Mustela Cicastela Moisture Recovery Cream

I'm not going to bother beating around the bush: this Mustela Cicastela Moisture Recovery Cream is 40mL/1.35fl. oz. of unscented wonder in a squeeze tube. I wasn't too keen on their Hydra Bebe Body Lotion because it was so strongly scented, but this Cicastela Cream is hoard-worthy. Let me explain.

My toddler has sensitive skin prone to rashes and eczema. After every meal, I have to wipe his face because, well, toddlers aren't exactly neat eaters, and food on his face irritates his skin, especially if the food is acidic like tomatoes, oranges, and apples. It also happens that my little guy loves tomatoes, oranges, and apples. You know, like every other toddler.

A few weekends ago, he came home from visiting with his grandparents (all the grandparents are in our social distance bubble) with his chin and cheeks flared up red, sandpaper-rough, and were flaking. I got on the phone with my parents and learned he went on a weekend-long orange-eating rampage at their house. Ha, I figured. They also said they'd been repeatedly applying CeraVe Moisturizing Cream but it didn't help at all. Figured that too, since there's only the CeraVe tube in his weekend bag. Urgh.

Normally, when the little guy gets that bad of a rash, I would apply a hydrocortisone cream--we use Target's generic brand Up&Up Hydrocortisone Cream 1% that's available over the counter. However, my pharmacist sister also cautioned against frequent use of a steroid cream (that's what hydrocortisone is, cortisol, a steroid hormone), especially on exposed skin, even the low-dose, over the counter stuff. According to her, the steroid "thins" the skin, and exposed skin becomes more susceptible to UV rays, etc. That meant no hydrocortisone on face, neck, and any exposed parts of the arms or legs.

So what to do about that rash on the little guy's chin and cheeks? That was when I remembered this Cicastela Cream just came in the mail. I thought, hell, it's a "moisture recovery cream" so why not give it a try? That evening, after the bath I applied it generously onto his chin and cheeks. Just an hour afterwards, the roughness had softened. Impressed, I applied some more on him right before he went to bed. What do you know, he woke up with baby soft chin and cheeks again. Wow! Now onto the tougher fixes.

Since my littlest guy turned 2 months old in mid-July, hubby and I got the OK from his pediatrician to send big brother back to preschool. The rationale is that starting at two months, baby's immune system is maturing and can benefit from some exposure through big brother. Of course, both the school and ourselves are taking extra precautions because of the pandemic. At school, they do temperature check, constant hand-washing, and disinfecting high touch surfaces every hour. At home, as soon as my little guy stepped through the door, we get him to wash his hands and change out of his school clothes before he can run off to play.

That was how we found out that the skin under both of our little guy's forearms was rough and dry. When we splash some water on, his arms lathered up. Yep, you guessed it. When he washed his hands at school, soap dripped down his arm and never got washed off, and it kept accumulated throughout the day. Aye... So we started to wash his whole entire arms when he got home from school. As for the dry skin, I slathered on some more Cicastela and although it took a few days, the rough skin healed and that was that.

I stocked up another 6 tubes. Enough said.