after years of suffering, a little silver philanthropist finds a Remedy for eczema from an unexpected source in Germany

By JENNIFER VIKSE • Photos By Tina Collela

Many know Vivian Ruggiero of Little Silver for her philanthropy or her jaw-dropping home. Few know, however, that she suffered from eczema for years to the point where it interrupted her life and charitable commitments.

“I had been to all kinds of dermatologists and tried every cream you could think of—you wouldn’t believe the money I spent,” said Ruggiero from her home on Oakes Road, adding that she had allowed the skin condition to virtually take over her life, as it presented on her face, neck and arms as burning, itching, and irritated areas.

Nothing helped; she was told to avoid wine, bread…not to take baths. Working out at the gym didn’t offer solace either, as the sweat caused her affected skin to burn.

“My arms, my face, it just kept getting worse. I couldn’t do anything. Nothing helped,” she recalled with noticeable distress.

Ruggiero was prescribed countless creams, antihistamines, and even a pill for sleep since the itch made her restless and uncomfortable. “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,” she said. “I told my husband, if this is my life, kill me.”

At her wit’s end, Ruggiero agreed to undergo a light treatment in New York City, but it left her face red and irritated.

“That week my son approached me to tell me about this cream,” she recounted. “I said, ‘I’m not trying anything.’ He replied ‘What do you have to lose?’ So, I tried it under duress…wasn’t expecting anything. When I put it on, my face was red, blistered, itchy…everything. Then my face cleared up. I asked, ‘Could it be?’ I thought it was the light treatment that the dermatologist did. I waited. After a week, my face blew up again.”

With that, she reapplied the cream and, to her amazement, the eczema cleared up in three days.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. She discovered that the cream—called CIII Skin Balm—had come from a chemist in Germany, and since it was the only product she had ever tried that actually worked, she had to know more. Ruggiero researched the product and called its creator, Milia Merde, in Germany.

“I needed to know what was in it,” she said. “I was putting it on my face…I had to make sure it wasn’t loaded with chemicals.” As it turns out, CIII was all natural.

“My husband and I went to Germany. I said I would love to bring it to this country,” Ruggiero recalled.

In less than a year, she managed to work with the cream’s creator to package and distribute the product in the United States.

“My husband is a businessman,” she explained. “He has helped me with all of this. I just did it because I know how terrible this is…skin problems on the face, arms…I was practically bleeding from the scratching. Then I used this for a week and it was gone like nothing ever happened. I couldn’t believe it. What a miracle. I still use the cream today because it’s also a wonderful moisturizer.”

Ruggiero is now President of CIII Skin Balm here in the U.S. “I want to help people who went through what I went through. It was so debilitating. You tell people and they don’t believe it. And I understand, because I didn’t believe it,” she said. “But there is an answer.”