Who’s hands are these?

Do your hands look like they belong to someone else?

Someone much older???

I looked down at my hands one day and thought: “Who’s hands are these? Someone is obviously holding my real hands for ransom somewhere because these are clearly not my hands!”

Your hands. They take so much abuse: house cleaning, sun exposure, gardening, even our office jobs (all that filing!) all take a toll. Even gradual (and therefore cumulative) sun exposure results in loss of elasticity and age spots. How many times did you actually put an SPF of 15 on your hands before going out for the day? Be honest. Probably never, huh?

Hand creams, hand “butter”, and even petroleum jelly seem like they should help, and, to some extent, they do – temporarily. But because they only “sit” on your skin, they never really do what you’d hoped: improve the look of your hands.

Hand creams alone won’t address the problem of tired, worn-out, dry-looking skin.

You’ve got to slough off the dead skin cells. Well, just like microdermabrasion kits promise and deliver a renewed-looking more vibrant complexion, a similar type of kit for your hands will do the same. Your skin will glow. It will look more “alive”, better-toned and more supple.

The trick is to do this regularly. Just like you cannot get your hair cut once and have it look great for the rest of your life, you can’t do a treatment on your hands once and be done with it forever. This is not a “trick” of the cosmetic industry to sell more products. The same is true for the products you use on your face. Over time, the improvements show. With continued use, the transformation is sometimes startling.

If you don’t want to spend the money on a micro-dermabrasion/scrub kit for the hands, you can let a face scrub do double-duty. You can even use hot salt or sugar scrubs made for the body. Just do something if your hands are looking older than the rest of your beautiful self. It’s never too late to start. You can also put a heavy duty cream on your hands over night while wearing cotton gloves. (Hint: you can also do this for feet.) You won’t get quite the results you will get with a scrub and the full Monty, but at least you will soften up any dryness, and address that issue. As soon as you can, though, do get the hand kit and use it religiously.

Here’s how it works: you use the scrub 1st. Then you follow with the hand cream. At night, if you prefer, you can do the scrub, then follow with the special night cream. The results are amazing! No wonder few people have a problem with doing this on a regular basis.

You can put a heavy duty cream on your hands over night while wearing cotton gloves. (Hint: you can also do this for feet.) You won’t get quite the results you will get with a scrub and the full Monty, but at least you will soften up any dryness, and address that issue. As soon as you can, though, do get the hand kit and use it religiously.

As I said, over time your hands will feel and look better. Prettier. And what woman doesn’t want that?

Elizabeth Sutor is a Makeup Artist and Wardrobe Consultant. She can be reached at elizabethsutor@hotmail.com or 302.312.9241. Her website is lookinggreatdaily.com.