TCP Antiseptic Liquid > Reviews (19)

My dad is a regular user of TCP and always seems to use it at night for something or other but until recently, it's never really been something that I've had much use for myself. That changed recently, so much so that I've invested in a bottle of my own rather than using some of my dad's bottle as I've found a whole host of uses for it!

INFECTION AND INFLAMMATION

I developed an ingrown toenail a couple of months ago, which left a deep ridge at the side. Knowing that these kind of ridge and ingrown toenails in general can become infected, I used started to dab a bit of TCP on and around the cut twice a day. Unfortunately this didn't prevent an infection as such but when I went to the doctor, she commented that she was surprised I didn't have a worse infection given the depth and size of the ridge and I can only put that down to using the TCP. Its main tagline is "Soothes Pain, Fights Infection" and even on a fairly bad pre-infection, this seems to be the case.

Once the infection had been treated with a course of antibiotics, it left a lot of inflammation behind which was quite uncomfortable. I was advised to bathe the area in hot water twice a day and let the water get in but I also carried on using the TCP as a precaution and I do think that it helped to ease the discomfort somewhat.

MOUTH ULCERS

I am extremely prone to mouth ulcers and am rarely without at least one somewhere in my mouth. The bulk of these usually appear on the inside of my cheeks but lately I've been noticing more on my tongue, which interfere with eating and drinking and can be incredibly painful for the tiny size. I've taken to dabbing a little bit of TCP on the tongue ulcers and while this doesn't seem to make them go away any faster, it does help to numb the pain and make it more bearable.

Last week, I developed an ulcer on the inside of my lip, which made me struggle to eat properly because of its location. I dabbed some TCP on before I went to bed and was very pleased to see that it had dramatically shrunk in size by the morning and wasn't anything like as painful. Most of my mouth ulcers like to linger around (much like my spots) so I'm inclined to credit the TCP for that miraculous disappearance.

SPOTS

As regular readers of my reviews will know, I get more than my fair share of spots. Up until recently I've been able to control the outbreaks more with a facial wash but around ten days ago, I woke up to find my face had been taken over by a whole crop of big, red bumps in the chin area and around my mouth. I tried various spot treatments, witch hazel and even toothpaste but nothing worked. In complete desperation, I reached the TCP as the bottle says it can be used to treat spots.

It stung for a few seconds after application and inititally I wondered if I was going to have to wash it off as this was quite an intense feeling and not at all pleasant. Fortunately it did subside quite quickly though. I followed the recommended applications of four hourly intervals and did manage to get one of the spots to die down quite significantly.

As I write this review, it's been three days since I started to use TCP on my spots and that particular one has all but disappeared now. The other three remain relatively unaffected (although they do look a little less red) so I can't say that this is any kind of miracle cure but it may depend on what kind of spots you're dealing with. I get some horrendous ones that verge on acne in terms of appearance but you may have more success with other kinds.

PRICE

It varies from place to place so shop around if you can. As usual, Boots is more expensive than most other options but in this case, the supermarkets aren't as competitive on price as you might think. I've listed the current prices as of today, gathered from the websites.

• Boots - £3.19 for 200ml.
• Superdrug - £2.75 for 200ml (usually £2.89).
• Sainsburys - £3.16 for 200ml
• Asda - £3.14 for a 200ml bottle
• Tesco - £2.83 for a 200ml bottle (usually £3.16)

OVERALL VERDICT

As you can see just from this review, TCP has a range of uses and is well worth having in the house. It can also be used for sore throats but I've not commented on that as I've not used it for that purpose.

Summary: Recommended for its many uses