Product Review: Old Soul Soap Company Eczema Cream and Blemish Buster

Edited from the original that was posted in r/CanSkincare. I have a picture of the side of my face at its worst posted in the comments.

tldr: The Blemish Buster and Eczema Cream resolved my sudden skin flareups that weren’t improving with my usual products. Acne and the worst of my new eczema disappeared in less than a week.

Product descriptions

Both products are made locally in Ontario, with various butters, oils and essential oils. They’re in push-up paper containers which I guess are environmentally friendly. I found out about the company from a Canada Post holiday catalog I got in the mail (I was already obsessed with locally-made soaps, if you’ve seen my previous post on my travel plan for PEI). They came with free shipping in Canada, and sometimes will have discount codes if you sign up online for around 25% off, and each package I received also had a scratch-off with a code for 15-50% off.

Both definitely have an “herbal” scent, which I wasn’t used to at first. Since they’re oil-based, they might leave a bit of a sheen on skin. I didn’t find them to clog my pores and my skin is currently so, so soft after using them. I can’t speak to how they would work under makeup since I don’t wear any, but if you do, these products might be better for nighttime use.

Blemish Buster (12mL stick, $6.00)

Allergy warning: Contains coconut oil

I didn’t really have high expectations when I ordered this, because I had another “locally made” blemish balm from a different company in PEI that was beeswax based, and it didn’t seem to do much. However with this, even without my usual spot-treatments, I’ve had those about-to-erupt pimples calm down overnight. To me it smells very much like the tea-tree oil in it, but I find that the scent fades after a bit.

Eczema Cream (60mL stick, $14.99)

I wasn’t 100% sure I had eczema at the time of ordering, but I wanted something with calendula in it since I heard good things about it. This stick is now my holy grail for any future eczema flareups. Literally within the first two days of using it, the crustiness, itchiness and redness subsided. I got it Jan 4th and it’s been 10 days now and other than the leftover hyperpigmentation, there is no trace of the rash that ravaged my face. My face is so smooth again. There is a bit of scent that I couldn’t place (perhaps the frankincense or neem?) but thankfully it fades after a bit.

My one complaint is that there was an obvious “bubble” in my product that must’ve happened during the setting process, so when I was using it, the very top layer collapsed and there was… a pothole in the middle of the balm. It didn’t really affect the usage but I felt cheated out of like a 1mL of product haha.

Background

My usual skincare routine has been pretty simple - Cetaphil face wash (the big pump bottle from Costco), TO niacinamide + zinc over my entire face, TO salicylic acid to spot treat any pimples, followed by the Neutrogena Hydro Boost gel cream (also from Costco) morning and night. Sunscreen, on the rare occasion that I left my house when it was still light out.

I have mainly “normal” skin, with the occasional pimple and some whiteheads around my mouth and chin. Those whiteheads have just been around for the past decade, and I have an unfortunate habit of picking at them absentmindedly. A few months ago, around Oct/ Nov, I picked at one that refused to heal like the rest, and eventually turned into very flaky patches that spread, and would occasionally ooze a clear fluid overnight, crusting into yellow… crusts, in the morning. I’d scrub it off in the morning, and it would be red, flaky and angry the rest of the day.

Initial treatment

At first, I figured my skin was just dry, so after my usual skincare routine, I would use the Aveeno Cracked Skin Relief CICA Balm on the flaky spot, and then dab at it with some Vaseline to keep it covered during the day. At night, I slathered it all over my face in the hope that slugging would help. All that happened was that my face would feel heavy and greasy all night, the flaky skin was still flaky, and I got more whiteheads in the same area, which I tried to spot treat with salicylic acid, which caused the flaky patch to spread, rinse and repeat. End of December, I got a tub of CeraVe moisturizing cream hoping that it would help.

Imagine my distress when I woke up two days after Christmas with a rash that looked like a razor burn all along my jawline and cheeks, a few painful red bumps on my neck, and my forehead the texture of orange peel with a ton of pimple-like bumps along my hairline and clusters in the middle of my forehead.

The dry patch? Still flaking, and crusting in the morning.

Those extremely painful bumps on my face would turn extremely itchy overnight, and I would wake up to my fingernails crusted with blood, dead skin and the clear fluid that turned into yellow crust. My partner winced every time he looked at me. And the rash along my jawline kept spreading upwards, to the point my right ear was also covered in bumps.

Googling was ineffective - websites helpfully suggested “impetigo” and “fungal acne” and “eczema”, and with most walk-in clinics around me closed for the holidays, I took suggestions from websites to self-treat with anti-fungal creams (hello Canesten/ Clotrimazole on my face!), medicated antibiotic Polysporin (which I later found out 1. had lidocaine, which would explain my face going numb and 2. was probably expired), and ditched everything in my skin routine other than the Cetaphil cleanser and rubbing CeraVe and Aveeno moisturizing creams all over my face, to no avail.

This was going on with no end in sight for a week - a week of waking up crusty, slathering myself in fungal cream, the heavy moisturizers and Vaseline and feeling greasy all day, dry patch still flaking and doing dry patch things, and then going to bed slathered again and then itching all night.

I was ready to go to a walk-in clinic and ask for a dermatologist referral as soon as they opened again, and I say this as someone who HATES going to the doctor unless I’m actively dying.

Using the Blemish Buster and Eczema Cream

Originally, I came to the website to order some ACV shampoo bars, but the blemish buster and eczema cream caught my eye. I placed my order about three days before my skin erupted overnight, and everything arrived Jan 4th.

At this point, I felt like none of the heavy moisturizers, Vaseline or fungal creams were doing anything, so I took a day off all of them. Literally just washed my face with Cetaphil to get off all the moisturizers, then left my skin completely bare. The next day, after washing my face, I applied the blemish balm to my forehead (the orange peel and “not sure if normal acne or hormonal acne or eczema” part of my skin) and to some of the random spots on my cheeks that might’ve been pimples. I applied the eczema cream everywhere on my face - along the jawline part that looked like a razorburn, my afflicted ear, an additional layer over the blemish balm on my forehead. At night, I would wash my face and repeat the process.

Immediately, the itchiness calmed down.

After two days, the itchiness was all but gone, and most of the redness was gone. I was also no longer waking up covered in crusty (and according to Google, probably infected) yellow bits. My skin looked like it was healing. My forehead was no longer the texture of an orange. I didn’t look like I was breaking out on my entire forehead (the bits that weren’t orange-peel textured). My neck rash was disappearing.

After 5 days, I could feel most of the bumps shrinking and disappearing. I’d run my fingers along my jawline and feel little bits falling off (not yellow crust, thankfully), and the skin underneath was smooth.

It’s been 10 days now, and about 95% of the catastrophe on my face I woke up with has disappeared. I still have a bit of flaking in that original dry patch, but considering that it’s been there for months, I figure it’ll be a longer-term fix. But it looks better - at one point it had these very fine lines and that part of my skin looked decades older. I’m about to place another order. I estimate I’ve used about half of the blemish balm so far, and a quarter of the eczema cream.

My current routine now, is

Morning:

• Moondew Facial Bar in the shower (I switched to this when I start using the other two products, and it’s a bit drying but otherwise okay)
• TO niacinamide
• Blemish buster
• Eczema cream
• Sunscreen, if I’m leaving the house

Night:

• Cetaphil cleanser
• TO niacinamide
• Blemish buster
• Eczema cream

Once my skin is 100% calmed down again and I’m confident I’m not going to set it off, I’m going to reintroduce some of my chemical exfoliators to deal with the hyperpigmentation that was left over.