Confinement has changed our habits. New routines, emotions and habits that end up affecting our skin in one way or another, especially our hands, but not only. Hand and body care is essential and very simple if we follow three basic steps: cleansing, exfoliation and moisturizing and adapt them to the new situation. How? Here we tell you how.
Does the extreme hygiene of these days dry out your hands?
Surely where you are noticing the dryness of your skin the most is on your hands. Why? Because we wash them much more frequently and, with this, we eliminate the barrier of natural oils that protects them. Of course, hand hygiene is key, but we can mitigate these negative effects if we use the right soap.
Step 1: maximum hygiene but with skin-friendly products
Alcoholic soaps de-protect the skin and can lead to dryness and cracking. Instead, it is better to opt for soaps that are milder and have a nourishing or moisturizing ingredient such as Dermaseptic soap by Laboratorios Babé. For daily use with physiological PH, fragrance-free, dermatologically tested and enriched with a moisturizing factor.
To the traditional hand washing, with soap and water, we have added another not so usual: the use of sanitizing gels. Possibly you have included this product in your routine and you are using it in your daily life. Its main problem is that it is composed of a hydroalcoholic base, which is very effective in eliminating bacteria and viruses but dries out our skin. The solution? Choosing sanitizing gels that incorporate moisturizing agents. The Q77+ sanitizing gel includes urea, an ingredient that deeply moisturizes the skin.
Therefore, the first step to recover our damaged hands is a gentle cleansing that incorporates moisturizing or nourishing ingredients in its formulation.
Step 2: Include an exfoliator in your routine
The exfoliation step is probably the one we skip the most. In addition, there is a false perception that because we wash our hands more, it is unnecessary to exfoliate them. But just because your hands are clean doesn’t mean you’re removing dead skin cells. In fact, as Estefanía Nieto, technical director of Omorovicza points out, hand exfoliation is more important than ever:
Dead cells must now be removed more assiduously. Extreme cleansing, in some cases up to fifteen or twenty times a day, makes the skin try to work faster at the cellular level to try to recover hydration, producing a possible desquamation and an imbalance of the skin.
The Gold Sugar Scrub by Omorovicza has a fair trade sugar base and, as its name suggests, includes gold colloidal among its components, which helps regenerate the skin and repair it in depth. In addition, this sophisticated scrub has a peptide rich in vitamin C, which acts as an antioxidant and promotes microcirculation and the production of collagen and elastin.
Step 3: moisturize with specific hand creams;
A proper exfoliation will not only remove dead skin, but will also help to recover the nutrients that the tissue has lost and prepare it for the products applied afterwards. A good hand moisturizer is essential, since hands have particular conditions and needs and specific problems that it is advisable to treat with a specific product.
The use of specific products is something that we have much more internalized if we talk about the face or body, but that can be applied to any area and more to the hands, which are always exposed. Medik8 Hand & Nail Cream leverages the technology of one of the best sellers of the firm, the hydrating serum Hydr8 B5, in a cream for hands and nails. It includes SPF 25 and anti-pollution technology and its ingredients include vitamin B5, which helps retain moisture, multi-weight hyaluronic acid, which penetrates to the deepest layers, provides moisture and helps retain it, and moringa extract, a cutting-edge antioxidant that creates a protective shield.
The skin of the body also suffers
But it is not only the skin of the hands that suffers from confinement. Uncertainty and emotional changes affect our skin. So do new routines. We spend many more hours in closed environments, which increases skin dryness and can translate into pimples, hypersensitivity, flaking, dehydration… The way to prevent dry skin on our body goes through the same steps as for our hands: less abrasive soaps, regular exfoliation and good hydration.
Aromatherapy Associates Relax Body Wash is a body wash that respects the skin’s lipid barrier. In addition, it has a relaxing effect, thanks to the essential oils of lavender and vetiver, which does not come amiss these days. The Tree Hut Shea Sugar Scrub is a gentle and natural body scrub based on shea sugar and Brazil nut, ingredients that make it very moisturizing.
Finally, the Cold Plasma+ Fragile Skin Therapy of Perricone MD is more than a moisturizer, it is a multitasking body treatment. It contains hydrating hyaluronic acid; a peptide that corrects skin tone and texture; retinol for cellular renewal and a active ingredient release system that ensures the absorption of nutrients.
Taking care of hands and body is more necessary than ever.
Gentle hygiene, regular exfoliation and good moisturizing. These are the three fundamental steps to take care of hands and body and look perfect skin despite the new hygiene measures and conditions that punish our skin.
Images courtesy of the above mentioned firms.
