stopped itching and they were no longer cracked and bleeding. Another week or so and most of the redness was gone, too and my hands looked almost normal for the first time in literally years. I have continued to use the lotion twice a day (except for an experiment that I am still regretting and will mention later).

Now, my elbow has been another story. It was really bad. I mean really bad. So bad that children and many adults shied away from it and even my MD was slightly grossed out by it. I have used the lotion on my elbow just as religiously as on my hands but for a long time I noticed no changes.

After several weeks, finally the redness started going away on my elbow. The next thing that happened was that some of the larger scaley areas were going away and now, many weeks into using the lotion, the elbow now just looks extremely dry. It is slowly getting better, like I mentioned earlier, it was really bad. I used Eucerin, Cetaphil, olive oil, vitamin E, sweet almond oil, jojoba, shea and cocoa butters, Jergins Extra Dry Skin lotion and I don't know how many other things and none of them have even come close to doing what this lotion has done for my elbow (or my hands either). I am sold on this stuff and I am looking forward to the time when my elbow looks as good as my hands do. I am confident that it will get there eventually. My only regret is that I did not take before photos to show what my skin looked like before.

Ok, now for my experiment. I stopped using the lotion on my hands for about 3 days because the weather had warmed up some and I wanted to see what would happen. Well, I found out. The ecxema returned even worse than it had been before. My hands itched so bad I couldn't help scratching them, and unfortunately scratched them raw in a few places. My knuckles split and bled and the backs of my hands cracked open and bled in many places. I have been using the lotion again for a few days now and the itchiness is gone, but the extreme dryness is still there. I know it will take about another week for that to clear up again. And then a few days more for all the scabs to go away again.

I forgot to mention that the scent of this lotion is very light, almost not detectable by my allergy-ridden nose, but it is not a girly scent at all.

http://www.skinmdnatural.com/