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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

dry skin in pregnancy

18 replies

Pagetta · 25/02/2016 17:30

i posted about this when i was just a few weeks, i'm now 24 and its just not going away!
I've got dry skin all over my face - under my eyes, patches on my cheeks, my nose, my bump itches as skin dry and up my back and i appear to have it on my head too as getting dandruff-like skin in hair - ewwww!
Any ideas how to sort it? Its making me look even older and tired than i feel :-(
I tried clinique stuff, i've tried no.7 - nothing really has much effect.
cocoa butter cream is really helping on my bump but its a bit rich for my face.
Driving me bonkers!

OP posts:

KayTee87 · 25/02/2016 21:29

My skin has been a lot drier but not as bad as yours, still itchy and a bit rashy though.
Get some oilatum for your bath, soak in it then just pat dry.
For showers use emoilient instead of soap/shower gel.
Cover yourself in E45 lotion / cream at bedtime.
E45 lotion (not cream) for face.
Maybe try t-gel shampoo for your scalp?
Don't use anything scented or coloured and drink 5 pints of water a day.
My husband has eczema so we're well used to dry / itchy skin here.
Hope it gets better!

KayTee87 · 25/02/2016 21:30

Most cocoa butters, clinique and no.7 stuff are probably scented so I would avoid until your skins a bit better.

Original poster

Pagetta · 25/02/2016 22:14

thanks for the advice. I am a biiiigg water drinker - although not probably five pints - maybe 2 litres a day? I would of thought that helped but no!
I'll get some e45creamand lotion give it a go.
Have a vat of oilatum we use for DS1 so i'll give that a go - weirdly that didn't even occur to me to nick his eczema stuff!

OP posts:

cantbelieveImquittingcoffee · 25/02/2016 22:26

I've had this problem too! I bought dermalex from boots for eczema patches which seemed to help. I'd also massively recommend using aqueous cream (emollient) to wash with, so cheap for an enormous pot and makes the world of difference! I bought an e45 body wash to take on holiday with me as it came in a pump and this was a good alternative, I actually started using it in my face too (I normally use expensive facial products!) and it was brilliant!

lastnightiwenttomanderley · 26/02/2016 02:04

I got awful eczema and dry skin when pregnant. A lot of the aqueous creams etc made it worse, what worked for me was aveeno for body and rosehip oil on my face. You can get it from boots and only need one or two drops so it lasts ages.

Good luck and congratulations!

purplemeggie · 26/02/2016 12:21

What's your calorie intake and weightgain like? My skin was practically falling off in the first few weeks. I've since found out I'm expecting triplets, so I had to increase my calorie intake (esp protein and fats) significantly - and my skin has sorted itself out.

NotSoFancyPancy · 26/02/2016 12:28

I had this to the extent my face was red raw. Used coconut oil after trial and error and has been fantastic in 3 pregnancies
Was regularly complemented on my skin.

Missingcaffeine · 26/02/2016 12:58

I went for a facial the other day and the beautician told me if you have dry skin, the most important thing to do is to exfoliate well - at least twice a week. She said you have to remove the dead skin cells so that any moisturiser can work an be absorbed by the living skin.
I quite like simple light moisturiser for the day (personally I find just as good as very expensive moisturisers for regular use and skin that isn't too dry), but if I have very dry patches, I'd use a rich night cream on those patches - even in the day - but just accept that it will feel a little greasy.

Everythinggettingbigger · 26/02/2016 15:21

Wow firstly purple congratulations!! Triplets!

Pagetta I have been exactly the same, dry patches under my eyes which aren't helping the bags look any better!! I use Aveeno moisturiser and the doctor suggested moisturising 4 times a day until it started getting better then go down to 3 times, then again to 2 but still try and stick to twice a day. I brought moisturiser into work with me and put it under my eyes everytime I remembered, it certainly helped! Not sure if it made the teenage looking acne any worse because it was bad anyway (pregnancy does wonderful things to your skin) but it definitely helped the dry skin! I use it on my face everyday now and palmers coco bump moisturiser everywhere else! don't know why its specified for bumps in the name because it actually says all over body! ive not suffered with dry skin anywhere else since.

Aveeno is sold in the likes of Asda/Boots at about £8/9.....if that's too much you can get it on prescription.

mascaraisamust · 27/02/2016 08:19

My hands!! They are so red and sore with the dry skin. Can't find anything to relieve it. Cocoa butter has not worked but I was shocked to see alcohol feature a number of times in the ingredients. Is e45 ok?

cantbelieveImquittingcoffee · 27/02/2016 09:18

mascara depends on your skin - e45 contains lanolin which doesn't suit some types of sensitivity. My hands are cracked open and raw and the best thing for them is Shea butter - pure it's expensive (l'occitane do great little pots) but you can get products with high concentration of it. A few days of applying it repeatedly usually fixes the initial problem for me!

Melt90 · 27/02/2016 12:16

Coconut oil and aveeno has been my saviour my skin is normally great and it's so dry at the moment xx

mascaraisamust · 27/02/2016 18:00

Thanks for the tips! I'll definitely try it, my hands are all wrinkly and horrible as a result!

Original poster

Pagetta · 27/02/2016 21:03

Thank you for the tips - aveeno and coconut oil here I come!

OP posts:

Mouthfulofquiz · 27/02/2016 21:15

I had some big dry patches on my face in a previous pregnancy. I'm prone to exzema and was run down after being poorly. I tried burts bees carrot night cream (it's more the consistency of epaderm or a thick Vaseline type of product) but i found it amazing. It has a very weird smell and colour to it, but I can get over that for the results!
This time round it's not so bad - dream cream from lush is doing a great job, along with DoubleBase Dayleve gel from a pharmacy.
Coconut oil is great - particularly used by me to make simple facial scrubs with sugar or salt.

Melt90 · 27/02/2016 23:55

You can get aveeno now prescribed by doctor I got told this by a client who's a doctor the other day so going to get some and also they do a body wash :-) coconut oil in super drug is cheap :-) x

kamillaw · 28/02/2016 04:22

Allergenics shampoo from Holland and Barrett has been a life saver!

mellmumma · 28/02/2016 08:50

As as sufferer of dry skin and ecsema all my life I have some advice.

Be careful with coconut oil! Make sure you do a teeny patch test first, I had a major allergic reaction which lasted almost a week!! I'm also allergic to E45, Sudocrem, Oilatium etc all too much for my face.
Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour cream is the Queen of moisturisers. It was produced to treat horse's hoofs but then found that it was a miracle dry skin treatment for humans too! I tried everything possible to clear up the dry skin left by allergic reaction above ( I flew to singapore and felt like my face was falling off) but found some Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream in the terminal and it was like heaven.... It is really gloopy and thick so I put it on my face each night before bed.
My dry skin and ecsema has got excessively worse in pregnancy which I did expect. The only thing that helps with my ecsema flare (patchier and angrier than just the dry skin) is Eumovate cream and Dermol 500 used together. You can get a perscription from the docs or order it from Boots online without one if you just want to try it x

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