Homemade / DIY Chamois Cream Recipes

[savechief]

Anybody have any favorite recipes or essential ingredients (or ones to avoid)? I've found a few recipes, but haven't seen anything on this board. Just ran out and was thinking about making my own rather than buying some more.

[Pugrot]

Nope but was a guardian article about saddle sores in British track cyclists and their move to doublebase gel, only seems to be available in U.K. if you're there....

[otoman]

Ah yes. I've used a homebrew for about 10 years now. No saddle sores or even irritation. The chamois in the bibs hold up very well too - machine wash, hung dry.

1 tub of Vaseline, I think it's 14 oz but I could be wrong. Get the standard size big one. The Walgreens brand with Shea butter smells great.
One 1 oz tube of A&D ointment from the baby/diaper section
One 1 oz tube of 1% hydrocortisone cream (it come with a back dated prescription you can give to the ASO)
One 1 oz tube of the antibiotic ointment of your choice (do not get the ones that have numbing agents, you need to feel that chafing if it's happening)
Mix it all together with a handheld mixer.
The stuff does not sweat off, a two finger scoop will work well and last as long as you can ride.
This was initially a Keith Bontrager recipe. Some don't like the Vaseline base. I love it because it works and is cheap.

[Marin]

Wtf cortisone and antibiotics???

If you need these go see a doctor, if you don't - don't use them!

[otoman]

Wtf cortisone and antibiotics???

If you need these go see a doctor, if you don't - don't use them!

Haha, I am a doctor, a real MD too, not a doctor of love or something

Honestly I've always wondered about the hydrocortisone part but since I've used it without trouble for 10 years, as they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. There is no measurable systemic absorption either at these doses, i.e. It's not going to mess up your hormonal system.
As far as the antibiotic, the taint is a dirty place, even in very hygienic people. At these dilutions, you're not getting really any bacteriocidal effects, more bacteriostatic which is the same purpose as a lot of the unstudied ingredients in commercial chamois cream.

Your results may vary but mine have been literally perfect for a decade.

[joec]

what about promoting antibiotic resistance by over use?

[otoman]

Good question. Glad you're paying attention.

The levels of abx are so low that you are not going to select out the sensitive ("weaker") strains of bacteria which thereby promotes resistance. The antibiotic levels present basically create an environment that is not conducive to proliferation of bacteria. Your sweaty, hair-follicle filled, chafed taint with the neighboring brown eye needs something that prevents bacterial proliferation. As stated before, most commercially available chamois creams contain some sort of bacteriostatic agent. Feel free to use tea tree oil or some thing like that. I can't really give you natural/homeopathic options... Of course feel free to do your own research. Of course you are welcome to cover and inspect my perineum

All I'm saying is that recipe has been around for far longer than I've used it. I've personally had very good luck with it. Your preferences and results WILL vary.

[TwiggyTN]

Couple things, yes Otomam is a real MD, and a very good one. (Actually let him cut on my child a few years back.) Also, this is why we call him "homebrew" on the team!

[Matt28NJ]

Doc, could you give an example of a good antibiotic ointment available in the US?

[AJS914]

Cycling specific creams are a rip-off IMO. Lately I've been using Palmer's Cocoa Butter lotion. It's cheap and easy to find at the grocery store (Target).

https://www.palmers.com/cocoa-butter-fo ... 13_5_fl_oz



I used to use Udderly Smooth Cream which is a Lanolin based cream but it's harder to find locally and expensive mail order.

[Leviathan]

Chefs use cows udder cream (lanolin) when their hands get really chapped and burned, and its really cheap if you buy it from a farm supplies depot.

[maquisard]

Repeated topical hydrocortisone use when it is not clinically required is bad idea, especially in the contact areas. It will cause more harm than good, how you can recommend that as a medical professional is beyond me.

[11.4]

Huh? My doctorate is in molecular medicine, specifically managing antibiotic resistances in large epidemics, and much of my career has been in epidemiology and infectious disease control. So here are a few comments, for what it's worth:

1. Petrolatum (Vaseline TM) is a non-water-soluble ointment that's used for delivering many topical (skin) meds. But when you use it on a chamois it tends to fill the chamois and doesn't wash out properly. This can cause infectious agent growth in the chamois, and generally can cause contact dermatitis problems. It can be very slick and more persisting than aqueous-based creams (such as Assos, DZNuts, and so on) but there are skin lubricants you can add to aqueous-based creams to get the same or more slipperiness without creating the chamois cleaning problem.
2. A&D ointment is simply more petrolatum with a bit of lanolin. Lanolin isn't bad but adding this ointment isn't necessarily helping the formula much. It adds cost and doesn't do much. You can buy pure lanolin and add it to petrolatum if you really feel the itch.
3. Antibiotics? Pardon me, but persistent use of a low level of antibiotic is a prime way to foster resistance. If the level is so low as to avoid this problem, it's also not killing anything and in that case there's no reason for it to be on your skin. If you take the ingredients of one tube of Neosporin or Mupirocin and dilute it around 1:16 with the other ingredients in this formula, it's still a concentration capable of inducing antibiotic resistance in bacteria. I would absolutely avoid doing this.
4. Hydrocortisone? Something of the same issue. This low a level, topically applied, doesn't accomplish much in terms of skin irritation so it won't really help actual lesions that may occur (or help prevent them from happening), but it's enough to produce hydrocortisone poisoning in the area, which can create other problems for you. It can also reduce resistance in the area to infections (because its action is to reduce inflammatory response/immune response).

All respect to Keith Bontrager and he's brilliant at a lot of things, but this isn't one. Just run the dilutions and read the efficacy data and you'd stop using it too.

If you want a home-brew chamois cream, it really depends on what your skin flora are like and how much you rub when you ride, how much you clean the area, and other issues. Simple Noxema is a nice water-based, slightly astringent cream that lasts decently and is extremely cheap. You can enhance it with a skin lubricant like BodySlide to make it longer lasting and slicker.

For many people, there isn't a need for a chamois cream. They used to be mandatory because real leather chamois would get hard without the cream, but new synthetic ones don't necessarily need it. The less you put on the chamois, in fact, the better for its durability and for any infection matters. I use a cream in the summer when I'm sweating more but in the winter I'll forego a cream, and in the summer I'll use plain Noxema for a while because it cleans so well and its astringent qualities keep pores open so I am least prone to infectious in hair follicles. It really depends on your personal case. The commercial creams aren't cheap but frankly with the money we spend on a bike and clothing, the cream shouldn't really be an issue, especially when the point is to avoid a debilitating infection.

[nickf]

Udderly Smooth works really well. You can find it at CVS if your in the US. Palmers is also great as mentioned above but i don't like the smell and find it a bit oily.

[boysa]

@11.4... Thanks for the write up. Great information.