Help with my face, crusty bits, itchy red bits.

[imjustahead]

Can anyone identify what's going on. I started getting dry red crusts on the sides of my nose in the summer. It coincided with once having used some Nivea sun cream on my face which i remember made my eyes water a bit and i chucked it out.

Then i started getting itchy red patches on my chin, along with severe dry lips, with chaffing all around. No lip balm worked, nor did vaseline, e45 or canestan. I googled and tried the lot!

I stopped using my usual moisturiser too.

I finally went to my gp about a months ago who said it's seborrheic dermatitis. She gave me some cortisone cream 1% and some cream to hydrate and protect.

Both worked ok after a week or so, but when i stopped the cortisone it all came back. I was told i couldn't use it for more than a week, so what to do??

My skin is so dry.

I can't pin down what is making it flare up, has anyone ever had any patch testing thru the gp?
Oh and my hands have been joining in the fun too.

just wanted to ask if anyone suffers with any of this and what do you find helps? Oh have been thru a huge amount of stress for 18 months, but don't think this is the cause. or at least i don't understand how it could cause it.

thankyou.

Have you tried Aveeno? I had awful skin on my face, red, itchy.. nothing helped and everything was stinging.. a few days of that and it was back to normal.

Could it be a staph infection?

I wash with e45, use a basic moisturiser. Aveeno makes me less itchy but has not cleared my skin.

I am in the process of trying to reduce stress and rest more. I have rosacea and guttate psoriasis.

I haven't tried the Aveeno no, altho it is on my phone list of researched products.

It is a rather long list, where i really don't know where to start! I have read about the Eczema Therapy one?

Not heard of a Staph infection, will google. I realise i should go back to the gp, it's just getting the time but will have to now I realised it's not improving.

E45 hasn't helped at all, i wash with the cream she gave me. thanks

Marbleslostthem, i don't think my symptoms match that but thankyou for the suggestion.

We're just going to pop this over to General Health for the OP.

thanks!

I'm so proud of this answer

After several months of weird red flaky skin, I suspected I had seborrheic dermatitis around my nose and eyes (same symptoms you describe)

i couldn't get an appointment with my gp for ages. Dr Google and I decided that ketoconazole cream would be a good thing to try. So where to get ketoconazole cream?

Daktarin Intensive cream (make sure you buy the one with ketoconazole listed as the active ingredient, because there are several types of Daktarin)

It is listed as being for athletes foot and jock itch (charming, hey!) and Boots sells it. I wasn't in the mood to argue with a pharmacist about why I wanted jock itch cream, so I ordered it online for in-store delivery to pick up without discussion.

It solved the problem in about 3 days, with huge improvement overnight. I use it now and then if I fear I spy the problem coming back, but it's been fine ever since.

Yes, I fixed my face with jock itch cream. Sanctuary Spa, eat your heart out. I told my gp about it, and he thought it was hilarious and "very clever" :D

thankyou! I had read something about it too it my copious Googling, but found myself confused by all the suggestions. Also my skin wasn't too bad that day.
Sooo, i will buy some of this, and lie that it's for my feet.

thanks for the input. glad it's helped your skin.

Oh, I've been away from MN for a while, just easing my way back in, and I've already found 2 health threads to draw me in! Anyway, back to the OP... I had exactly that during and after a period of extreme stress. It was diagnosed as either seborrahic dermatitis and/or eczema. I was prescribed some steroid cream which was good, but then it came back. It got so bad that I had a course of steroids which zapped it totally. During that time I got busy with the Cetaphil face wash (available in Boots) and LOADS of Aveeno (the moisturizing lotion). That pretty much sorted it out and I've stuck with just Cetaphil and Aveeno. I recently had some patch testing done, which was v interesting, so push for that, or pay for it.

hi, welcome back.
your experience sounds very similar (exact), i have been and am in constant of stress for the last year.

I am back to the gp tomorrow, and was going to ask for patch testing. What did it show for you?

Today I bought some Aveeno, and will look into the Cetaphil. Will report back.
The course of steroids you had, what form were they in?

The patch testing showed up allergies that I already knew about - birch, beech, cats, but also house dust mites and nickel, which is present in cheaper jewellery and quite a few eye shadows!! At the time of the face "breakout", I had been using Clarins products (for many years without any problems), but the dermatologist told me that many of their products have over 50 ingredients and some of the "plant extracts" can be quite toxic. I wasted a lot of time by going to the pharmacist first, then the nurse at the GP, both of whom just said to use moisturizer. I was also given cetraben cream, which was OK. I had prednisolone oral steroids - 5mg ones, 4 tablets a day for 5 days and that's what zapped it totally, allowing me to get on top of it and then use just the cetaphil and aveeno. I wouldn't dare go back to anything else now. Interestingly, I'm under a lot of stress at the moment, and I my face feels a bit "prickly" IYKWIM, so although I am allergic to certain things, I definitely think it's stress-related for me as well. I'd be interested to hear how you get on. Good luck.

hi there, how interesting, I use Clarins foundation and have done for years, tho at the time this started i wasn't, as it was summer and i only used my usual Garnier BB cream.

My normal moisturiser is a Nivea one, which i stopped.

So the GP has given me Daktacourt which has the steroid and an anitfungal in it, to use for one week only. I had stopped using the other steroid, for fear of using too long term. Yet will have another go with this dual attack one.
I had bought some Daktarin yesterday which has the same antifungal in it, and he told me to use that alone after the week, for two weeks to see how i go.

Have got a HUGE tub of diprobase for showering, and will probably introduce the Aveeno.

god this is boring lol!

Good luck! Like I said, I'd tried tonnes of (expensive) things, but the Daktarin was a miracle!

I know!!!
Good luck