Hand Cream : Beauty and Fashion Tech

Five Great Uses for Creme de la Mer (Psst.. It Can Actually Be a Good Value)

Oh the joy of Creme de la Mer. Some swear by it. Others say it is over-rated. Most agree that it is expensive, and yes, if you use it as your daily face creme it is.. But if you use it for more limited purposes, it actually can become a pretty good value. I never apply it to my full face. Instead I stretch an ounce of the lovely thick creme for over a year using it in the following ways.

* As an eye creme. La Mer makes an expensive and rather small eye balm, but the creme works just as well. In fact it is one of the best dry skin eye creams I have found. A teeny tiny bit is all that is needed for some wonderful overnight hydration.

* Condition your lashes and brows. While you are putting a bit under your eyes, rub some into your lashes and onto your brows. It will not irritate your eyes and will condition both lashes and brows.

* As a sore skin treatment. Consider that terrible feeling and look of a nose that is raw and red after a bad cold. Regular lotion stings on the dry skin. But Creme de la Mer does not. I have found nothing better to treat a raw nose. Use it at the first signs of a cold and you can prevent it altogether.

* Dry skin spot treatment: Got patchy areas of super dry skin? Use a bit of Creme de la Mer on only those areas.

* Soften calluses. To help remove calluses, rub some high strength glycolic acid such as AB Skin Care Happy Feet (read review) on them and apply a bit of Creme de la Mer to seal it in and provide moisture.

Creme de la Mer is available online and in better department stores. For use in small areas, look for the smaller and much cheaper .24 Sample Size. A small tub will last quite a while if you are only using it as an eye or lash cream. My last sample size tub lasted 3-4 months because I only used it for my eyes.

Comparison shop for Creme de la Mer

Popularity: 24% [?]

Smith’s Rosebud Salve

Smith’s Rosebud Salve is great stuff. If you have dry hands, or spots of dry skin, or if you just want a bit of old fashioned salve to rub on once in awhile, this is some of the best stuff out there. The price is great too!

With a handy and easy to carry container, it is nice to keep some of this stuff around or in a handbag . It is also one heck of a good salve for dry skin. It has a nice calming and soothing feel and it protects for quite some time.

The salve can be used on both skin and lips, although Smiths also makes its product in a special Smith’s Strawberry Lip Balm as well. For more on that, see my post at Girl Gloss.

Shop for Smith’s skin care products

Popularity: 7% [?]

Soap and Glory

So I was walking through Target, which meant that I was also taking my mandatory trip past the cosmetics aisles to see what is new. That is where I found my new favorite hand cream from Soap and Glory Cosmetics.

There in front of me was this big pink (very pink) display, full of fun looking stuff such as soaps and hand creams and lip plumpers. Being in need of hand cream, I grabbed a small size tube, took it home, and became very, very happy.

The Soap and Glory’s Great Shakes Hand Cream says right on the tube: “The most astonishing hand cream ever? You Decide!” I don’t know that I will go so far as to say the most astonishing ever, I have to leave myself a bit of wiggle room after all, but this is one heck of a good hand cream. It fells great, absorbs well, yet stays moisturizing, and with fennel and lotus flower, it smells terrific!

I honestly was pretty darn amazed to stumble across such a great thing in a new line at Target. Then I found out that the Soap and Glory products are from Marcia Kilgore, the woman behind the Bliss spa products. That made the high quality clear. What still amazes me is that it was at Target and at a very decent price (I think $3.99 for my small tube).

This stuff is very new and The Soap and Glory website looks like it is just getting off the ground. But apparently you can find this great hand cream, along with some other interesting looking products at Target. It is associated with Boots, so it can possibly be found anywhere that Boots products are sold and is available at Boots stores in the UK. Just look for the big pink display!

Popularity: 13% [?]

Badger Balm

A bit over a week ago, I reviewed Badger SFF 30 Sunblock. I also mentioned the Badger balms. Badger makes a wide variety of these all natural ingredient balms. I gave the foot balm a try and found it to be nicely moisturizing and great on my particularly dry heels. It contains lots of great oils, such as olive, jojoba, eucalyptus, and tea tree oils.

Another good Badger balm is the hand balm. I really liked using that when my hands felt dry from typing. This balm would also work for much drier hands than mine and would be good for those who often work with their hands.

I also tried the sleep balm, which is a relaxing balm to encourage sleep. It reminds me quite a bit of a pulse point cream that I had years back and just adored. Containing Bergamot, Ginger, Rosemary, Lavender, and Balsam Fir, the aromatic balm gives off a relaxing scent when applied on the temples and pulse points. It also can be applied under the nose or to the lips. I love the smell of this stuff! Badger’s night-night balm is a similar balm formulated for children.

All of the badger products also have an adorable badger on the packaging. For me, that is a bonus because I happen to really like badgers!

Shop for more Badger products

Popularity: 10% [?]

A Look at Gloves in a Bottle

Gloves in a Bottle is a shielding lotion that helps keep irritants from bothering the skin, while keeping moisture in. I recently used a bottle of this over a period of a week and was pretty happy with it. I tend to have issues with my hands getting dry, especially when I use the computer a lot. I found that by using Gloves in a Bottle over time, my hands generally stayed comfortable and moisturized, especially when I reapplied it before using the computer keyboard and mouse. A similar product is Skin MD Natural.

You can purchase Gloves in a Bottle at Amazon.com or at various drugstores.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Skin MD Natural: Skin Shielding Lotion

Some time ago, back when the air was still cold and dry, I was sent a bottle of Skin MD Natural to try. What perfect timing! My hands were dry all winter and I found that this product helped quite a bit.

Skin MD is not a conventional moisturizer. Instead, it is a “shielding lotion” that acts as a protective barrier on the skin to keep out chemicals and irritants. This also allows natural oils to remain in the skin, hence preventing dryness.

With a number of good testimonials, I was looking forward to trying the product. I kept it in my purse and reapplied it fairly often over the course of several weeks. While it doesn’t feel like a moisturizing hand lotion so much, it does work, especially over time. It absorbs quickly and completely. Because of that, I initially didn’t feel like it did a lot for dryness. But after using it regularly, I found that indeed my hands were much less dry. I also found that if I applied a strong standard hand cream at night, then all I needed during the day was a few applications of the shielding lotion. After several weeks of use I was pretty well addicted!

Now that there is finally some moisture in the air, my hands are naturally less dry. But now I am finding that I reach for the Skin MD before I work in the yard or do cleaning. The shielding factor is nice for times when I know I will be doing things that tend to irritate or dry out my hands.

You can order a free sample of Skin MD here. The same link also provides a way to order online. It is also generally available at Walgreens.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Review: Yu-Be Moisturizing Cream

I am working on an update to the look of Beauty and Fashion Tech, so there is just a quick review for today. Yu-Be Moisturizing Skin Cream, Original Japanese Formula is one of those products that I want to love, but unfortunately I don’t solely because of the smell. First, the good part: This intensive moisturizer, popular with outdoors people and which has had some very good press, generally does a good job. It provides great moisture, and when I tried it on some patches of very dry skin, I quite impressed. This stuff took care of some intensely flaky dry areas on my legs that normally nothing works well on. Unfortunately it also has a strong camphor smell that was a turn off for me, so I just don’t love it. For a super dry patch somewhere away from my face, I am happy with it, but I won’t use it on my hands or near my face. Of course if you like the smell of camphor, then you will likely love this stuff.

Popularity: 4% [?]