A few years after getting my ears pierced, a rash developed on my ear lobes and it kept getting worse for a couple of months. I tried upgrading to 18-carat yellow gold earrings, but I still had an itchy rash. I had no known allergies until then, so my doctor sent me to get patch testing of common skin allergens. I found out that I have 3 skin allergies that cause me to get allergic contact dermatitis: nickel, cobalt and carba mix.
The nickel and cobalt allergies are pretty straightforward; my ear rash was gone after I said goodbye to most of my jewelry, including yellow and white gold except for silver jewelry dipped in gold (not containing nickel). I reluctantly put away my precious jewelry and I read the patient information sheets that I received from the allergy clinic. I had no idea what carba mix was and the limited information I received left me confused.
In order to figure out how to avoid contact with carba mix, I put on my detective cap on and I decided to share my discoveries on this blog! I hope this helps others in their management of allergic contact dermatitis caused by carba mix. If you are aware of additional information, please share in the comments!
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDeletethank you..
ReplyDeleteQuestion what soap and shampoo do you use?
why dont you put a list of products without carbamix?
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI use Head and Shoulders Classic Clean Dandruff shampoo and conditioner.
Usually, when I don't have dandruff, I use Cliniderm shampoo and conditioner (available at Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada). You can find a full list of products without carbamix here:
https://www.skinsafeproducts.com/ingredients/carba-mix
Thank you
Update: About a year ago I started using Live Clean Sensitive Hypoallergenic Shampoo and Conditioner instead. It works great and I don't have an itchy dry scalp anymore, which I thought was a recurrent dandruff problem but my hairdresser confirmed that it was just a dry scalp so switching shampoo easily fixed that problem.
DeleteI am trying to buy a mattress free of "Carba Mix" ? Do you know of one? Thank you!
ReplyDelete
DeleteI don't know which mattresses are made with or without carba mix, sorry! Personally, I encase my mattress in a zippered mattress encasement that is waterproof to completely lock out allergens and dust mites. It surrounds the entire mattress and it is machine washable. This might be an efficient allergen barrier for your mattress even if it contains carba mix?
I am so happy to have found this blog. I have searched and searched and can't find products that work well with me. I am also allergic to carba mix which honestly is hard to determine because even clothing can have it unless it is 100% cotton! It's crazy! Please update here with any other information you find! It's be a struggle finding someone who is experiencing the same issues. Do you know if there's also a reddit page about this? any other resources would be helpful as I am still in the process of figuring out which products I should/shouldn't use. I've found that Cetaphil products I have NOT reacted to. It's interesting to see the other products that have carba mix as well.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeletethank you for your kind words and patience. As you already found out, there's not much on the web in terms of a comprehensive all-encompassing ressource about carba mix allergy. It's worth taking the time to search, as there are many pages about it that can give you a little more information here and there. I don't know about a reddit page though?
I also use Cetaphil products as cleansers and exfoliants for my skincare with good results. Please share your findings here, I would love to read what else you discover, thanks!