So I’m back and recovered, somewhat. The remnants of the burn, is the lovely peeling. A constant reminder of the stupidness of charring your skin (and the bada$$ tan lines), at any point in your life!
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| A visual reminder! |
Having said that, I have tested out a number of Sun Burn “Relief” agents, and lived to talk about it. So here is your complete list of the best and the ok ones. Not that you will need it, because we won’t ever be that stupid. Right?.......Right?
The first one that I tried is the standard Aloe Vera. Just because its Hempz doesn’t mean that it’s the best.......you got that? It is for all intensive purposes the exact same as Life Brand aloe vera, but if you’re like me, you want to know for sure, and I know, it’s the same!
- Its sticky, as all aloe vera is (as in it took 5 full minutes to peel off an oversized shirt from my back, not the best when the skin in tender)
- Has a nice smell
Can be cheap - Slight Moisturizing effect Slight cooling effect (didn’t take out the feel of heat in my sever burn, but on slight redness I have no doubt it would work)
The next in line was the Hawaiian Tropic I.C.E Lidocaine Gel.
- It is definitely less sticky then the aloe,
- Loved the smell,
- It was BLUE!
- Great pump
- Took the heat out more than the Aloe but still not all gone
- Could apply lots of it and still absorb (not that easy with the aloe)
I found an article on line about good ol’ fashioned Noxzema working wonderful to decrease the amount of heat in the burn. So I bought a tub and decided to give it ago.
- You need a buddy (aka very hard to apply yourself, as its a thick creamy consistency and wants to stay on your hands)
- You need to apply a few layers
- I liked the smell....its standard Noxzema scent, so decide for yourself
- Has the tingly cooling feeling (in a good way)
- It doesn’t look pretty on
- Hard to remove
Next came the Solarcaine Medicated Lidocaine Gel. I picked this up at Wal-Mart, I remembered my brother having this stuff in his room, when I was growing, he cut commercial grass, so I figured it could be too bad.
- Easy squeeze tube bottle (great for slippery fingers and hands)
- Has a nice fresh scent
- Could feel the cooling sensation
- Noticed relief of heat in my skin (Major)
At this stage, the burn has gone down, as it would have without using anything. So I thought that I could try the Vaseline Aloe Fresh Moisturizing, which is a daily moisturizing gel.
- Not sticky at all,
- Absorbs very fast
- Slight cooling feeling
- Slight moisturizing
So all in all, it was a helpful little exercise, unnecessary, but helpful.
If you have a slight pink tinge from being out in the sun or at the beach, the standard Aloe Vera, would be fine. I actually think that the Vaseline Aloe Fresh, would work better because it’s not as sticky, but compared to the aloe vera, not at all.
If you have a severe burn then that stuff’s not gonna cut it! Now the Noxzema was the best to remove the heat from the burn, but its messy, very messy. You need someone to help you apply it. And you have to remove the excess from your skin because it kinda dries itself and the extra remains. The issue is that it remains a white gloppy mess, its not like you could go anywhere with it, it had to be removed. The only way was to basically have a shower, we have a hand shower and someone had to rub my back with a soft wash cloth to remove the stuff, and it wasn’t a fast process, and it hurt a little a lot actually. So it removed a lot, a lot of heat from my back, but I’m still unsure if the removal process is worth the gain.
Having said that, the best one is the Solarcaine Medicated Lidocaine Gel, see even Emma approves!
I think it worked the best because of the Medicated Lidocaine, the Hawaiian Tropics has Lidocaine as well, and both have the same amount of the Lidocaine 0.5%. So I’m not sure why one felt better than the other, but I’m going with the Solarcaine!
So I hope you found that helpful, but something that you will never need to use!
Caitlin xoxo
