Eucerin Aquaphor Ingredients and Review

Overall Rating: ♥♥♥♥

• Overall Moisturizing: ♥♥♥♥
• Greasiness: ♥♥
• Dryness Healing/Prevention: ♥♥♥♥
• Chapped/Winter Skin: ♥♥♥♥
• Burns: ♥♥♥♥
• Sensitive Skin: ♥♥♥♥♥
• Ease of Use: ♥♥♥♥
• Pricing: ♥♥♥♥
• Availability: ♥♥♥♥
• Bottom Line: It's a Keeper

Eucerin Aquaphor Healing Ointment Advanced Therapy is an iconic product found on the shelves of most grocery and drugstore shelves. It has a long list of claims regarding its effectiveness and uses, which includes exczema, dry skin, cold weather dryness, sensitive skin, diabetic skincare, infant skin, aging, and chapped skin. In addition to these claims, Eucerin Aquaphor also claims to be "fragrance-free, preservative-free, non-irritating, and ideal for sensitive skin."

Active Ingredient(s)

• Petrolatum (41%, skin protectant)

Inactive Ingredient(s)

• Mineral Oil
• Ceresin
• Lanolin Alcohol
• Pathenol
• Glycerin
• Bisabolol

Are These Ingredients Safe?

Officially, these ingredients are all considered safe for external use. However, a few of these ingredients raise red flags within the natural and organic community, and not without reason. For example, petrolatum in its purest form is quite harmless and safe, and in fact, its outstanding moisturizing properties recommend it highly for use in cosmetics. But many consider industry regulations for its purity to be too lax. The natural community also points to a study from Columbia University (Rundle et al, 2000) that showed that impurities common to petroleum jelly have been linked to breast cancer.

The wisest approach when considering the overall safety of these chemicals is to follow the links I've included above and read each article thoroughly. Only you can decide whether an ingredients meets or fails to meet your standards for safety.

I was very excited to try Eucerin Aquaphor. I have chronically dry skin that gets much worse and often even chapped in the winter. In addition, as a clumsy cook, I frequently suffer from burns that heal poorly due to my skin dryness. Imagine my interest, then, in a product that claimed not only to heal and prevent dry skin, but also burns.

Pricing and Availability

I was overwhelmed with the availability of Aquaphor. I was able to locate it at all of my regular grocery store and drugstore haunts. The pricing varied very little between these locations. It also seemed consistent with online pricing for this item through vendors like Amazon and Drugstore.com. Ultimately, I will be purchasing more product through Amazon's Subscribe & Save program for the greatest savings.

Performance

Two things struck me after my first use: (1) this stuff is greasy, (2) this stuff is incredibly moisturizing. Now, a great deal of my skin dryness occurs on my face, so the greasiness was a downside for applying makeup. However, I noticed that this greasiness allowed the product to seal-in the moisture in the long-term. I applied once and did not need to apply again until right before bed. After a few weeks of using this product, I now avoid applying Eucerin Aquaphor to my face for daytime use.

The rest of my body has been transformed by this product, however. My elbows and ankles, two spots that are commonly chapped and cracked during the winter, have now healed fully and even feel soft to the touch. I use the product after I shower and before I step out the door in the morning. The moisturizing lasts for the entire day.

I do have sensitive skin, in addition to the dryness, so the only issue I encountered happened with the first few applications. When I applied aquaphor to areas of my skin that were cracked, I developed some irritation. This may be a result of the product getting into broken skin, or it may simply have been a result of the healing process. It went away after a few days, however, and the skin healed over completely.

Where this product has really shined, however, has been on my cooking burns. At any given time, I have two or three burns on my arms or fingers. I have been using Eucerin Aquaphor religiously to keep these wounds hydrated and sealed. No matter how serious the burn, it heals within a week without leaving a scar. Because the burns are not allowed to become raw or cracked from dryness, much of the pain associated with the wounds also vanishes, which is a welcome change for me!

Ease of Use

Pretty straightforward. Although Eucerin advises users to avoid applying the product to deep wounds or very serious wounds, I have found that taking a small amount and smoothing it over burns, dry areas, or (if we're honest) my entire body is all it takes. I do apply a thicker amount to my face before bed because I use it like a night cream.

The Bottom Line

I will be using Eucerin Aquaphor for the foreseeable future. I plan to setup a subscription through Amazon's Subscribe & Save program (click here if you want to learn more about this program and how to use it) because it offers the best price, and they'll ship it for free to my door. I'm a fan of convenience.