Everybody in this house knows the cling film is doing the work

The Solen Base Journal

I never told anyone I wrap my feet in kitchen supplies. Then I found out how many other people do exactly the same thing.

By Haider Jafri, founder · 5 minute read

A dramatised story. The routine, the objects and the quotes come from real posts and reviews we read while making Solen Base, and the people quoted were writing about other products, not ours. The narrator is a composite, not a customer.

There's a roll of cling film in our kitchen drawer that has never touched a sandwich.

Everyone in the house knows what it's for. Nobody mentions it.

How it started

I can't remember the exact night. I think it was during a bad patch, and I'd put emollient on my feet and a sock over it, and in the morning the sock was stiff and my feet felt like they'd barely had any.

So the next night I thought, what would keep it on?

And I went downstairs to the kitchen drawer.

Emollient on. Cling film round each foot, twice, tucked in at the ankle. A sock over the top so it stays put. Then lie very still, because it rustles, and it slips, and if you move too much you wake up with it round your toes.

It's undignified. It's noisy. It's hot. My partner once rolled over and said, "Are you wrapped in something?" and I said no.

But I kept doing it, because it felt like it did something the sock on its own didn't.

Then I found out I wasn't the only one

This is the bit that got me.

I went looking, one night, half expecting to find nothing. Instead I found the same idea everywhere, in communities that have nothing to do with each other.

People with dry heels wrapping cling film over thick balm before bed. People with eczema taping gauze over ointment, or using freezer bags. Runners, of all people, putting produce bags over coconut oil under their socks.

"Socks absorb a good amount of the lotion, so occlusion is needed if you want it to soak in over time."

Someone on a skincare forum, explaining it better than I could.

Nobody had taught any of us this. We'd all arrived at it on our own, in our own kitchens.

The thing I'd already invented

That's when it clicked.

I didn't need anyone to persuade me that a layer over emollient makes sense. I'd worked that out myself, years ago, with a roll of cling film. So had thousands of other people.

What I needed was the grown up version of the thing I'd improvised. Something made for the job, instead of borrowed from the kitchen drawer. Something that doesn't rustle, doesn't slip round my toes, and doesn't end up in the bin every morning.

One important thing I only learned later, and I want to put it here because I didn't know it: putting anything over a prescription steroid cream can change how much of it your skin takes in. I'd only ever wrapped over plain emollient. If you use a steroid, ask your doctor before putting any layer over it. Cling film included.

What I found

That's what led me to Solen Base.

It's a Night Sleeve. A dry layer made to go over emollient. Cotton on the outside, lined with gel on the inside, which is the side that sits against your emollient. It's open at the toes and covers the heel.

Emollient on. Sleeve on. Bed. It goes in the washing machine at 40 degrees in a mesh bag, instead of in the bin.

You use your own emollient. There's no fragrance and nothing is soaked into the fabric. There's a Day Sock too, closed toe, for the mornings.

I want to be straight about something, because I'd want someone to be straight with me. It's a sleeve, not a wrap. I can't tell you it does exactly what my cling film did, and they don't claim that either. What I can tell you is it's made for the job I was using a kitchen roll for, and it doesn't rustle.

What I want

I want the cling film to go back to being for sandwiches.

I want to get into bed without rustling, without lying still, without a ball of plastic in the bin every morning. I want to stop saying "no" when someone asks if I'm wrapped in something.

If there's a roll in your kitchen drawer that has never touched a sandwich, have a look at how the Night Sleeve works. The safety notes are on the page before you buy, and there's a fourteen night guarantee.