How many times have you wished for an easier solution to the yearly poison ivy we all get? Calamine lotion, home remedies, and bleach have all been tried with varying results (although bleach is a surefire-albeit painful-way if done properly). What about other over-the-counter medications you can find at Wal-Mart? Are they worth the money spent on it?
Recently I had a few outbreaks and had been using bleach, which does not kill everything if you do not open the pore. While at Wal-Mart I saw a medication I had not seen before: Tecnu Extreme Poison Ivy Scrub. For $14.00 it seemed like a bit of a rip-off since bleach had been doing just fine for me. Regardless, the medication got me thinking about how effective bleach is.
Some internet research later that night got me a bit anxious about bleach. I had not had a problem yet, but there were claims that bleach could cause an infection. With bleach out of the picture I had to consider what to use this time. Calamine lotion does not work too well for me and nothing else I had tried worked well either. Since $14.00 is not too much money I took a gamble.
And I won.
Tecnu took only 15 seconds to scrub in. Since then the poison ivy has not itched at all; moreover, the rash is drying out and no new pores have opened up with oil. The gel itself contains some sort of little grains that make applying it feel very soothing. Ingredient wise there does not seem to be anything too dangerous: grindelia robusta for anti-itch and alcohol. I only had to apply the lotion once as well.
Not even bleach worked as quickly and efficiently as Tecnu did. Even better is the fact that Tecnu was completely painless. There was not the slightest burning feeling that you get with bleach. No scars formed and the pores went away within three days. As far as I can tell there were no downsides to using Tecnu aside from it being $14.00 at my Wal-Mart.
Not a lot more can be said about Tecnu from me. It worked well; the job was done quickly and painlessly. One application and then I was completely done. This bottle is going to be a stable in my medicine cabinet from now on!
