Hands like an ancient crone...

[GiveMyHeadPeaceffs]

I have the hands of an ancient crone at the grand old age of 43... I slather them in hand cream, I've tried wearing cotton gloves at night, I've tried using "gentle" hand wash but to no avail! I'm now open to any and all advice about what to do, tips anyone?

Have you tried using an oil and a cream?

I do this at night with almond oil, or any facial treatment oil I'm using, give it 5 minutes, then apply handcream.

Ooh sounds like a plan! I'll give it a go!

Neutrogena Norwegian Formula is the best one. I have dinosaur's hands and I have so many tubes of handcream everywhere but that's the best one. Also if you are doing housework or washing up, put hand cream on then rubber gloves over the top. It helps it sink in whilst you work and your hands are all soft afterwards.

Also L'Occitane does very good hand cream. It smells fabulous too.

I agree with MissBattle, I love L'Occitane shea handcream. I also use their hand scrub every few days, it's oily and leaves my hands really soft, then I slather handcream on top.

L'occitane Shea butter hand cream for me too. So good.

Neutrogena didn't really work for me but I like the idea of slapping on hand cream before pulling on rubber gloves. I tend to wash my hands lots since I had my ds 9 months ago so my mitts have got worse and my cuticles are verging on reptilian! Weirdly, my nails are good

Thank you! I'll check out l'occitane!

You could try a diy hand scrub. Pour some oil into your hands then add a couple of teaspoons sugar. Rub over hands. Rinse. You'll have a bit of oily residue. Slather handcream on top.

I'm definitely going to try that, Deux!

Do you protect your hands when washing up and cleaning? The constant water and chemicals don't do delicate skin any favours!

Best thing I did was get rid of all the anti bacterial hand soaps (read that tip on here). My hands were better so quickly. I swear by The Body Shop's hemp hand cream. It's a bit pricey but a couple of days use can transform my hands.

Body shop Hemp Handcream is my favourite.

I can tell the difference if I have to use another brand.

There is an oil too.

Often on special offer if you look online.

Oh and we don't have handmade at home. Just bar soap.

I use rubber gloves for any wet cleaning job.

I am 48 and my hands are bearing up pretty well (sun damage aside)

I've used Crabtree & Evelyn's Gardener Therapy for years but lately found out the ginormous jar of cold-pressed coconut oil is even better - and costs a fraction of the price.

I found the difference in how rough my hands felt was the quality of the liquid soap. Now I stock up on bargain finds at tk maxx. Sometimes they have Korres which retails for over £10 on sale for about 3-4. So gentle on your skin, you could comfortably wash your face with it too.

Thank you so much for your tips all! I'll definitely change my cheap and nasty hand wash and I'll try all the hand cream recommendations starting with the body shop one simply because there's one near me! Thanks again...un-cronelike hands here I come

I agree with the other posters on the Bodyshop Hemp handcream and also the liquid soap. I've switched to bar soap too.

Also, plain old Vaseline rubbed into cuticles is very good. I get really dry skin around my thumb nails which gets on my nerves and then I start picking [embarrassed] and Vaseline stops that.