Hay fever and other spring-time allergies

Spring is here and that is great! But for many of us, including me, spring rhymes with hay fever and bad allergies. So this morning I thought that sharing with you some of my tips and tricks to make me feel better in this situation could be cool :p

What may happen? If you are lucky, your nose will just run a lil and your throat will itch. In that case, it is fine and you can survive with low concentrated anti-histamines

But in my case it can sadly go a step further... If you have strong symptoms, you have of course to go see a specialist. I am not anything close to a doctor keep that in mind... Anyway, here are some tips I used on myself when I went through a not too intense crisis :

Red, watery and itchy eyes? First you put your make up and your contact lenses apart. Above all, you do not switch for waterproof because it is even harder to remoce and your eyes are enough irritated. Same things apply to contacts, they are by nature irritant, and I've never heard about anyone who dies because of glasses' wear.
Then you have to "invest" (not much, do not freak out) on 2-3 products which will help you getting better. In order of appearance:
- eyedrops for irritation (like Dacryoserum which is a free over-the-counter medecine) you have to instil in your eyes.
- 2 soaked cotton pads with cornflower water to do eye compresses for your itching eyes at night
- and finally a repairing eye cream (SVR palpebral is meant to be used for this purpose).
And that's it.
Once your irritations have soothed, you keep rincing your eyes for 2-3 more days with physiological saline (you can find it in drugstores in the babycare alley). Then you can go back to make and contacts! Yeah...One last point you may not use highly active eyecream like anti-aging ones as they can further irritate this area

Eczema or tiny little red bumps on your face? First you forget your traditional routine and switch to something ultra mild for your skin.Same thing has above it won't cost you an arm :
- a solid soap-free cleanser (the Dove cream beauty bar or the green Aderma one are great)
- a soft cleaning water if you can not stand not putting face makeup (Créaline H2O fromBioderma)
- a source water or thermal water spray
- a soothing and healing cream from irritated skin
You soak a cotton pad with cleaning water and you clean your face. Then you wash with your soap free cleaner and pat dry (do not rub you skin!). Then you gently spray some water and remove excess with a tissue. Put some cream on the itching areas. My favourites contains zinc and copper which are known for their healing properties (Dermalibour and Cu-ZN cream from Uriage are great)
The main drawback of both these cream are their heavy consistency which leaves the skin greasy so putting makeup on is too hard but you have to choose what you want :p
That is it for my tricks, on me everything is gone in 2 to 3 days with anti-histamines as a co-agent.

If you suffer from cosmetic allergy, the second routine for face reaction works real good! You can apply a thicker overall layer of cream at night time and sleep in it. Next morning your skin will look so much better. I tested and approved it after a disastrous trial of the Iris Weleda face mask :p

See ya :)