The winter has been murder on my hands, so I went out to buy a bottle of hand lotion yesterday. Thinking they were all basically the same, I bought a big bottle of store brand stuff.
Good God, I think it’s really just a mislabelled bottle of Elmer’s Glue! Mercifully it is not greasy, but it leaves an unpleasant plasticy coating on my hands and does nothing to moisturize or soften them.
I’m ready to try again, but I’m in no mood to buy a brand-name bottle and find that it is just a overpriced bottle of the same crap. Any suggestions?
oddly enough, a few drops of good basic extra virgin olive oil.
I originally got the idea from some catalog that came with 4 tiny little samples of a facial regimine based on olive oil. I thoought it would be too oily, but oddly enough it isnt. The oil soaks in almost instantly [and I literally mean a FEW DROPS, 2 tiny drops moisturizes my entire face and neck, and 1 drop will do for each elbow or foot] Doesnt feel greasy at all, you dont smell like a salad, and my zits are almost totally gone [though I still have 4 spots on my face that seem to be eternal, re erupting every month or so=]
Instead of paying $30US for a small bottle of olive oil I just use a small recycled saline eyedrops bottle. They also had a ‘prewash’ of rosemary / vitamin e infused olive oil [you rub it all over your face and it lifts the gunk out of your pores] but plain olive oil [about half a teaspoon] works just as well [i suppose i could pop a vitamine e capsuel and steep fresh rosemary in the olive oil, but why bother=)] that you follow up with a mild glycerine soap, so I use a generic unadulterated glycerine soap [available in craft stores, you are supposed to melt it and add frgrance and color=)]
Well, I like Keri Lotion - It’s about $6.50/US for a big bottle, and it’s not greasy or sticky feeling.
YMMV.
(Actually, my favorite one is Biotherm, but it’s about $30/US, so I’m assuming you’d like something a tad less expensive - not everyone is as loony as me about moisturizing. :))
I guess it’s kind of pricey, compared to grocery store stuff, but I swear by The Body Shop’s body butter. Cocoa butter is the best at moisturizing and staying put for a long time, but sometimes the quasi-chocolate smell gets to me, so I use the Shea butter one a lot.
One thing I’ve noticed - regardless of what kind of lotion you use, the key is to put some on every single time you get your hands wet. If I skip it after washing my hands, they get really bad really fast.
I am absolutely serious: if your hands are really badly chapped, it’s hard to beat “Udder Balm”. It’s sold in any farmer’s supply store and in many department stores; it’s cheap and it protects your hands better than anything else on the market. My sister, who is very wealthy and very concerned with her appearance (and by most accounts very attractive) uses it religiously.
My doctor recommended Cetaphil. It works pretty well but it can be hard to find. For some strange reason, Wally World keeps it apart from the other lotions. At least, my local WW does.
I like Suave Skin Therapy in Natural Oatmeal for very dry skin. Someone brought some in to keep in the women’s bathroom at work and I liked it so much I got a bottle to use at home too. It absorbs well and is non-scented (although it naturally has a very light scent that I find quite pleasant). It works better than many expensive brands I have tried, and it’s only $2.40 for a big bottle.
The very best stuff out there is Eucerin I tried it on the advice of my doctor. Although I seriously love my high-end smelly lotions, I have been forced to admit that they are vastly inferior to Eucerin as far as actually keeping my skin moist.
Put it on right after a shower, and your dry skin will disappear. I’ve been having problems lately because I have a new puppy, which means that I wash my hands about every 30 seconds, making my skin very dry. Haul out the Eucerin, and no-more-cracked-skin. Woo hoo!
My eczema-plagued father uses Vaseline for his body and Udder Balm for his hands and feet. A mild soap is really important too. Cetaphil rocks, but I find myself using Dove foaming cream facewash all over. Zim’s Crack Creme is okay, but I can’t stand the smell. It’s like an herbal hospital.
When my own eczema (the blistering kind – completely sucks, I assure you) acts up, I use creamy Vaseline on the problem areas. For every day, I use Lubriderm Daily Moisture all over. I am in love with it. I can use it on my feet and hands AND my body, without smelling like a Fruit Loop.
You’re probably best off with an unscented, non-comedogenic lotion. I suggest the Lubriderm Daily Moisture if you don’t have extensive cracking. Otherwise, go with the Udder Balm or straight Vaseline. Creamy absorbs better. It’s best if you cover up the Vaselined areas – socks on feet, gloves on hands – until it’s completely absorbed.
Athena’s right – if you’ve got dry skin, it doesn’t matter so much what you put on as when you put it on. Towel off after a shower and then while your skin is still damp, apply “hand lotion” all over. (I use a big pump bottle of Suave.) This seals in the moisture when it’s there.
For hands, I use creamy petroleum jelly – the “creamy” formula is somewhat less greasy, though you will have to wait a minute to let it sink in after you apply it. This comes in smallish (4-ounce? I’m too lazy to run upstairs and look) tubes, which are often found with the baby stuff rather than with the skin stuff. Vaseline makes it, and Eckerd makes a totally acceptable knock-off. This works as well as the Neutrogena Swedish Formula, which I used religiously for years – until they reduced the size of the tube from four ounces to three without changing the price. Way to get me to boycott a product for the rest of my natural life!
St. Ives Whipped Silk body lotion is very nice for overall use, very smooth and satiny. It takes care of most of my scaly patches just fine, but it’s a bit light for really badly dry skin. You’d probably be well served to get a regular lotion and then a seperate heavy duty hand lotion. That way you can use the body lotion for the rest of your skin (if your hands are that dry and you’re not washing them a zillion times a day, the rest of your skin is almost certainly dry and needs lotion, too) and as a base coat on your hands. Then you put the heavier stuff on your really dry places until they get better and you can just use the body lotion for maintainance.
For hand lotion, I’m very fond of that cream stuff Bath and Body Works makes. It’s very thick and creamy, and it’s something like $10/tube. Anything with glycerin in it’s going to be very moisturizing, too. I’ve got a tub of some kind of glycerin hand cream that my mother bought me years ago that is so good I’ve been hoarding it, only doling out little bits onto especially dry skin because I can’t find it around here. A friend of mine suggested pure shea butter, too, although I haven’t tried that yet. She says it’s incredibly good and incredibly cheap.
Something else I’ve had good results with is a salt or sugar scrub. Basically, you mix oil (I use plain old veggie oil) and coarse salt or a 1:1 white and brown sugar blend until it’s moist and gritty. Rub it on your hands for a bit, then rinse with clean water. The salt or sugar exfoliates, and the left-behind oil moisturizes. If you overdo with the oil or leave it on too long, you might feel a bit greasy for a minute or two, but then your skin feels sooo soft. It feels so good I’ve quit buying exfoliant products altogether, and just make my own in the kitchen for pennies per bottle. If you want, you can add soap scents or colorants to make it prettier, although that works best with the salt. The brown sugar has too much color and scent of its own for the added stuff to show up very well.
I buy the raw stuff and it’s like hard butter so I add a few drops of olive oil to it to soften it up. This stuff is fantastic, food grade and I put it everywhere, skin, hair, lips. It soaks in immediately and is not greasy. It’s also good for first aid. I use it for mild rashes on myself and my dogs.
Yeah, yet another udder balm praising.
I myself just use store-brand stuff from Shoppers, and find it works all right; maybe you just go to the wrong store.
Another vote for Eucerin. I get it at Walgreens. My fathers doctor recommended it when he had skin cancer long ago. I’ve never used anything since.
I tried Bag Balm, but it had an odor. I am guessing that Udder Balm is without the odor. If you are wondering about the name, it (Bag Balm) was originally developed for cow teats. The farmers who applied it got such soft hands that it was marketed for human beings with dry skin problems.
I like shea butter, too. Bath & Body Works makes a great hand lotion with shea butter. It’s rich and thick and not at all greasy. It’s called Healing Hands Cream, and I use it on my hands and the rough patches on my elbows. It’s a bit pricey, but they’re having a big sale right now. (Well, they were a week ago)
Burt’s Bees Milk & Honey lotion is good, too. It smells good, and soaks right in. It’s also not greasy or heavy-feeling.
Palmer’s Cocoa Butter lotion is an old favorite. It’s available at the drug store, and is very reasonably priced. Suave is another good one that’s cheaper.
I wash my hands a lot (I’m a preschool teacher), plus I hand-wash my dishes (no dishwasher), and in the winter my hands get very, very dry. I have bottles of hand lotion everywhere; by the kitchen sink, the bathroom sink, by the bed, in the living room, plus small travel-size tubes in the car and in my work bag. I’m always putting lotion on this time of year.
