The beginning of a year lends itself less to starting new things than to inspecting the ones already in place. Take the movements last year's self repeated without thinking and, just once, look at them deliberately. Hand beauty deserves a place on that list.
Over the holidays the hands have worked harder than we tend to realise. Cleaning, cooking, washing up for guests, journeys in cold air. By the second week of January, many people notice roughness on the backs of the hands and splits at the fingertips. It is evidence that the hands kept working until the very end of the year.
This article takes the four habits Soie regards as the basis of hand beauty, wash, moisturise, protect and settle at night, and sets one question beside each. No new equipment is required. Adjusting the order of things, and where they are kept, is enough to change the hands' year.
Wash: water temperature and drying
Hand beauty begins with how the hands are washed. The first question is whether the water is too hot. In the cold months the tap tends to run hotter, and hot water strips sebum and weakens the film that holds moisture in the skin. Turning it down to a temperature that feels slightly cool changes how much lipid the skin loses.
The second question concerns drying. Are you rubbing with the towel, and are droplets being left behind? Press gently, and dry between the fingers properly. A damp hand meeting cold air dries out all the faster.
Then there is the soap itself. Choose one that is not too strongly cleansing, and rinse thoroughly. A soap that gives moisture with every wash makes the most difference to those who wash most often.
Moisturise: the half minute after washing
The second habit is to give the hands moisture after washing. The question here is whether a moisturiser is standing beside the basin. The moments right after washing are when water is lost most readily, and whether moisture is replaced then depends far less on willpower than on where the bottle is kept.
Take one or two pearl-sized drops of serum on the back of the hand, bring the hands together to spread it, and work it in between the fingers and around the nails. It takes under a minute. During the day, a texture that leaves no stickiness lets you return to a keyboard or paperwork straight away.
A desk at work, a bag, the kitchen, the washroom. With one bottle for every place you wash your hands, the thought of applying it later, and the forgetting that follows, disappears. A 30 mL bottle is sized for precisely this.
One further question belongs here: do you moisturise only when the hands already feel dry? Waiting for discomfort means the skin has been short of moisture for some time. Hand care products are generally recommended for daily use even when the hands are not chapped, in the same way that the face is cared for whether or not it feels tight. Making the serum a reflex after every wash, rather than a response to roughness, is the change that matters most.
Protect: sunscreen and gloves
The third habit is protection. The winter question is whether you wear gloves. Shielding the backs of the hands from cold, dry air and from the wind when cycling or driving visibly lightens their load. On days of heavy wet work, gloves that keep hot water and detergent off the skin are another option.
The year-round question is whether sunscreen reaches the hands. The back of the hand is not covered by clothing and receives more UV than the face, yet sunscreen is usually an afterthought there. Apply a broad-spectrum product of SPF 30 or higher every morning and reapply roughly every two hours outdoors. Because sunscreen comes off with every hand wash, reapplying is especially important. Winter's weaker sun does not change the habit.
Protection also includes what the hands are asked to touch. Detergents, cleaning sprays and garden soil all draw moisture from the skin, and the hands that reach for them without gloves pay for it later. Pausing for the few seconds it takes to put gloves on, and taking them off only once the hands are completely dry underneath, is one of the least glamorous and most useful habits in hand beauty.
Settle at night: two minutes at the end of the day
The fourth habit is evening care. The question is whether the hands are given time before bed. Onto hands that are clean and softened by the bath, work the serum slowly from the back of the hand along each finger, around the joints and up to the nails. The hands are not washed during sleep, so moisture given at night stays with the skin until morning.
On very dry nights, a hand cream can be layered over the serum: serum first, cream second. When the hands are badly chapped, sleeping in cotton gloves is one option, and if redness or cracking persists, please consult a dermatologist. We have written more about the season in keeping hands from drying out in winter.
How Soie sees it
Set the four habits side by side and none of them is remarkable. The hand beauty Soie proposes begins with regarding the hands as a subject of beauty care like the face, but its practice is an accumulation of small movements: wash, then moisturise.
Soie's beauty serum for the hands, Enlight Hand Serum, and Moist Fragrance Hand & Body Soap, which moisturises with every wash, are tools for making that habit easy to keep. No stickiness; a fragrance pitched to be enjoyed close to the hands; a soap that can sit in the washroom for the whole family. The conditions for a good tool are the conditions for a lasting habit.
The full picture is gathered in our hand beauty guide. This year, start with one thing only: a serum beside the basin.
