Help For Your Hands

Chilly weather. A mountain of dishes. Dry air. It's enough to deplete the moisture from our skin and leave our hands looking dry, cracked and chapped. Yet with all the holiday parties and events on the horizon, the last thing we want is unattractive hands that a slick of polish won't disguise.

Fortunately for us busy mamas, pretty hands are not just something from our past. With a few hard-working products and hand-saving tips, our hands can survive Thanksgiving dinner and the cold weather ahead, and still look as lovely as ever!


1/ Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize! I can't stress this enough. Between bathing the kiddos, doing dishes and all the dry air, our hands continually take a beating. Keep a heavy-duty hand cream such as Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream ($4.49) close at hand to keep your skin nourished. Give your cuticles some extra attention with Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme ($6.49) to keep them soft and smooth.

2/ When you're in the shower, use some Booth's Ginger Sugar Body Scrub ($7.69) not only on your body, but try some on your hands. The nourishing shea and cocoa butters help to hydrate dry, parched skin and will get your hands off to a good start.

3/ It may be one extra step to think about, but this year as you wash the post-turkey day dishes, slip into these chic dish gloves ($22) to save your hands and your nails from water, which can actually contribute to them being dry and chapped.

4/ If you're not one to add a little color to your nails, at least keep a coat of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails on them to help strengthen nails and prevent breakage and chipping. If you have time, slick on a coat of nude-colored polish underneath to give your hands a more polished, yet natural, look.

Your hands do a lot - pamper them this season and keep them looking great!