Eczema Care: Ego Pinetarsol Gel

Today's review will be on a product I depend on a lot for my eczema care. The most annoying thing for me about eczema is how intense the itch can be! During one of my many visits to the dermatologist, she recommended a cleanser which claims to "relieves inflamed and itchy skin." I was of course initially skeptical since after being disappointed by many products, your expectations declined. The cleanser is by a company called Ego Pharmaceuticals and it is called Pinetarsol Gel.

As the name suggests, this product has Pine Tar - "Pinetarsol Gel is a soap free cleansing gel that can be used as an adjunct treatment to help relieve itchy and inflamed skin conditions including dermatitis, inflamed scaly skin, jock itch, anal and genital itching and other minor skin irritations. Can be used in the shower, bath or hand basin. pH 6 to maintain the skin's natural protection. Pinetarsol Gel is  soap alternative. Avoid using soap as soap may irritate tender inflamed skin."

Packaging:
I absolutely love the plastic tube as I find product wastage is minimal. You can definitely squeeze almost 99% of the product out and snip the tube open with a pair of scissors to really clean the tube out before dispensing. Make sure when you first bought it, there is an intact security seal. You have to unscrew the cap to remove the security seal prior to your first usage.

Product:
It is a green gel which smells very strongly of tar.

Application:
"Apply to wet skin and smooth gently over affected area. Leave on 2-3 minutes. Rinse and pat skin dry." The key thing here is to really apply it on WET skin. Also important to wait a bit before rinsing the gel off as to give the product enough time to act on the affected area. Again, the smell could be bothersome, especially during your first few usage. After rinsing, I do feel that my skin is cleaned and less itchy.

Effectiveness:
I love this product! To me, it did help a lot with reducing inflammation and itchiness of my feet (which is where my eczema tend to bother me the most). At the same time, I love how my feet do feel clean after. (Yes, people with eczema should not use soap as it could really dry the skin out. But that does not mean you should not clean yourself!). After each use, I would say my skin is itch-free for a good 4-5 hours. This may not seem much, but believe me, it is!! After suffering for a long time with itch, 4-5 hours of itch-free is heaven! ^_^

Conclusion:
I do recommend this product. Do not get put off by the pungent smell of tar (I kinda get used to it after a while). Ego Pinetarsol Gel has helped me a lot for the past year and I hope that it will also be of some help to my readers with eczema.

Ego Pinetarsol Gel is available in Malaysia at most drug store such as Caring and Guardian. There's often value twin packs offered where you can get 2 tubes of 100g each for less than MYR40.00. Single tubes are sold for about MYR28.00 each.

Reminder: Product that works for me may not work for you, and vice versa. =)