Hand lotion can do more than keep your hands soft—if you have sensitive or overworked skin, the right lotion can heal the little cuts and cracks that can make your hands hurt.
Look for lotions with shea butter and aloe for moisturizer, lavender oil (a natural antibiotic and calming agent), tea tree oil (smelly, but great for the skin and healing as well) or green tea extract. Some lotions have things like paraffin, which can keep moisture in, but which doesn't have any particular healing capacity of its own. Most inexpensive hand lotions are a mixture of water, mineral oil or petroleum and fragrance. Look for natural ingredients like beeswax, nut or seed oils and essential herbal oils.
Vitamin enriched hand lotions aren't especially more effective, because for vitamins to do you any good, they are taken internally. The exception would be vitamin E oil, which is a healing and excellent addition to face or hand lotions. But cheaper hand lotions, which might claim to have Vitamin E, probably don't have enough to do any good. Buy a little bottle of Vitamin E in your local drugstore and rub on the lotion after your bath each day, which your skin is damp.
Comments (1)
Good tips. The best lotions are the ones that contain petrolatum and mineral oil as these materials have been proven to have the best moisturizing effect.
Vitamin A is also a good ingredient for a skin lotion however, you are correct most manufacturers don't put enough in to do anything.
That is also true for ingredients like Aloe, lavender oil and green tea extract. Those ingredients are so expensive that only a tiny amount is used so you can claim it's in there.
Posted by Left Brain | January 18, 2007 4:41 AM
Posted on January 18, 2007 04:41