This Lush Lotion Is Selling Out After A Woman Claimed It Cures Eczema In A Viral Facebook Post

Considering this winter has been approximately eight billion years long (only a minor exaggeration), your skin is likely not at its happiest. And that goes double for people with skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. But if a recent, viral Facebook post is to be believed, fan favorite beauty brand Lush's Dream Cream body lotion can not only help soothe eczema, it can get rid of it entirely — at least, one mom claims that it can.

In a post which has been shared more than 44,000 times, Facebook user Sarah Rudd posted pictures of her son with a bright red eczema flare-up covering his forehead, as well as a photo of him with no apparent signs of eczema. "[N]othing we were prescribed worked," Rudd captioned the photos. He didn't sleep for 4 [sic] months because he scratched non stop [sic] all night." Rudd explained that after she had tried multiple medications and lotions, someone recommended Dream Cream, which reportedly "transformed his skin and he's now completely and utterly eczema free," she wrote.

Peter Seney, Lush's digital PR coordinator, tells Bustle that Dream Cream sales have surged by 2,473 percent on Lush's websites since the post went viral, but whether Dream Cream works for eczema is not a hard and fast science.

Soothing eczema isn't just about calming the skin. Eczema belongs to the same family of illnesses as allergies and asthma, and while it’s thought to be genetic, there isn’t really a cure, yet. It's caused by a gene that disrupts your skin's natural barrier, making it more prone to cracks and bleeding, which invites pathogens into the skin, causing inflammation, which starts the process back over again. Active ingredients such as colloidal oatmeal can help soothe the inflammation, according to various studies.

Seney tells Bustle that it's the soothing ingredients within Dream Cream that may help folks with eczema, saying, "Dream Cream is blended with the finest essential oils and ingredients that have a long history of proven effects to calm sensitive and dry skin." Seney says Dream Cream is made up of 38 percent oat milk, "which has been used for centuries to calm sore and irritated skin," and also contains chamomile oil, "used to calm irritation and redness on the skin," and lavender and rose oil, which are "extremely effective at reducing redness."

Gemma Cartwright, a former Lush employee writing for PopSugar, said Rudd is far from the first parent to see positive effects from Dream Cream. She explained that as an employee, she saw "parents in similar situations [who] would frequently come in and clear the shelves of the product."

"Not a day went by that someone wouldn't come in with an anecdote about how Dream Cream had transformed their skin, 'cured' their eczema, or soothed their psoriasis," Cartwright added.

Seney says Dream Cream has not been tested to see if it is effective for soothing eczema, and in fact "we don't undergo clinical testing on our products because we use ingredients that have been around for centuries (such as oat milk) that are proven to be safe and effective." As for the positive results apparently seen by Rudd and her son, "This is an example of customers experiencing the effects that the finest ingredients and expert formulations can provide," Seney says.

Lavender oil, which is an ingredient of Dream Cream, is also an oft-recommended non-medicinal treatment for eczema. According to natural health guide site WholesomeONE, lavender oil has antiseptic, antibacterial, and anti-fungal properties, is a powerful anti-inflammatory, and "addresses the skin from the inside out" rather than only treating surface irritation.

Of course, if you're considering using Dream Cream (or any other non-medicinal or over-the-counter product) to soothe the symptoms of eczema or another skin condition, it's important to talk with your healthcare provider to be sure it's a safe and viable option for you. While it isn't a guaranteed cure, at $29.95, it isn't a totally inaccessible option for someone who's tried everything — at least, as soon as it comes back in stock.