Our daughter has just had chicken pox and we found bicarbonate of soda (two large handfuls) in a luke warm bath, along with a few drops of eucalyptus essential oil and tea tree essential oil (2 drops of each in a little carrier oil such as sunflower oil) then swished into the water, once or twice a day, helped hugely in drying the spots. Piriton also helped keep the itching down. Thin layers at night instead of heavy covers, cotton clothes etc and a general cool atmosphere. I am also a herbalist so don't try this unless you know what you are doing, but boiling up some peppermint (go careful with this as it can reduce the body temp), eucalyptus, lavender, chamomile and calendula and adding the decoction to the bath helped. I even kept the bag of herbs I had boiled and added this to a bath. Spots appeared 1.5 days ago and are drying out already. Pure Aloe vera gel, although sticky on the skin, can help reduce the itching.