Amazing dry hand discovery

[BewareTheBeardedDragon]

I have horribly dry skin on my hands - particularly finger tips which crack and bleed, and have tried so many products over the years with little real success.

Was watching The Witchfinder on IPlayer (unlikely source of beauty tips) and a character said her soft hands were because she rubs a knob of butter into them twice a day. I think it was meant as a joke - the internet yielded little/no results.

Decided heck, I'll try anything at this point and 3 days in it is honestly the best results I have ever had. And it doesn't even make my hands greasy. Rub it in and then rinse hands if I need to do something, or not if I don't. They are fine to use after 5 mins or so with no rinsing.

My skin is so much smoother, even the worst bits on my finger tips. Wanted to share in case it helps anyone else.

Olive oil works well for me. I discovered this at baby massage 13 years ago and have continued using it!

My grandmother was in service and she said the maids used to steal a bit of butter to use as face moisturiser.

Phew, perhaps I'm not insane after all 😂

I have tried the olive oil and sugar scrub pug - for me it doesn't help. My mum swears by olive oil but it doesn't appear to do anything for my skin. She on the other hand can't tolerate lanolin while I can and used it when I was suffering with breastfeeding induced nipple issues.

It was also in The Handmaid's Tale. The handmaids aren't allow to 'beautify' themselves so Offred used to keep the butter from her lunch plate to put on her face at night.

When DS was little he had eczema, which he fortunately grew out of. I used to apply Aveeno to the scaly bits of him twice a day and my hand were beautifully soft from that.

Another vote here for lanolin. I get terrible cracks and splits in my fingers and edges of my cuticles at this time of year. In desperation last week I put some leftover Lansinoh nipple cream (lanolin) on the cracks before bed and then slathers my usual hand cream on top and the improvement was noticeable the next morning. I've also been using on the awful rough skin and cracks on my heels and it's made a huge difference.

I've seen jars of lanolin in my local agricultural merchants so once I've finished the nipple cream I'll get some from there as it's cheaper. Lanolin is known making skin soft, my husband is a farmer and when they used to keep sheep, always said that after wrapping the fleeces post shearing his hands were so smooth and non of the normal awful snaggy bits.

I find Lanolips amazing for cuticles and lips although I haven't tried slathering it all over my hands (I use Kiehls Intensive for that). Lanolips do a hand cream but it's not very good unfortunately

When I bake a cake I often grease the tin with my hands, and afterwards just run my hands under the lukewarm tap while rubbing the excess into my hands. So I get you OP, it makes my hands nicely moisturised but I don't really find it lasts (otoh I don't do it every day). I wouldn't say it's a miracle but I don't think you're a nutter!

In The Handmaid's Tale (book) she uses the rationed butter as moisturiser

Really can't beat neutrogena concentrated hand cream. I use it every night before I go to sleep and it keeps my hands soft all the next day. It's magic.

Remember the butter thing from the handmaids tale but don't fancy trying it out personally!

I always find the backs of my hands get really dry and my cuticles are horrendous. I gave my self a long over due manicure the other day and managed to snip off a huge pile of dead skin from my fingers. Lovely. Anyway, I’ve decided to try to keep on top of it and not let them get so bad again and have been looking at all different creams and such, but one thing that keeps coming up is Vaseline. So last night I smothered my hands in my normal hand cream, and then a finger tip sized dollop of Vaseline for each hand. Rubbed that in as best I could and then popped on some cotton gloves. My hands are the softest they’ve ever been in my life today. In fact I keep stroking the back of my hands like a bit of a weirdo lol but I’m just shocked at how nice they feel. I think I’m going to do this at least once a week and hope it keeps them soft. I did the same with my feet too and my heels are softer today too!

my indian grandmother used to do this. very soft hands. use unsalted though

I wonder if ghee would work. I have a large tub doing nothing.

I find that if I burn my hand cooking, nothing soothes it and promotes healing like a bit of butter. I use some immediately and another bit last thing before bed, then twice a day for a few days (depending how bad the burn is).

I know the healing power of butter is supposed to be nothing but a old wives’ tale. For this reason I didn’t try it until I was over 50. Really regret the delay

Does it have to be butter butter? I only have dairy free margarine!

My hands are terribly dry and cracked, nothing works

My feet got a bit dry, and olive oil worked amazingly for them, but it doesn't so well on my hands. Neutrogena or Diprobase is better.

But the butter thing sounds interesting. As a vegan, I wonder if it'd work with Vitalite!

Yes to udder cream - it’s Lanolin, same as for nursing mothers! My DH uses it as works outside and hands crack in winter, a lot of construction trade use too

Yes - my butter is unsalted. Butter for burns is interesting. Marg or other butter substitutes would not be the same but may work I guess?
I'm sure ghee would be fine as it's clarified butter, unless what does the food is the stuff that's clarified out. Worth a try maybe.

Udder cream sounds interesting. Thanks

The good

I use this too, try a bit of granulated sugar too, really works for me. I massage it in in then wash with soap.

I use Wilko's cracked heel cream on my very dry hands. Cheap as chips and very effective. Totally get the butter thing as well though, if olive oil & coconut oil work, why not butter?

I have Psoriasis and my fingertips (and toes) are dry, scaly, cracking and bleeding as I type. I'm going to try this for a few days, OP. I am utterly desperate. Thank you for posting.