Evening primrose oil was one of the remedies I attempted when I suffered from eczema. This is something I used mostly between the ages of 5 and 10, and ocassionally since then.

I took this in two forms, one as a capsule similar to the picture above. This was taken orally twice a day, I either swallowed it, or snipped of the end of the capsule and sucked up the oil inside which was most often the case, as my tiny little throat was too scared to swallow the capsule.

It is difficult to describe the taste of this oil, as a child I actually quite liked it, it is neither sweet nor savoury, though leaning more toward the sweet. If you've ever tried cod-liver oil...worry not...it tastes nothing like it.

I cannot be the best judge as to whether it works well on its own as I was on various other medications along with this, both for eczema and asthma...yup I was that kid! I no longer suffer from asthma, and this was the only natural rememdy that I used in relation to asthma, so I think it must have helped a little bit towards that.

The other form was, buying the oil in bottles and then applying it to my skin. Again the smell is diffcult to describe, one of the bottles I have has kind of gone off a bit so it smells like a fish. But the actual oil just smells mildly sweet.

As a kid I remember my parents would literally smear a lot of the oil wherever the eczema was, mostly arms, legs, face and neck, as you can imagine it is not really comfortable walking around in this state, and because of the amount of oil that I'd be wearing my skin did not absorb it quickly. It can also be problematic as I always had to be aware of not leaning on walls or doors, and my clothing would cling to me. What was worse was the fact that it did not stop the itching, and as a six year old I didn't care that I would later regret making my skin bleed, so I'd scratch and scratch and scratch, and that just removed all the oil and made my fingernails all dirty and hands all oily, and skin red and bloody. So applying it to my skin was not helpful at that time.

If you or your child suffers from heavy eczema and you want to try oils, you would be better off trying neem oil (if you don't want to try steroid creams...which to be honest is the only thing that truly worked for me). Neem oil smells disgusting, but it tones down the itchiness a notch, not a lot. However if trying primrose oil, when using on a child, just use a bit...and if they are young enough to not know how to take off mittens, this would be helpful to prevent them from scratching. If using on an older child, you really need to pay attention to them, distract them if they start to scratch. I believe that the oil can help, if they just don't scratch.

I think primarily what you need to do first is tackle itchiness, once you get rid of the itchiness then try oils. For itchiness try creams with hydrocortisone, and go to the doctor to get a special hydrocortisone cream that is safe to use on your face.

Now having said all that, ocassionally I still put a dab of evening primrose oil on my arms, as I no longer suffer from eczema but the odd dry patch of skin, and I have a little bit more self-control when it comes to scratching. The evening primrose oil does make my skin feel soft, and with a dab of it my skin also absorbs the oil fairly quickly, and it smells nice, very very subtle, but nice.

This is a mixed review, though mostly when reading this back it sounds very negative. To make it more helpful I'll say, if you are a mild sufferer of eczema then it is fine to use this. If you are a heavy sufferer who wants to give it a go, by all means do so, but you are more likely going to find yourself using it in addition to other things, and to be honest I don't think it would make a huge difference if you didn't use it at all.

Afterthought: Perhaps taking the capsules may make a difference to your internal organs?!

Prices:
In Boots: Capsules - £5.99, Oil in bottle - £6.99.