“My skin just constantly shed. It’d take hours to shed.
I would be literally covered in skin and scales …constantly vacuuming, constantly cleaning.
Constantly itching… and it hurt because my skin was cracked and bleeding.

I would finally get to sleep after scratching for hours.
And then, when I wake up I would be starting to shed again. So then you’ve got to get rid of all that skin. You just scratch and shed.
…and you’re constantly washing the sheets, because you’re getting blood and skin all over the sheets

Friends would say, “I thought you had dermabrasion done” because I would scratch all the scales off and then have that ‘red raw skin’ look.

I couldn’t leave the house. If I reacted to something, I needed to be close to a bathroom for my skin, so I could reapply moisturiser.

And when I did leave the house I’d stay close to home, because if I had an attack or was super itchy, I’d just want to get home to the comforts of my bedroom and bathroom.
I had to be organized for the day… a lot of times I take a change of clothes and my own food. I couldn’t eat takeaway, so most of the time we’d go to a friend’s house and I’d eat before we left.

I didn’t go on any holidays… I wasn’t game enough to book a holiday.
Being in a hotel room and using their sheets…
…and you wouldn’t know about the weather. If it was extremely hot and sweaty, it would make you itch more.

I can remember putting creams on and sometimes having to have 3 baths a day when I was reacting to different creams… I’d have to wash it all off and go through the process with another cream.
…and when you’re covered from head to toe in eczema, it’s the worst because you’re getting it wet and having baths every time you react.

No one could understand it.

People say to me “Have you been to the doctor? Have you been to the dermatologist? …have you done this and have you done that?”
But no one could understand and no one – even the doctors and naturopaths – could help.

I was allergic to everything. I’m even electric sensitive. So we don’t own wifi and bluetooth. Everything’s cabled. All our computers and phones are cabled, not wireless.

I went to a specialist and she’s like, “Oh my God, you’re allergic to everything.”

When I had a blood test, nothing came up except for my IgE. My active allergy was through the roof. It was like an active allergy of an anaphylactic, but we couldn’t find out where the allergy was coming from”

…so what’s worked for Bronwyn?

As with any inflammatory skin condition, eczema is more often about what’s going on inside the body than what you put on your skin.

…although certainly what you put on your skin can help calm and soothe skin while you’re working on internal measures.

Bronwyn’s tried a lot of different things over the years for hear skin. From our chat, these were the 3 highlights of what’s worked…

1. NAET – ALLERGY TESTING + THERAPIES

“The allergy testing I did was NAET allergy testing.
It’s muscle testing… a little like kinesiology.

You put the food in the vial or the product in your hand and they muscle test to see if you’re strong or weak.

Whatever I was allergic to, then we had to treat.
So she’d do the treatments – back pressure points – and I would go home and do at home treatments – I massage all the pressure points around the meridians.

So I was doing weekly, sometimes twice a week treatment sessions for the last year and a half… and now I’m down to fortnightly sessions (because the eczema is still on my feet)

Sometimes a couple of allergens were treated at a time because I had so many.
But now I’m allergic to hardly anything.

I was making chocolate avocado mousse once and I was fine with it and then I accidentally tipped too much vanilla in and then I had an allergic reaction… rubbing my face off…
and when we tested the avocado, the cacao, the maple syrup, everything was fine. The vanilla wasn’t.

So sometimes it was just the slightest little ingredient and now I can put the vanilla in and I’m fine.

I can remember going for breakfast and I would think, “Okay, I can have the sourdough. That’s safe,” …and then when it came, it was seeded and I was thinking “Oh okay, I’ll cut the crust off.”  …but within an hour I’m having an allergic reaction because of the seeds in the bread.

So I would get my husband to muscle test with my arm for every food I was having when I was out.

He got really good at it… he’s like, “Yes, yes. No. piss weak.”
He felt so confident after doing a year of doing it and now it’s like a party trick. I do it with everyone. And it works”

“NAET (Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques – named after the founder) are a non-invasive, drug free, natural solution to alleviate allergies of all types and intensities using a blend of selective energy balancing, testing and treatment procedures from acupuncture/acupressure, allopathy, chiropractic, nutritional, and kinesiological disciplines of medicine…
Kinesiology is used in NAET to compare the strength and weakness of any muscle (also known as neuromuscular sensitivity testing (NST)) of the body in the presence and absence of any substance. A measured weakness in the presence of a substance is due to the effect of an allergy to the item the person is touching. This simple method can be used to detect your allergens.” ~ naet.com

2. PLANT-BASED FOODS + CELERY JUICE

“At one stage, I was living on 10 foods…

…sweet potato, apples, pears, vegetables and then olive oil, sea salt, lemon and garlic.
I couldn’t even eat a square of chocolate without having an allergic reaction.

I literally had the same foods and then I’d rotate some fish, but for me, I was having allergic reactions to protein as well.

As well as the NAET allergy testing, I started detoxing with celery juice and the heavy metal detox smoothie as recommended by Anthony Williams, the Medical Medium.

For the detox smoothie, I can’t get the dulse flakes, but I do the coriander and the barley grass and the spirulina and the wild blueberries.

I’ve got Anthony William’s Liver Rescue and Celery Juice books.
He’s got some really good recipes, like the smashed potato. …it has some garlic, rosemary, sea salt and it was smashed in the oven. It’s the little things you really appreciate when you can’t have a lot of stuff!

So I sort of lived on a lot of his recipes as well. He’s basically plant based, so mainly fruit and veg and very basic ingredients. So for me, eating that way was the cleanest I could eat.

Now that I’m better, I still think a plant based diet works best for me”

3. REPLENISHING CREAM

“I literally do not leave home without my Ecology Cream. When I leave home and walk out the door, my husband’s like, “Have you got your creams?” …because they’re safe

I put my Ecology Cream on three times a day now (…I used to do it every hour)
And my skin just soaks it in like a sponge… it glides on and spreads really well

With some of the allergic reactions (when it felt like something was crawling on my face), I would be rubbing my face constantly. Every 20 seconds. But I needed something that was soft, so I could rub it without scratching.

So I constantly put the Ecology Cream on. It literally meant I could rub my face without doing too much damage

Those times when I couldn’t have showers because it was just too painful… I would spray my skin with thermal water and then I’d dab moisturiser. I couldn’t use a washer to cleanse because it would just irritate it and bleed

I’ve always got my Ecology Cream in my bag to show, because people ask me all the time.
I was putting it on my lips in a dress shop the other day and they’re like, “Oh, what are you doing? What are you using?”
And I showed them my Ecology Cream…
She’s like “Oh, your lips look really good.”
If she only knew I was peeling last year. I couldn’t even open my mouth at one stage, I was so cracked.”

So what does life look like now for Bronwyn?

“My skin feels like a baby’s bottom now. It’s literally gone from red rash, dry and scaly to smooth and soft. It’s hard to believe because my face is ‘normal’ now.

My hands are clean now too, I can wear rings for the first time in years.
And they’re ‘normal’ …there’s no eczema on them. I’ve got a little bit on my legs and my feet, I have gone from the top to the bottom. But my feet are getting better too.

I didn’t start to get better until say wintertime last year. So it wasn’t until a couple of months ago I thought, “Okay, I can start getting out more.”

I’m a completely different person now. I can go out without it being a big issue or without having the anxiety. I feel ‘normal’ instead of just existing.

I was probably 90% covered and now I’m 90% healed.

I wasn’t game enough to book a holiday before, there’s no way I’d go… now I’ve booked three holidays.
I’m going to New Zealand with my best friend, Bali with my husband and Byron Bay for a girls’ weekend

…and I’m not anxious about going away now because I know I’ll be fine”

Wow, just wow right?!? 
What I love about Bronwyn’s story is how happy she looks in her most recent pic, and how happy she sounded on the phone when we had a chat.

Most people couldn’t imagine what life would be like… trying to adapt to dealing with itchy scaly skin on 90% of our bodies. Keeping our skin clean and infection-free.

But after successfully treating eczema to a point where it’s now only bothering her feet, I’m sure Bronwyn would feel like she could take on any challenge!
(even ‘The Swing’ in NZ that her best friend’s trying to talk her into going on ;))

…and why was Bronwyn’s Replenishing Cream so helpful for her when other creams caused skin reactions?

There are a few reasons…

1. Our Ecology Moisturisers contain only a handful of natural ingredients

(this is big difference #1 compared to ‘big brand’ moisturisers)

With less ingredients there’s less risk of skin irritation.
…and no more wondering what you’re putting on your skin.

2. Our Ecology moisturisers are 100% natural fats and oils

(and no water – this is big difference #2 compared to ‘big brand’ moisturisers)

…which means the Ecology Moisturisers are rich and highly concentrated to better soften skin, protect against moisture loss and calm redness and irritation.

In addition to having a long list of ingredients, big brand moisturisers are typically 50-80% water (or aqua)…

Take a look and you’ll see water as a first ingredient in many of these products. But this means, there’s only 20-50% left for the ‘skin soothing’ ingredients.

3. Cholesterol …wait, what?

Yes, cholesterol. Our skin cells like bricks.
And in between our skin cells, sits a ‘glue or mortar’ made up of cholesterol, fatty acids and ceramides. 

…it works like a living wall that keeps allergens, microbes and irritants out and moisture in.

Cholesterol is an important part of this living wall, but it’s found in so few products. 

(this is big difference #3 compared to ‘big brand’ moisturisers)

…cholesterol is in our Ecology Creams, because it’s found naturally in our hero ingredient… grass-fed tallow.

Grass-fed tallow is a gently rendered fat (like emu oil), but it comes from healthy, grass-fed cows (so this isn’t for our vegan friends!)

Grass fed tallow is deeply nourishing for skin, because it contains the same kinds of cholesterol and fatty acids found naturally in our skin, skin oils and in the ‘glue’ between our skin cells.

So grass fed tallow can help support skin’s protective barrier function by ‘patching up holes in the glue or mortar’

…protecting skin and helping to keep allergens, microbes and irritants out of skin with moisture locked in. 

Like Bronwyn, I have super sensitive skin that’s also often dry due to an autoimmune condition.

My super sensitive skin and skin issues are what led me to developing the Ecology Creams in the first place.
…I’d finally found something that worked well for me and I wanted to share it with others

And because I know how important it can be to try a ‘trial size’ of something before getting a larger size, we’ve put together Trial Packs of our Ecology Creams.

You can now try a 2-pack or 3-pack of our 10mL mini moisturisers from only $18 (so only $9 per moisturiser) …and get free shipping when you use the code: TRIAL at checkout

and see for yourself the difference an Ecology Moisturiser can make for sensitive and problem skin

(this is a great size! It’ll last a couple of weeks, long enough to see the softening effect for yourself)

So click on the button below that best describes your skin to see which moisturisers are right for you…

Crystal,
Ecology Skincare