Hey, thanks for the recommendation. It looks well-reviewed so I ordered some on Amazon. I hope it’s great! I’m running low on Dr. Scholl’s 
I’ve heard of C. Booth somewhere before … will keep an eye out for it.
Another one, for when you’re cooking: rub a bit of oil onto your hands. Sprinkling olive oil onto bruschetta? Sprinkle a little onto your palm and rub it in. Pouring oil for frying potatoes? Pour a little dab onto your palm and rub it in. Etc. etc. I accidentally poured out a smidge too much olive oil last night and rubbed it onto my elbows. They haven’t felt that soft in a while. 
The most bang for your buck is creamy petroleum jelly, which you can get a 4.5 oz tube of for a buck at the dollar store.
Do you mean this stuff?
http://www.dollartree.com/Creamy-Petroleum-Jelly/p303396/index.pro
I have a few tubes of that, it works a lot better than most of the other lotions I’ve tried and that is my current mainstay lotion, but it isn’t really good enough for when my hands get really bad (they used to have 7oz tubes for a buck, instead of the 4.5oz ones they have now). I got Neutrogena hand cream and that worked pretty well, but I will try some of the other suggestions listed. My hands were really bad a couple days ago and the creamy petroleum jelly didn’t do much when they were that bad, but the neutrogena (after about 5-10 applications over the course of a day) healed up the cracks.
Lanolin, get it in the baby/ ma ma section, it is used on dry nipples for breastfeeding moms. It is great!
This. A thousand times, this. And warm water is better than ice cold water, but cold water is better than nothing. Also, if you’re going to try the “slather it on at bedtime” routine but you can’t find cotton gloves, just use cotton socks. Cheap tube socks are fine.
Eucerin is great, as is A&D ointment. A&D ointment is mostly petroleum jelly and beeswax, by the way.
I have to use a prescription ointment with urea on my feet and legs, and so I rub the excess into my hands after my shower and moisturizing the feet and legs. That seems to take care of most of my hand moisturizing needs. I don’t know if there are non-prescription urea moisturizers on the market, though.
Also, just as an aside, if you buy something you’ve not used before, especially something with ingredients like lanolin or glycerine, test it for a few days on your inner upper arm. Don’t put it on your whole body for several days in a row without knowing if you’re allergic to it- I speak from experience.:smack:
My wife gets a lot of stuff from a nurse at a nearby hospital called Impruv. I don’t know how much it costs, but it works better than the sweat and spicy steak spit I was using before.
Bag Balm
corn husker made my skin peel
This!
I use this when things get really bad and it never fails to work. Other times, I use the overnight application of Bag Balm and that almost always works for me. Other lotions or creams just don’t work for me.
Vaseline petroleum jelly. And a pair of cheap cloth gloves.
Coat your hands, put on the gloves, go to sleep. They will be much better in the morning.
I’ve struggled with this for years, and just recently found, I think, the perfect answer: Cocoacare 100% Cocoa Butter.
It’s cheap (less than $2 for a tube) and comes in a yellow tube that looks somewhat like an oversized lip balm tube. You just rub it on and then rub your hands together to work it in.
Other moisturizers work okay, but the reason I love Cocoacare is because it has a nice, smooth texture and smells exactly like cocoa. The net result is that I use it more than anything else I’ve found (especially since “chemical smells” really bother me which always makes me loathe to apply other moisturizers).
Just to follow up on this recommendation, I ordered this cream and received it today. It’s a little more greasy than I’d like, and sticks around forever. I wouldn’t want to use it anytime I need to type shortly thereafter (like during the daytime, or at work)… but, it got my parched knuckles as smooth as baby butts. And it’s a big-ass tube, making it the most inexpensive lotion I’ve ever bought (I think). I’m going to use it every night from now on!
It also smells fantastic. Not chemical-y at all, it’s more cocoa-buttery. It has aloe, cocoa butter, beeswax, macadamia oil, wheat germ oil, grape seed oil, and honey in it. Pretty cool mix of stuff!
Palmer’s Cocoa Butter for me! I don’t find it especially greasy.
I do this (without the gloves) every night. I’m doing a lot of pottery these days, and nothing dries your hands out like working with clay, plus I live in a very dry place. Other lotions are nice, but I always come back to vaseline when my hands are like sandpaper.
when I have to use the greasy stuff, I just put some on the back of my hand, and rub it in with the back of the other hand, avoiding my palms entirely. That way my fingers are still usefull afterwards.
A nitpick, but I disagree with TruCelt. I use mineral oil on wood cutting boards and always put a little on the back of my hands during it but in no way is it as good or as effective as Eucerin. The combination of ingredients in the correct amounts is what makes it so great, not the ingredients themselves (although it does have urea, one of the few easy to find moisturizers that does). Eucerin Intensive has AHA so it sloughs off dead skin and absorbs very quickly, what I find to be the hallmark of a good “through the day” hand cream.
Overnight if it’s severe you may want something stronger, of course.
Mane & Tail Hand creme
Personally, I find it to be too oily. But it’s cheap and it’s powerful against cracked hands.
That’s something I never thought of. I do need my fingers to get in between my toes, though.
I used to use Avon’s Moisture Therapy exclusively for my hands, and then Neutrogena’s hand creme. However, those are both very thick, and I remoisturize every time I wash my hands. Therefore, I am happy to have found the Gold Bond Ultimate healing skin therapy cream, and it comes in a little tube that fits in my pants pocket. At home I use the Walmart knock off version, which is much cheaper. I always thought I needed the thick formulas, but this works pretty well without being extremely greasy.