Mycil Athletes Foot Ointment > Reviews (2)

I’m ashamed to say that after living in student accommodation, practical sockless lessons, swimming and hydrotherapy, I’ve inadvertently become an expert on getting rid of verucas and athletes foot.

PACKAGING
This ointment for athlete’s foot comes in a very brightly coloured blue and yellow box with a footprint down one side and ‘mycil’ along the other side. Its 11x3x3cm in size with all the instructions on the outside. The main problem I have with this is that one glance in it’s general direction, and BAM, your secrets out. Its so glaringly obvious what it is that your bag only need come open and everyone knows you have fungal feet!
Inside the box is a tube of the cream. It has exactly the same colouring and information as the box, which is good, because it means you can bin the box as soon as you get home, although it makes you wonder if they actually needed to put it in a box when they can put exactly the same on a tube. The tube comes with a metalic type seal that you have to pierce before use.

HOW TO USE
If, you have actually managed to smuggle it back unnoticed you could think about using it. You need to use it twice a day – at night, then again in the morning. You need to wash the area (yes, the annual wash may have to come early) and dry it before applying it to the entire affected area. As it has a preventative action as well, I tend to spread it a little further just to make sure it goes. You need to keep this ritual up until 1 week after it looks like it has completely gone. This is just make sure its completely gone and to stop any reoccurrence. Make sure you wait for the cream to soak in then put on clean socks. I do find though that this can take some time, but maybe that’s just because I hate the thought of having fungus living on my feet that I completely smother the stuff on! I always make sure I really wash my hands after!

SMELL AND CREAM
Lets face it; there are very few things worse than the smell of feet! The smell of this though is all right. It isn’t perfumed or overpowering, just a faint slightly musty scent, but as it’s so far away from your nose, under socks and shoes I cant say I’ve ever noticed it. The cream itself is quite thick but seems to go very far – you only need to put a little bit on and it just keeps spreading! It is slightly oily in texture, which I think is partly why it takes so long to soak into the skin.

HOW IT WORKS
The active ingredients in this are tolnaftate and benzalkonium chloride. The tolnaftate is an anti-fungal which stops the fungus from making substances needed for growing and surviving. The benzalkonium chloride is an antiseptic, which will get rid of any bacteria that are also present in your manky foot. For those people with allergies, it also contains arlatone, cetostearyl alcohol, dimethicone, liquid paraffin, glycerol and purified water.

PRECAUTIONS
It doesn’t say on the box, but the individual active ingredients suggest that they should not be used for children under 2 years, so if you have a small child with athletes foot, I would suggest speaking to your GP first.

Avoid contact with eyes.
It is for external use only, although if you are thinking of eating this, I suggest you need to go shopping.

SIDE EFFECTS
Side effects are not common, and are not reported on the box, but the use of tolnaftate can rarely lead to skin irritation. No side effects have been reported with the use of benzalkonium chloride, which is the other active ingredient.

EFFECTIVENESS
I found this to be extremely effective. It instantly stops any itching and discomfort and doesn’t take long for it to clear up the whole infection, I cant remember it ever taking more than a week – but of course it depends on how long you’ve left it before treating it (beware, if you've left it untreated for a long time it can spread t your hands and face so you may need to treat these areas too but you must avoid contact with the eyes).

VALUE FOR MONEY
You get 25g for under £2.50, which doesn’t sound like a lot but believe me, it lasts forever! My tube has been used a couple of times and there is still about ¾ of a tube left. So perfect if the whole family has got athletes foot. It is also much cheaper than other types of treatment e.g. the foot spray which is usually about £4.00. I think its great value for money. It also keeps for 2 or 3 years so if you get it again, you can just dig it back out of the cupboard again.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone with athlete’s foot.