Eczema & Skin Health
You've tried the steroid creams. You've used E45, Aveeno, Doublebase, and whatever the pharmacist recommended last time. Some of them helped for a day. None of them fixed it. If your eczema keeps coming back no matter what you do, this article explains why - and what natural remedies have actually made a difference for people in the same position.
Why Most Eczema Treatments Don't Work Long-Term
The two most common treatments for eczema in the UK are steroid creams on prescription and over-the-counter emollients. Neither of them addresses the root cause.
Steroid creams reduce inflammation in the short term. They work quickly, which is why doctors prescribe them. But they don't repair the skin barrier. The moment you stop using them, the eczema returns - often worse than before, because the underlying cause has not changed.
Emollients are meant to moisturise and protect. The problem is that most of them are water-based. Your skin is waterproof by design - it is built to keep water out. So when you apply a water-based product, it cannot penetrate the skin. It sits on the surface, evaporates within a few hours, and you are exactly where you started.
What Eczema Actually Is
Eczema is not just dry skin. It is a condition where the skin barrier is compromised. The skin barrier is the outermost layer of skin, responsible for two things: locking moisture in and keeping irritants out. In healthy skin, natural oils called sebum hold this barrier together. In eczema-prone skin, the barrier is weaker.
A weaker barrier means moisture escapes more easily - which is why eczema skin is chronically dry. It also means irritants, including chemicals in skincare products, get through more easily. This is why people with eczema react to products that others use without any issue. Their skin is not unusually sensitive. It is unusually permeable.
Understanding this changes how you approach treatment. Anything that helps reinforce the skin barrier will help eczema. Anything that irritates, strips, or weakens it further will make things worse.
What Natural Remedies Actually Help
Oil-based products work because your skin can absorb them. Oils that are chemically similar to sebum - organic coconut oil, shea butter, jojoba oil - can penetrate the outer layers of skin and reinforce the barrier from within. This is fundamentally different from a water-based emollient that cannot get past the surface.
When the skin barrier is reinforced with compatible oils, two things happen. First, moisture stops escaping as quickly - so the chronic dryness improves. Second, irritants have a harder time getting through - so the skin becomes less reactive over time.
Most people who make the switch from water-based emollients to oil-based products notice a difference quickly - often within the first use. A visible change in the texture and reactivity of their skin within the first week.
What to avoid in any product you use on eczema
For skin that is already reactive and permeable, every ingredient that gets through is something the immune system has to assess. Keeping the list short is not just a preference - it matters.
- Fragrances - even natural ones can trigger flares in sensitive skin
- Parabens and preservatives - added to water-based products to stop them going off
- Sodium lauryl sulfate - found in many soaps, cleansers, and shower products
- Long ingredient lists - every unfamiliar ingredient is a potential irritant
A product with five natural ingredients your skin recognises will almost always outperform one with thirty, regardless of what the packaging claims.
What Customers With Eczema Say
"I had itchy eczema for years and tried everything. After the first use I noticed a difference. I started using it on my children too - for nappy rash, dry patches, everything. I will never go back to anything else."
— Customer, Scotland
"My eczema had been there for so long I'd stopped thinking it could actually get better. Within a week of using this I could see my skin changing. The itching calmed down first, then the patches started clearing. Nothing else had ever done that."
— Customer, Northern England
A Note on Eczema in Children
Eczema affects around 1 in 5 children in the UK at some point. The same principles apply - short ingredient lists, oil-based products, avoiding known irritants. Many parents find that natural oil-based products are gentler on children's skin than products specifically marketed for babies, which often contain more ingredients than you would expect.
Several customers have written to say they started using Ashleigh's body butter on their children after seeing results on their own skin - for nappy rash, dry patches, and eczema flares. The same product, the same short ingredient list.
If You've Been Told It's Just Something You Have to Manage
A lot of people with long-term eczema are told it is a lifelong condition they need to manage rather than resolve. That is worth questioning. The management approach usually involves repeated courses of steroids and water-based emollients - neither of which repairs the barrier.
Many customers who had been dealing with eczema for years found that switching to an oil-based product with a short natural ingredient list was the change that finally made a difference. Not a medical treatment. Just a product their skin could actually absorb and use.
The Bottom Line
Eczema is a skin barrier condition. The products most likely to help are oil-based, naturally derived, and simple. The products most likely to make it worse are water-based, full of preservatives, and applied to skin that cannot absorb them anyway. If you've been managing eczema without resolution, it may be worth asking whether anything you've been given was actually oil-based. Most of it probably wasn't.