GETTING TESTED: the horrors of trying new products when your skin never knows whether its up nor down.

After moving home from uni, I've been clearing through all my old crap at my parent's house. It occurred to me, as I was sifting through piles of barely used ointments and lotions, how much money I've wasted on products that end up causing an allergic reaction. This has to be one of the banes of life for people with eczema or sensitive skin: the unpredictability of this sensitivity. Sometimes my skin copes fine with a bargain high street brand, and there is no reaction, and other times you buy a product that's had great reviews on-line, or even a brand of a product that supposed to be designed for eczema/sensitivity, and it ends up causing a reaction.

In order to try and stop wasting so much money, I've been trying to get my hands on testers to use before I commit to buying a large product. Some places will give you a reasonable sized trial size to use and make sure you don't have a reaction - I've got good ones from Lush and from Estée Lauder. To really trial a product, you need to be able to introduce it into your daily routine, applying it to clean skin and leaving it for several hours - preferably over the course of a few days - to see if anything horrendous happens.

This is why I find the testers available in the Body Shop aren't good enough - yes, you can try a product on the back of your hand in store, but there's no way to know whether or not your skin is compatible with a cleanser until you've used it properly in your own home. I recently bought the Camomile Cleanser from the Body Shop, as it is designed for sensitive skin and was fine on my hands, but I only had to try it on my face once at home to realise how drying it was.... KABAM, £12.00 wasted and a full tin of cleanser left to clog up my cupboards! This goes to show that you need to test a product on the part of your body you'll be using it!

When testers aren't available, try and see if a friend has a product you can try out. I've found people are really eager to share they favourite products and spread the joy. This is obviously a lot easier when you live with friends.

When the budget doesn't stretch to the luxury brands which offer decent trials, we're left to relying on what products say on the packaging. But be wary because I've found even those products that claim to be designed for dry or sensitive skin don't necessarily do any good. My most recent regret was Vaseline's Total Moisture with Oat extract, which I hoped would have similar effects as Aveeno (which also contains oats) but in a cheaper price range. The tell-tale sign that this wouldn't go down well is the promised 'clean feel' - read, STINGING feel of the cream!

There is always a risk associated with buying a new product, no matter what type of skin you have. But when you do have a skin condition it makes shopping tiring and frustrating - and expensive. Obviously the ultimate solution is to find out what ingredients exactly it is you are allergic to, and avoid those at all costs. But in the meantime, I'm trying to regard the process of trialling - and discovering - new products for my skin as an enjoyable experience, which is one of the reasons I started this blog.