Hard Water in London
Posted by Cottontimer on 02 Mar 2006 | Tagged as: London
People warned me about the high prices in London, pickpockets, and gloomy weather. But nobody said a thing about the very hard water. LUSH Cosmetics even said:
In some places, like London, the water is so hard it could almost get up and take a rottweiler for a walk.
Within a day of arriving in January, my skin became extremely dry and itchy. Blaming it on both the dramatic change in climate and the water, I lotioned up. My lotion was obviously too sissy for the job.
After another couple of days, I had a very bumpy rash on my legs, arms, neck, and chest on top of having very dry and raw hands. As soon as I had a free moment, I’d scratch, scratch, scratch. Finally, with the help of oral Benadryl, hydrocortisone cream, and a heavy duty dermatologic cream from Boots, I stopped itching three weeks later.
Christina convinced me long ago of the importance of moisturizing but it wasn’t a daily ritual for me. This episode has made me take skincare much more seriously. Now I diligently slather on five different creams and lotions for the face, eyes, body, hands, and feet.
Do you live with hard water? And how many different lotions and creams do you use?
Related Posts:
Stinky Limescale...
Precious Water...
Slow and Easy...
Chinese Horoscope 2005...
Handwipes/Wet Tissues Subpar...
In London!...
Water Rats Be Gentle...
If your comment doesn't show up immediately, it's probably in moderation. I will approve it as soon as I can! Thanks for your patience.
You may have noticed how much I whinge about my skin, and experiment with moisturiser, on my LJ. I currently use:
- Hydrocortisone cream 1% for my face on the very bad days (about once a month)
- Psoriane, by Saint-Gervais, for my face in winter
- Happyderm, by L’Oreal, for my face in summer
- Normaderm, by Vichy, in concentrate and in moisturiser form
- Mixa Intensif Peaux Seches, by Mixa, in 2 different strengths, depending on how bad it gets, for my body
- Palmolive Hydrating shower gel, in order to avoid drying out my skin too much whilst it’s in the water
I only wash my face with water every other day, and if possible try to steam it instead. To clean it I use an “Eau Micellaire” - my face can’t stand the water here.
Hi, I have been looking for Mixa Intensif Peaux seches here in England? I used to buy it in France but haven’t been able to find it here. Have you bought it here? If so, what shops can you buy it from. I can’t stand the hard water either.
Becky
It’s not too bad here (Atlanta, GA) but when we lived in New Mexico, our humidifier used to grow bones after a few weeks of use….
I always used body lotion and for the first time in my life, face lotion, while we lived there, but I attributed that much more to the dry air (typically below 20% humidity) than to the hard water.
I have rather dry skin which can get really bad in cold countries. I use the SK2 for my face and the Loccitane Shea Butter range of shower gels and moisturiser on a daily basis. Oh, and Vaseline is a godsend on cracked lips and fingertips! I always carry it everywhere I go. Happy moisturising.
What about some kind of special filter on your water main?
I ought to moisturize now that I am not living in the natural humidity of Kinshasa!
The hard water was tough on my skin when I got to the UK as well (I used to live in Stafford which is inside the smaller dark blue area on the map, in the East Midlands). Now in Calgary the water isn’t as bad, but the level of humidity in the air is very very low, and overall it’s even worse for my skin!
I keep moisturizer companies in business
Any chance you can get a water softener? That seems simpler and perhaps cheaper in the long run.
Rosie: Your skin comes out beautifully in photos, though. As for cleansing sans water, I now understand why Clarins has two products for the face that does just that.
river2sea72: All those makeover experts would shudder to know that you’ve never used face lotion until now!
Debra: I’ve tried SK2 before but didn’t think it was tons better than drugstore brands. I was almost 10 years younger then so maybe I would notice a difference now.
Congogirl: I don’t think there’s a filter on our water main although I know houses in the U.S. often install that. I believe some people think hard water is good for health so they’d rather not filter water for the entire house.
Amélie: I had the same itch problems during dry Baltimore winters. Anyway, there’s a reason why they sell those monster bottles of lotion at Costco!
Abigail: I see water softeners sold for laundry but not for other stuff. It appears that hard water is a fact of life and there are lots of products to combat limescale. More in the next post.
It’s very kind of you to say that, as I obsess about my skin, and just looking at pictures of “the good old days,” when I was a teen with perfect skin, makes me want to cry.
I’m not sure the exact pH of our water, but I know it tends to the hard end of the scale rather than soft. Additionally, the eastern half of the state is a ‘high plains desert’ so the air is about as dry as you’d expect in a desert most of the time.
We have:
a Vasoline brand of body lotion that the older guys use when they want lotion.
Aveeno lotion, for the two little ones because it doesn’t cause their eczema to flare up
Aveeno hydrocortisone cream to treat the yucky spots when they do have flares.
Curel lotion I got to try (it’s ok, the vanilla/floral scent is borderline horrid)
The kids have a moisturizing natural/organic shampoo, and we don’t use any kind of body soaps or cleansers on their skin.
We have Dove moisturizing bar -the one least offensive to allergies and Olay dry-skin body wash, in the shower.
I always get the moisturizing shampoos for we older peoples, usually a 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner. Plus a separate conditioner for anyone with longer hair.
Everyone also has their own bedside water bottle, carafe, sippy cup, to have plenty of water to drink as desired at all times.
Additionally, I wash my face with water & Burt’s Bees orange facial cleanser (kind of a petrulateum jelly consistency, would have been fatal as a teen to use, but my skin tends to be so dry now that if I don’t use the heavy cleansers I just flake disgustingly).
I also have Burt’s Bees Almond hand creme, which is a heavier cream.
Somewhere in my makeup bag I have a tube of Mary Kay extra emollient night creme. Wonderful stuff.
We also have Burt’s Bees baby-bee buttermilk lotion. lemon cuticle cream. and all sorts of other stuff.
Basically, any part of a body that gets washed, gets washed with a moisturizing cleanser, and then moisturized. If the post-washing moisturizing is slacked off, then skin gets dry, itchy, patchy, eczema flare-ups for the little ones, scratchy scratchy big people, and ones skin just doesn’t feel so great.
lots of tubes of moisturizing lip balm around our house too.
[...] Cotton-Pickin’ Days « Hard Water in London [...]
Deb: Sounds like you guys have your routine down.