Sudocrem. Don't get cut without a tub by your side. (Sudocrem Antiseptic Healing Cream)

Member Name: Palice

Product:	Sudocrem Antiseptic Healing Cream
Date:	31/01/09 (209 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Heals little cuts, spots, rashes, burns, and even functions as a sun screen!

Disadvantages: Very thick, white and waxy, impossible to rub in completely.

Every family has a jar of Sudocrem, right? The name is iconic in Britain at least. I guess the big tubs are bought by families when the children are babies and remain in the household for ever more - the big tubs last a long time! Partly this is down to the fact that Sudocrem isn't just for babies. Here are the things I use, or have used, Sudocrem for:

- Spots.
I find Sudocrem is great - well, considering it doesn't have any actual spot fighting ingredients in like salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide - at healing the spot after it's been squeezed (sorry). If the spot is no longer, well, spotty, and is just sore skin I guess it's just like any other cut and Sudocrem'll fix her right up in a couple of days!

- Epilating.
Anyone who's ever waxed or epilated knows that your skin doesn't take kindly to having its hair ripped out at the follicles (again, sorry) and quite often will let you know its disapproval with a lovely rash. But I find Sudocrem really decreases the rash before it's really even surfaced, and generally calms the skin down after a de-hairing session.
Also, we all know that sometimes there are those little hairs that just won't come up without a fight - the ingrown hairs, those pesky scamps. Sometimes a little bit of, well, gouging (sorry AGAIN) is required which leaves you with a little cut in the top layers of the skin. Again sudocrem is great for dealing and healing these little surface cuts. Which brings me on to...

- Shaving cuts.
Even men can relate to this one. Sudocrem loves all these little surface nicks (and even the not-so-little ones) and will heal them overnight or so. Also I find that a dab of Sudocrem stops the blood running down a wet leg (ladies who've been left with red bathmats will identify here) quite efficiently.

- Sunburn.
Yes, it even says so on the tub; Sudocrem will help heal your sunburn. What most people don't know is that Sudocrem actually IS a suncream, as one of the largest ingredients is zinc oxide, which gives it that rich white colour, but also blocks all UVA and UVB rays! Bonus! However, the manufacturers have not tested the SPF rating of this, so best to stick to one which has been tested on very sunny days.

- Healing wounds in general.
Not me, but my dad got a foot infection and always had a tub of this by his bed. Well, a few months later and minus a couple of toes, we can't say that it was the Sudocrem or the doctors that cured him, but I'm sure it wasn't just a coincidence...

So yes, Sudocrem is a national treasure and performs well at its job. But it has been around a LONG time without so much, I would hasard, as even a bottle-design change.

Thus it's not the easiest lotion to use; it's hard, if not impossible to make absorb into the skin, requiring a lot of rubbing and leaving a not entirely attractive greasy white patch wherever it has been applied - it's very waxy (considering most of the non-active ingredients are waxes in some form this is understandable!) But these are just niggles really, as it is essentially a well-performing cream which everyone should have at their disposal.

Summary: What can I say? Your first port of call for skin troubles.