As a dermatologist and cancer survivor, I know that skin care during chemotherapy treatment is really important.

Skin rashes and injuries during chemo put cancer patients at risk for serious skin infections. This means that healthy skin is really important during the chemo treatment process; my Chemo Kit is built from over 30 years of dermatology practice and it is also the skin care routine I used to keep my own skin healthy while undergoing chemo treatments for breast cancer.

Overview

I created my Chemotherapy Skin Care Kit to be a comfort and help to those of us who must undergo chemotherapy. The kit includes:

• My skin care tips and Chemo Kit instructions for chemo patients.
• The 7 most important skin care products for chemo patients including: ,, , , and the , and .

I also give you an option to add:

•  to help calm facial irritation and redness.
• to reduce the risk of sun-induced rashes from chemo medicines. 

Good skin care is important during chemotherapy.

Patients undergoing chemotherapy have an overwhelming list of self-care issues to worry about during their treatment. I designed my Chemo Skin Care Kits to simplify one set of those worries - your need to keep your skin healthy so that it is less prone to skin infections and skin rashes during your treatment.

When I was diagnosed with hereditary breast cancer in 2013, I became my own human laboratory for the effects of chemotherapy on our skin. I had helped many cancer patients over the years but during my own cancer treatment I experienced the process from the patient perspective and it was overwhelming. I created the Chemo Kit as a turn-key solution for cancer patients who face an overwhelming experience and need solutions now.

Know that during chemo, skin care is an important but often overlooked part of self-care to help chemo go smoothly. Healthy skin is essential for your physical well-being during this difficult time. Your skin is your body's biggest organ and constantly exposed to germs (including MRSA). When it is injured or open from a skin rash, the wounds become an entry point for germs. During chemo, this can lead to serious infections and can impact your chemo treatments.

My Chemo Kit helps keep your skin comfortable and less prone to problems; it gives you one less thing to worry about when you undergo chemotherapy. - Dr. Bailey

What are the skin changes due to chemotherapy that you want to address with your skin care routine?

There are certain universal skin changes that you can expect from chemotherapy including:

• Your skin will be drier, sensitive, and more fragile than ever before. Dry skin will itch and can become sensitive and uncomfortable. It is also prone to eczema, which can breakdown into sores and become infected.
• Your nails and cuticles may become brittle. Depending on your chemo medicines, you may also notice that your skin and nails may become discolored and deformed from the medicines you are receiving.
• You may even be more sun sensitive from the medicines used during your chemotherapy treatments. This may cause rashes and/or an excessive sunburn reaction that may blister.

Remember, your skin is a huge organ and it is exposed to the germs, harsh weather, and chemicals of the outside world. You will also be washing your hands more than normal during your treatment since you will be vulnerable to infections. During chemo, your immune system is suppressed and you are more vulnerable to infections. Having healthy skin during chemo is essential for your physical well-being.

The key to a health-promoting chemo skin care routine is to use gentle hypoallergenic cleansers and highly hydrating hypoallergenic moisturizers every day.

• Skin cleansers should cleanse skin without over-drying it.
• Deeply hydrating moisturizers hydrate skin to keep the skin barrier strong and resistant to rashes. 
• All skin care products used should be free of irritating ingredients, harsh preservatives, fragrance and common allergens that may create rashes.

Dr. Bailey's Chemotherapy Skin Care Kit:

The Chemo Skin Care Kit embodies all the essential skin care products I recommend as a Board Certified Dermatologist to keep a person's skin healthy and strong during chemotherapy treatments including: 

The Dry Skin Hand Repair Kit includes:

• Naturally Best Bar Soap: An all-natural, hypoallergenic soap that easily rinses clean without potentially problematic ingredients present in so many hand soaps. It will allow you to wash your hands as often as necessary without creating skin dryness.
• Dr. Bailey Skin Care Dry Skin Hand Cream: Ideal non-greasy moisturizing and protective hand cream that is perfect for use throughout the day after washing - it's a hydrating no-slippery-grip formula!
• Bag Balm and Cotton Gloves: A deeply hydrating night repair therapy helps to keep hands, nails, and cuticles healthy. Combats chemo dryness and nail fragility with Bag Balm Ointment, unsurpassed for healing chapped hands and nails. Cover Bag Balm with the best-fitting therapeutic cotton gloves while you sleep.
  

Natural Face and Body Lotion

A hypoallergenic and deeply hydrating moisturizer created for all-over use from head to toe. The simplicity of this single product skin care step is a great relief when you feel tired from your chemo treatments and don’t have the energy for anything complicated. 

Natural Lip Balm

The best lip balm with deeply hydrating ingredients for moist lips all the time.

Vanicream Cleansing Bar

A trusted, gentle, hypoallergenic all-purpose skin cleanser that is widely recommended by dermatologists.

Additional Chemo Skin Care Kit Product Option:

Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy

This great facial skin soother is packed with hyaluronic acid and anti-inflammatory green tea antioxidants to help soothe your facial skin and fight the stressors inherent in chemotherapy.

Sheer Strength Pure Physical Spray Water Resistant SPF 50 Sunscreen

This pure mineral sunscreen provides broad-spectrum sun protection without any chemical sunscreen filters making it ideal for sensitive skin.  

The Chemotherapy Skin Care Kit is truly a comfort to those who must undergo chemotherapy treatments!

I sent my cousin the Chemotherapy Skin Care Kit and she said it saved her from going insane. Chemotherapy had caused her feet to itch constantly and she had scratched until she was bleeding. One application of products and she found instant relief. She used soft cotton socks over the balm when sleeping. Thank you for providing this wonderful gift that we can give our loved ones going through chemotherapy.
-Rachel, November 2016

Dr. Bailey gives back to cancer research and advocacy with her Chemotherapy Skin Care Kit - all of the profits from every kit sold are donated to the advocacy organization for those with hereditary cancer FORCE: Facing our Risk of Cancer Empowered.

At a Glance

Key Ingredients:

• Jojoba oil
• Coconut oil
• Hyaluronic acid
• Glycerin
• Aloe vera
• Sunflower oil
• Sweet almond oil
• Shea butter
• Vitamins A and E
• Panthenol
• Botanicals: Camellia Sinesis Leaf (Green tea) Extract

Free of:

• Artificial fragrance and dyes
• Sulfates
• Phthalates
• Formaldehyde

Skin care products are always cruelty-free and made in the U.S.A.

Directions

Dermatologist's recommendations for chemotherapy skin care:

The most effective way to keep your skin healthy during chemotherapy is to diligently use a gentle and hydrating skin care routine every day. My kit includes what you need. Follow these four simple and key skin care steps:

1. Use only gentle cleansers such as Vanicream Bar and Naturally Best Bar Soap Soap.
2. Use only hypoallergenic products (those that don’t have fragrances or complex or irritating ingredients).
3. Use warm (not steaming hot) water on your skin when your skin is suffering from dryness.
4. Always apply a deeply hydrating moisturizer right after toweling dry including the Natural Face and Body Lotion, Dry Skin Hand Cream, Bag Balm and Natural Lip Balm.

Chemo Skin Care Kit Directions

Cleansing. Use Vanicream Cleansing Bar for face and body cleansing. Use the Naturally Best Bar Soap for daily hand cleansing. Always rinse skin well to remove all soap and cleanser. 

Cleansing tips:

• For your body: lather up only the parts of your skin that have the body odor glands, including your armpits, groin, buttocks, and feet. If you have oily skin, you also need to use cleanser on the oily areas of your back, neck, and chest. Use the Vanicream Cleansing Bar for your all-over body cleansing.
• For your face: use the Vanicream Cleansing Bar for your facial cleansing and rinse well then pat dry with a clean towel.
• For your hands: use only gentle, easy-rinse foaming soaps including the Naturally Best Bar Soap. Often you only need to apply cleanser only on your thicker palm skin; the skin on the back of your hands rarely gets into germs and grime, and it is more fragile and prone to dryness. Also, rinse all of the cleanser from between your fingers where hand chapping often starts due to retained soap residue.

Water temperature is important to prevent dryness and irritation when cleansing your skin.

Hot water removes more of your natural skin oils just like it removes grease from the dishes better than cool or warm water. If your skin is prone to dryness, you may want to reduce the water temperature until your skin heals.

Moisturizing your skin after washing is important for keeping your skin strong and healthy during chemo. 

Every day after cleansing your skin, you need to apply moisturizer within 3 minutes of toweling skin dry. Use only hypoallergenic moisturizers with rich oils and water-binding ingredients that soak deeply into your skin. This keeps your skin from feeling greasy and it locks in healing moisture.

• Apply Natural Face and Body Lotion to your face and body.
• Apply my Dry Skin Hand Cream after washing your hands.
• Apply my Natural Lip Balm to your lips throughout the day. 

Optional products:

If you choose to add the Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy, apply it to your face after washing and under the Natural Lotion.

Sheer Strength Sunscreen is applied on top of moisturizer to exposed skin daily. 

Doctor's Tip: Use hypoallergenic skin care products only. During chemotherapy, your dry and fragile skin is more sensitive, so products you may have tolerated for years may now be wrong for your skin. Play it safe and use only gentle, hypoallergenic products when you are on chemo. All the cleansers and moisturizers in this kit are hypoallergenic.

Ingredients

All Natural Face, Hand and Body Lotion (8 fl. oz.): Aloe Barbadensis (aloe) Juice*, Helianthus Annuus (sunflower) Oil*, Vegetable Emulsifying Wax (blends ingredients together), Cocos Nucifera (coconut) Oil*, Vegetable Glycerin* (moisturizer), Stearic Acid (from soybeans), Tocopheryl Acetate (vitamin E), Citric Acid (vitamin C for pH balance), Phenoxyethanol and Caprylyl Glycol

Natural Lip Balm (0.15 oz.): Sweet Almond Oil*, Coconut Oil*, Beeswax*, Shea Butter*, Vitamin E (* indicates organic ingredient)

Vanicream Cleansing Bar (3.9 oz bar): Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Stearic Acid, Water, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, Sodium Isethionate, Sorbitol Solution, Ceteareth-20, Propylene Glycol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Monostearate, White Petrolatum, Simethicone, Polyethylene Glycol Monostearate, Titanium Dioxide, Sorbic Acid, BHT.

Dry Skin Hand Cream (4 oz.): Purified Water, Glycerin, Cetyl Alcohol, Isopropyl Myristate, Sodium Cetearyl Sulfate, Dimethicone, Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate, Hydrolyzed Sodium Hyaluronate, Camellia Sinesis Leaf Extract, Tocopheryl Acetate, Panthenol, Sorbitol, Phenoxyethanol, Disodium EDTA

Naturally Best Bar Soap (3.5g): Product Ingredients: This soap is naturally glycerin rich because it is handmade from organic saponified oils of palm, coconut, olive, and palm kernel, organic cocoa butter, organic powdered oatmeal, aloe vera, organic rosemary extract. All ingredients, including palm oil, are organic and ethically sourced. 

Bag Balm (1 oz.): 8 Hydroxyquinoline Sulfate (0.3% in a Petrolatum, Lanolin Base) All Natural Foaming Liquid Hand Soap (7 fl. oz) Saponified Organic Olive, Coconut and Jojoba Oils; Vegetable Glycerin, Organic Aloe Vera and Rosemary Extract

Optional Product

Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy Cream (1 fl. oz.): Purified Water, Squalane, Cyclomethicone, Glyceryl Stearate, Behenyl Alcohol, Caffeine, Palmitic Acid, Stearic Acid, Lecithin, Sodium Hyaluronate, Lauryl Alcohol, Myristyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Dimethicone, Capryl Glycol, Sorbic Acid, Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Polyphenols, Resveratrol, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract, Bisabolol, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Oil, Rosamarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Polysorbate-20, Carbomer, Ptassium Hydroxide, Phenoxyethanol, Tetrasodium EDTA.

Sheer Strength Pure Physical SPF 50 Water Resistant Sunscreen Spray 6 fl. oz.

Active Ingredients:

Zinc Oxide 15.7%, Titanium Dioxide 3.4%

Inactive Ingredients:

Aloe Barbadensis Leaf(Aloe Vera Gel) Juice, Alumina, Bentonite, Bisabolol, Butyloctyl Salicylate, C-18-21 Alkane, Caprylhydroxamic Acid, Caprylyl Glycol, Cellulose Gum, Cetearyl Alcohol, Citric Acid, Coco-Glucoside, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Glycerin, Isononyl Isononanoate, Isocetyl Stearoyl Stearate, Methyl Dihydroabietate, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Musa Sapientum (Banana) Fruit Extract, Polyester-8, Polyhydroxystearic Acid, Propanediol, Silica, Sodium Gluconate, Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate, Tocopherol, Water.