Sunday 12 April 2015

Sympathy for the Skin review: "Thirst be gone!"

Sympathy for the Skin (£11.75/240g) was the first lotion I ever tried from Lush and undoubtedly my favourite for how good it is. Definitely a lotion tipped for greatness when the label Lush produce informs us that this lotion is very popular so much so they've never been able to discontinue it.

I'll give you a little bit of my background story here.  I came across Sympathy for the Skin when I went into my local Lush crying because of how bad my eczema was.  The hour before that I'd been doing gardening with my mum - I didn't think about how it was going to affect me.  My eczema was in the inside of my arms and it was raw to the point I couldn't bend my arms.  I'd been getting into Lush at this point and talked and talked and talked about it to anyone who would listen (still do in fact, hehe!)  So when my mum suggested we try out Lush I jumped for it, even if it were just a trip to smell the stuff. 

There I was taken under the wings of two lovely Lush women who advised me to try out Dream Cream.  However, due to its ingredients, it only aggravated my skin and inflamed it more.  Sympathy for the Skin was then slapped onto my arms generously and instantly peace was restored.  I felt a coolness spread across my arms and a strong soothing sensation.  It felt lovely to feel such a sensation.  And within 5 days of applying this cream, my skin cleared completely.  My eczema and other skin issues were really severe where I had to wear oat patches everyday to prevent infection and to try and let things heal.  My skin had suffered for 15 years, but had been a true mess for 11 years and not once in that long, long time did it clear once.  Not with steroid creams, moisturisers, emollients, shower treatments, oat patches, light treatment and so on.  I went through the process of dermatologists and their treatments for 11 years entirely unsuccessful.  And in 7 days Lush's Sympathy for the Skin cleared my skin entirely.

The ingredients speak volumes for how good this is for your skin.  It's like how good smoothies are for your insides... But a lotion for your outside.   The main ingredient in this is fresh bananas which are very, very good for your skin because of how nourishing they are.  Bananas are full of vitamins and minerals and when used for the skin they are a great moisturiser and emollient.  Anyone who has skin that is parched and thirsty smack this baby on it.  Thirst be gone!  It will feed life into your skin once more and bring health to it.  It also contains lemon oil which will not only be refreshing and cooling for the skin, but the oil is believed to stimulate white blood cells that defend our body against infection.

Sympathy for the Skin is probably Lush's most water-thin lotion available all year round.  This is compared to Dream Cream (both types), New Charity Pot, Vanilla Dee-Lite, Karma Kream and Forumlae Known As.  It's almost like a milk consistency - not as thin as milk but it certainly looks as though it is.  When spread across the skin it disappears so quickly and sinks into the skin.  Yes, there is a creamy oily greasy look across the skin but the majority of the lotion does sink into the skin.  It feels so rich and light, not heavy and thick at all where the lotion sits on the skin.  It's perfect in that regard, light enough to give comfort and save time whilst it works wonders.

Word of warning though, if you knock the pot over, the lotion will start running very quickly.  You'd maybe have a couple of safe seconds with other lotions but you'd need to act fast with Sympathy.  It's runny!

The smell of this lotion is a blend of bananas, cocoa butter and vanilla.  It has such a tempting fragrance since it smells delicious.  I'd actually believe this was edible if it wasn't a lotion - it smells that good! You can definitely smell the vanilla which provides the sweetness but I'd argue the bananas provide a rich base smell for the vanilla to blend to.  It smells yummy! Kind of mirrors the smell of vanilla ice cream but it isn't strong either.  You need to stick your nose into the pot to smell this.

I recommend Sympathy for the Skin for anyone who has eczema or psoriasis despite Dream Cream being the number one recommendation by Lush.  My recommendation is purely from my experience and how well it has fared me and how well I do believe it will fair others.  Dream Cream contains both Lavender oil and Tea Tree oil which if your skin is open and flared, it could possibly sting and burn your skin aggravating it further.  It simply depends on how sensitive your skin is.  When my skin was open and oil kept oozing out my sores, Dream Cream did nothing but make this more painful than what it already was when I walked into the store.  As soon as Sympathy was on my arm - no burning, no stinging, no itching - it was one the most apprehensive and frightening moments of my life.  I was waiting for the pain to come like all the other stuff I had been given before.  And it never came.  My arm actually felt soothed and cooled by Sympathy for the Skin.  I'd recommend if you can, go into your local Lush and test both out aka 'patch test' them because it stopped me from making a mistake.  I would have ordered Dream Cream online for sure if I didn't feel so comfortable with my local Lush.  So I need to thank them here for being the loveliest, greatest and most friendly people I've ever came across.

Sympathy for the Skin smells amazing, feels amazing and works better than any other Lush cream.  All Lush lotions work differently and smell different but this lotion has so much love from me.  It is a skin saver with no doubt about it.  Whenever my eczema flares up I slap Sympathy on it and 12 hours later its minimized it greatly and by 4 days its calmed it and cleared it.  I get great results with this lotion and I hope it gives other people the relief and life line it gives me.  It has a sweet, comforting and yummy fragrance that makes the product all the better.  It feels great on the skin and nourishes it beyond nourishment.  The Almond oil is a great addition to the lotion with its hydrating qualities.  All of this, makes it my favourite Lush lotion and if you try it out, especially if you suffer eczema, you'll soon know why yourself.











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Ingredients:

Fresh Organic Fair Trade Banana, Fair Trade Vanilla Pod Infusion, Almond OilFair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Stearic Acid, Glycerine, Triethanolamine, Sandalwood OilLemon Oil, Labdanum Resinoid, Cetearyl Alcohol *Limonene, Perfume, Methylparaben, Propylparaben

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