5 Easy Steps to Building a Good Hand Care Routine

We don’t tend to think about a specific hand care routine. Often our hands just get the excess moisturiser rubbed into them that we don’t want to waste! Our hands go through so many daily stresses, they actually deserve a care routine in their own right.

You may not realise, but the skin on your hands is actually quite thin and gets thinner as we age. As well as being exposed to the sun, they have hand sanitizer applied to them numerous times a day, not to mention all the extra washing they are enduring in our current season plus the onslaught of cold weather. It's no wonder that they can so easily develop problems such as dryness, irritation, peeling and cracking!

We’ve put together 5 simple steps that you can take to help you build a good hand care routine before we head into winter.

STEP 1: Regularly apply hand cream

Regularly applying moisturiser to your hands will transform the look and feel of the skin on your hands. The washing, drying and sanitizing of our hands multiple times a day dries out the skin on your hands. A good moisturising hand cream will simply give back some much needed hydration. You can apply hand cream morning and evening or multiple times a day, it's up to you but if you make sure you’ve got one thing in your handbag, let it be hand cream.

Also if you apply hand cream just before bed this will allow overnight repair and hydration so you wake up with beautifully soft and conditioned hands.

Try Frei ol Skincare Hydrolipid Hand Cream

Hydrolipid hand cream moisturises the skin for 24 hours with skin feeling smoother with only 1 application. It regenerates and protects stressed hands, is quickly absorbed and is non greasy.

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STEP 2: Exfoliate

Just as you would exfoliate the skin on your face and body, it’s a good idea to do the same on your hands when you exfoliate your body once a week. Exfoliating with a gentle scrub will remove the top layer of dead skin cells to reveal fresh skin underneath keeping your skin looking revitalised and glowing. You can simply use your regular body exfoliator or if you don’t already use one, we can recommend one for you.

Guinot Gommage Facile is a great all over body exfoliator that you use in the shower. Whilst exfoliating your body, don’t forget to do your hands too! Gommage Facile contains loofa fibres. Loofa fibres are extremely resistant and have been used by women since ancient times to soften and deep cleanse the skin. They provide gentle exfoliation, for a pleasant and effective scrub.

Gommage FacileShower Exfoliating GelSkin200ml: £54.00

STEP 3: Correct

As we get older, our hands start to show the wear and tear they have been through. The skin on our hands becomes even thinner, starts to lose its elasticity and becomes more wrinkled. Age spots, darker areas of pigmentation can also develop from years of exposure to the sun. There are hand creams that contain active ingredients that work to reduce the appearance of pigmentation on the hands.

Mary Cohr New Youth Hand Care is a rejuvenating, anti-brown spot cream. Packed with vitamins including vitamin C, it helps reduce the signs of ageing and tackles dark spots and pigmentation. Active ingredients hydrate and protect the skin.

New Youth Hand CareYouth & Beauty Hand CreamSkin75ml: £19.50

STEP 4: Protect With Sunscreen

Not only should we wear an spf everyday all year round on our faces and neck but we should also apply it to our hands. UVA rays from the sun penetrate deep into our skin causing damage, premature ageing and worse case, skin cancer. Take a minute or 2 after applying spf to your face to rub some into your hands focussing on the back of your hands and knuckles.

You don't need a separate SPF cream just for your hands, simply apply the same one as you would use for your face. We like Dermalogica Invisible Physical Defense SPF30. This is a physical sunscreen that uses ultra-fine zinc oxide to form a physical layer on the skin to reflect away any harmful rays from the sun. Invisible Physical Defense suits all skin tones and skin types.

Invisible Physical Defense Mineral Sunscreen SPF30weightless physical sunscreenSkin50ml: £39.20

STEP 5: Dig Out Your Gloves

Sort yourself out with a pair of gloves that you are happy with now and when the temperatures drop, you will be ready! Wearing gloves, mittens, fingerless gloves or whatever you fancy is a really easy way of protecting the skin on your hands from suffering the harsh cold weather!

It's also good to get into the habit of wearing suitable gloves to protect your hands when you are doing cleaning or gardening activities that you know could be harsh on the skin on your hands.

Now it’s over to you!

So there you have it, 5 easy steps to show your hand some love! These are simple and easy steps that you can take to protect and treat your hands so that the skin looks and feels beautiful. Remember, moisturise, exfoliate, correct, protect with gloves and SPF!

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