skin week

Nothing Soothes My Pale, Irritable, and Easily Burnt Skin Quite Like This French Wonder Cream

Photo: Courtesy the retailer

If you’re someone who has sensitive skin, Melbourne isn’t the ideal place to grow up. My skin reacted at the slightest aggravations, from blistering 46°C Aussie summers to simply itching a mosquito bite. I went from January to March slathered in Cancer Council suncream and scoured Reddit’s AusSkincare forum to find a solution. Eventually, I landed on a saviour: Amolin cream, an Australian product that’s normally used for nappy rashes. I was thrilled, but my joy was short-lived. In a few month’s time, I planned to move to London and my supply would eventually run out.

It was back to the drawing board. I needed a European alternative, so I switched to the EuroSkincare and SkincareAddiction forums and began my hunt again. I kept seeing recommendations for Homeoplasmine — a French ointment originally designed for the chapped nipples of nursing mothers that is also used by makeup artists as a saviour lip balm.

With nothing to lose, I picked up a tube when I was in Paris en route to London. I put Homeoplasmine to the test shortly after. As a warm London welcome, someone out the front of my local pub accidentally stubbed their cigarette out on my bare arm, setting my arm hairs briefly ablaze. As soon as I got home, still brushing charred embers off my arm, I fruitlessly turned my flat upside down, looking for a burn cream in my half-unpacked luggage. My moisturisers were too heavy, and pure antiseptic cream stung too much, so I landed on Homeoplasmine. After applying it for five days, all that remained on my arm was a small purple dot. Previously, this injury would’ve puffed up and wept for a week, leaving a noticeable scar.

Aside from healing burns, I find Homeoplasmine works its magic on dry patches of skin, especially on the areas around my cuticles, which get gross and flaky when attacked by the freezing London air. Using it as a lip balm also gives me relief when my lips crack and split from the cold. An 18g tube lasts me about a month and a half, and I use it every day on my lips and nailbeds as well as on my face when I am feeling particularly scaly. While my skin suffered in the Australian heat, now Homeoplasmine is ensuring that it can thrive in the British cold.

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