The eyes are the windows to the soul they say, well unfortunately this means people tends to pay laser attention to your eyelid area. Eczema on eyelid does not give you confidence.

Eczema on eyelids is the most annoying location for eczema to appear. This is because the skin on the eyelids is extremely fragile and thin (as well as on the neck).

There are obviously “cosmetic” reasons for it to be actually the worst location for eczema to flare up.

Having red flaky eyelids makes your eyes look swollen and the skin around your eyes contributes highly to how “attractive” and “young” you are to other people. Red eyelids are just plain undesirable and miserable.

I am somebody who has lived with this problem and struggled 20 years with this problem to have the experience to tell you exactly how you get this annoying problem begone. We all know the annoying cycle right? Just as you think it’s getting better it seems to flare up again.

This is probably one of the hardest eczema areas to deal with.

So you have to follow my advice COMPLETELY to have a chance of getting rid of it. Understand this – if this is a chronic eczema, it will be really really hard to get rid of unless you have this comprehensive advice.

Remember this will only work if you study every bit of information below, otherwise you will miss out some seemingly minor looking details that are crucial to keeping the eczema of eyelids under control.

A lot of people have struggled for their entire lives with this problem and never solve it even into their late middle age.

So here goes – lets start with the most important one:

Rubbing and Friction

The skin on your eyelids, is the only one location on your whole body, you ABSOLUTELY should not rub ever. Again the skin here is ridiculously thin, which is why wrinkles appear here first too.

Rubbing it is a huge reason why this is a really difficult eczema zone to go away. This includes things like hot water, or just even pressure.

I think to hone in and emphasize on how extreme you have to go to protect your eyelids from agitation:  

When you take a shower and have the nozzle over or near your face or head, cover your eyes with your hand and shield them from the pressure of the water. The pressure of the water is enough to irritate your eczema and make it worst.  Just allow a trickle of water to ever touch your eyelids.

The next problem I hear you say, well it’s itchy, that’s why I rub it. It’s not like I want to.

Firstly most people with eczema or no eczema develop a habit of rubbing their eyes out of stress, or tiredness and so on, even if it’s not actually itchy. You have to invest willpower in this. When you have eczema long enough it actually becomes a habit to rub your eyes.

What if It’s Just Ridiculously Itchy?

If it’s unbearably itchy, obviously it’s only a matter of time before you lose your willpower and start scratching, and that’s why I understand it’s so annoying, when people who don’t have eczema say “just stop scratching” – as if it was that easy!

That’s why you have my unique solution. Something I came up with using some common sense doctors seem to have not. 

You use a topical anesthetic cream, you know the ones that they use so that surgeons can cut you open. Unsurprisingly they are powerful itch removed – duh!

Lidocaine cream is used for tatoo removal. A thin dab of this over your eyelids will remove any itching. For this to work you need surgery grade Lidocaine cream. Not a doctor here, but it’s completely safe as they use lots and lots of it in tatoo parlours. There are Lidocaine creams for mosquito bites at 3-4% it’s just way too weak to have an effect on extremely itchy skin.

For how to do this properly read my next section about the Ring Finger technique.

Another point: Rubbing your eyes all the time makes you look older faster. The skin around your eyes is so fragile that constant rubbing or stretching will create fine lines much earlier than when they should appear (e.g. crows’ feet). I have the scars to show for this one. The same goes if you constantly have eczema around your eyelids. The skin here is just very very vulnerable.

The Lidocaine cream I suggest is our own, a 10% surgical class cream with added organic Colloidal Oatmeal made in Korea. Formulated myself after working with a chemist in Korea, based upon topical creams used by top class Korean doctors (as you know some of the best in the world for wink wink “reconstructing skin”).

The Ring Finger 

Women will know this, but men may not. When you apply cream, steroid or not, Lidocaine etc. When you apply Lidocaine cream a tiny dab on both ring fingers is fine. You can in fact use more Lidocaine cream if it’s really really itchy. 

Always use your ring finger and avoid any pressure at all other than the gentle one needed to spread the cream. This is because the ring finger is the weakest and causes the least amount of pressure on your eyelids, thus least chance of triggering the itch cycle or further irritation.

Best Steroid Cream for Eczema on Eyelid

The best steroid cream is no steroid cream. That’s right you heard me. Only use if you absolutely have deep red spots around your eyes, if it’s only itchy any medical cream is just overkill.

There is a good reason for this, steroid creams can cause glaucoma in the long run and also since the skin around your eyes is the thinnest and most delicate, steroids severe disrupt the ecosystem of your natural skin regeneration cycle leaving it thick, dry, wrinkly and ugly after use. (From my own experience, but also makes sense scientifically). Also because it alters the skin structure, it generally perpetuates Eczema reappearing on the eyelids.

The medical cream I would recommend the most is Tacrolimus (Protopic) 0.03%. It is hands down the best steroid like cream that is not a steroid, because it does not have the side effects of steroid creams.

Tacrolimus (Protopic) only has one disadvantage, that it can cause a burning/slightly itchy sensation. The solution? My magic Lidocaine cream proposal above (You see I’ve spent years working this out)

Steroid cream have their uses, but in the case of eyelids the removal of eczema is not helped by the steroid side effect of thickening or drying out the eyelid skin which is extremely thin and fragile. Thus you should only use steroid cream as an absolutely last resort.

In my experience in general steroid creams on eyelids are almost always a bad idea and relatively useless, unless you use it once and the eczema doesn’t come back.

Thus you should only use steroid cream as an absolutely last resort. Well in fact with Tacrolimus I am not sure why you would bother with things like Betnovate or Hydrocortisone.

When applying the steroid/Tacrolimus cream only use a dab, and I mean a dab on a dab.

Squeeze a small finger tip amount out and smear it on one hand and dab the other free ring finger on that dab so you literally have a tiny thin film of cream on your ring finger, if its an ointment it will spread easily.

You will have to ask your doctor to get hold of Tacrolimus as it’s a prescription only cream. Remember it’s 0.03% . It’s very very light.

The Eye Creams

So you are going to need to use 3 products in the following order chronologically:

Make sure you clean your eyelids first with some light water or a cleanser (without rubbing of course), otherwise you may just be putting the emollient over some dust or particulates that will irritate your eyelids.

Firstly you need a moisturizer. Now I prefer to NOT use conventional eye creams at all because they are a rip off, and because there is so much stuff in them that it’s probably safer to just use a moisturiser. Everyone is different though. If you have your holy grail eye cream that moisturises well, then stick with it well.

The moisturizer I use for my eyelids is Avene’s Trixera. It absolutely lasts forever and is a perfect eye cream at the very least in terms of use being an emollient/moisturiser. High quality coconut creams are another weapon of choice, however the good ones are hard to find, and need to be sourced from Thailand directly, the ones from the big brands like Bodyshop is full of CRAP and will make your Eczema worse not better.

Secondly you will need something with colloidal oatmeal cream. Remember tiny dabs. Too much of this colloidal oatmeal cream will actually cause you to exfoliate to some degree in my experience. Aveeno’s Eczema Treatment Cream is great for this. It actually serves as a mild anti-itching agent.

If after the first two steps – its stil not enough to curb then itching, then you must use my unique solution which is Tech-Organic Anti-Itch cream using surgery grade Lidocaine with Colloidal Oatmeal and dab it over your eyelids.

If EVEN that doesn’t work then I do have a final unconventional solution – please email me. 

Concealer for Red Eyelids

Cosmetically I find Bobby Brown’s creamy concealer to be the most effective at hiding eyelid red spots if you need to go to a social event and don’t want people asking you about the eyelids, apply it on top of all the above. Use a small brush lightly.

Make sure you put moisturiser before your put the concealer. The concealer will mix a little bit with the moisturiser and make it less dry.

Final Summary

By combining all my unique techniques hopefully I can help you finally solve eczema eyelids torture cycle.

All this would be pointless though if you haven’t sorted out your diet, or reduce whatever reduce is your eczema e.g. dust. If diet is a potential trigger, please read my eczema diet plan.

Best regards,

– Stopitchy