In Search of the Right Lotion

My other blog was where I had planned to post everything about my life -- my (mis)adventures, saving money, my experiences as a consumer, my culinary experiments and favorites, my kids and any trivial topic that caught my fancy.

But somehow, I'm not sure if I should be mixing posts on pear tarts and stinky farts (excuse the combination -- that's what I'm talkin' about). I'm afraid that the conversation about potty training and similar topics will kill any appetite for my recipes.

Of course, I swear that the kids don't hang out in the same room while I cook or bake, and I wash my hands a bazillion times a day plus sanitize -- I've got the gradually healing cracks in my knuckles to prove it. But it's probably TMI for a single blog.

On the topic of my knuckles (to start with something a little less odiferous than the twins' potty training), I'm an old hand at battling the dry skin.

It happens every winter. The temperatures fall, the heat kicks on a lot more, the humidity plunges to Death Valley levels, and my already abused hands start to crack and bleed like those of a laundress.
It might not be as bad if I didn't have to wash my hands all the time. But if I'm cleaning up after the twins one minute, and preparing meals or baking the next moment, I think my hubby and any dinner guests appreciate the fact that they don't have to worry about E. coli in their ma po tofu.

When the twins were born premature -- missed that entire third trimester -- the hospital staff scared the pants off me when they told me that if my hubby and I were careless, the babies could catch something like a cold, which would be an inconvenience to a normal person but could be lethal to their underdeveloped lungs.

Like all the other people -- doctors, NICU nurses, home nurses, feeding therapists, etc. -- who cared for the twins, I took the most easy and basic health precaution ever -- washing my hands or cleansing with hand sanitizer. My knuckles aged from 30 to 50 overnight.

Common sense says just slather on some lotion -- der! -- but they don't all work equally.

Note: Nobody and no company asked me to check any of the lotions I tried. I never even got free samples. I basically just used what I could find and buy on my own.

I found some antibacterial lotion at Bath and Body Works that went on smoothly without a greasy feel, but it evaporated or absorbed too quickly in the dry air. (But I liked the fragrance and keep a small tube in my purse for going out, which is when I'm more interested in fighting germs.)

I had received a little tube of l'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream at Christmastime from my mom, and it was amazing. It wasn't greasy and it kept my hands soft as long as I made sure to put it on every time I washed it off. And it was gone in a week, and I couldn't afford to buy more. It would have cost me about $25 a week, or $100 a month to keep using it.

So I tried the usual suspects at WalMart, Target and my local supermarket, Meier, most notably Neutrogena Norwegian formula, Vaseline Intensive Care, Jergens, Curel, Lubriderm, Eucerin and Aveeno.

There were a couple standouts for me.

Eucerin Calming Cream was rich and non-greasy (it comes fragrance free and is packaged in a nice, large tube), and
Neutrogena Norwegian Formula was a little greasier and is available in a fragrance-free version. I also liked
Norwegian Formula FAST ABSORBING Hand Cream, which cuts down on that slippery can't-even-pick-up-my-coffee-cup feeling. More recently, I've been trying out a new bottle of Eucerin Intensive Repair Enriched Lotion, which is working very well, but it's a little greasier and I have to be careful or things slip from my fingers.

For good measure, just before I go to bed at night, I've been experimenting with smoothing some pure shea butter or Aquaphor into the knuckles and around the fingernails and then covering everything with one of my other lotions.

 So far, my hands have been doing better -- unless I forget to reapply the Eucerin. Then I smear it on like there's no tomorrow, and at about ten bucks for a giant tube, I can afford it. I've also started wearing gloves for dishwashing and other cleaning.

We'll see how it goes.