OK, I saw this on the shelf at my local Sainsburys at 33% off. As far as I know it is still 33% off- thought I should mention that - the offer may end soon! (Dated November 2008).

I bought this from Boots the Chemists months ago for around £5, I am aware now its cheaper, around £2.50, It seems it has been a result of a price war!- either way, I would still pay £5 for it, it seems to help me.

My problem is mild eczema. I only get it on my wrists mainly, but it can appear elsewhere and it can get out of hand if I don't deal with it. Its basically an itchy rash which develops into small raised bumps which when scratched with my girly nails, become broken. Which in turn increases the itching, the scratching, the thing spreads....

Anyone who has experienced this will know how immediate it is to find some kid of treatment.

Being prone to this, I had been using creams with various acids in them. (E45 Hc, Eurax Hc, over the counter Hc creams, steroid based creams...) but I do worry about what this does to my skin and if it has any affect on my blood. (Hypochondriac-r-us!). So when I saw this cream on the shelf I had to try it- there seemed no harmful acids in them. It also seemed affordable.

On applying the cream, it shows as a fairly dense white cream. It does blend down into skin well but takes a few minutes to dry, I'd say around 5. When it does its unnoticeable. I would not describe this as a greasy cream, it may seem that way at first as when you apply, it appears as white until it dries in, and on areas like my wrist did seem to stay white for a full 5 minutes before fading to nothing. It stayed with a slight film for a further 10 minutes I would say, before just making my skin supple. I would apply this after getting dressed. It takes time to settle in and is easily rubbed off onto clothes whilst it dries, and it is worth having it dry in and do its job properly. It has no scent- as is the Simple ethos, and is not coloured either. Its just plain white and very, well, erm...simple!

It does not stop the itching fast the way Eurax does, it could reduce the dryness so reduce the itching that way, but in terms of stopping all the itching, its just not strong enough.
But it does not claim to be: the pack recommends you use this cream every day for a while and the problematic area will go.

I can vouch for that! I used this cream every day on my wrists for a week, and the eczema had gone- I was even wearing perfume and it was ok! (Note- I did not wear perfume every day, just once or twice a week, I have not tested that part out to the extreme!!) After 2 weeks, no eczema at all, no rash, no sign of it!

The cream claims to work on "very dry, sensitive or prone to itchy irritating conditions such as eczema and dermatitis". It uses "naturally derived humectant Aquaxyl and Canola Oil". It claims to work by "wrapping a protective barrier around your skin to lock moisture in and allergens and irritants out...." The Aquaxyl is there to moisturise and restore, the Canola Oil is there to replenish and protect. Though the ingredients have all sorts of Glycerin's and Padaffinum and Silicate and Caster oil....and etc's in so I would not go as far as say this is an au-natural product! its just less chemical then many of the others on the market!

It would seem there is no active ingredient in to stop any rapidly growing bacteria or fungi, so if you think you have an infection, I doubt this would work. But if like me you get flare-ups in times of stress, or by being allergic to certain jewellery items or certain perfumes, this could really do the trick.

I have since gone out and bought two more tubes of the cream- It is a tiny sized tube: there are various different forms: the intensive cream, the intensive hand relief cream, the body lotion etc, and they are from 50mls for £2.50 (At Boots). They do sell larger sizes but they are more expensive, Sainsburys I have seen sell a large round 125ml intensive relief tub for £4, or currently £2.65 in Sainsbury's.

It lasted me twice daily applications for about a month, that's 50mls, on each wrist, 30 days. So around 16p per day, or 8p per application for me- (remember I paid around £5 for this when it first came out!) or at the new £2.50 price works out to be about 8p per day or 4p per application.

It is worth buying as it did get me over the bout of eczema I was getting- not as fast as other creams, as it took a week at least instead of one or two hours or days, but its not as chemically acidic as other creams so I am prepared to wait just that little bit longer for a cream that does just as good a job.