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The cold weather can truly put your hands through the ringer. Just think—from attempting to text in frigid temps to juggling your coffee cup and your gym bag—by the time January rolls around, the skin on your hands is beyond dry.
So, sometimes you need something other than your go-to moisturizer to rehab them. You want a ritual, for instance, that makes you feel as though you’re giving your hands the TLC they deserve.
“Our hands do so much for us,” says Brent Ridge, co-founder of Beekman 1802, an apothecary-style farm that produces food, garden goods, and personal care products. “They open doors for us and give great high-fives. But we forget about them while we’re worrying about everything else.”
The thing is, since your digits are doing all the work like texting and holding your essentials, they aren’t really shielded throughout most of the day the way the rest of the body is. And the increasingly lower temperatures are only going to ravage that sensitive, exposed skin.
“More than any part of the body, hands get the worst of it throughout the day,” adds Beekman. “They’re constantly undertaking tasks that no other skin on our bodies has to endure.”
To replenish that moisture, Ridge and his partner Josh Kilmer-Purcell have concocted a DIY soak that’s full of ultra-nourishing goat milk, mineral-rich baking soda, soothing tea tree, and gently exfoliating lemon as your savior.
Keep reading to try out the recipe for yourself—your hands will thank you.
Comforting hand soak
Ingredients2 cups warm water1 Tbsp goat milk1 tsp baking soda3 drops tea tree essential oil1 Tbsp lemon juice2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1. Put the warm water in a bowl and add the goat milk and baking soda.
2. Soak hands for 5 minutes to soften cuticles.
3. Remove hands from bath and dry them.
4. Clip and file nails and push back any cuticles that are in need of maintenance. If any of the nails are discolored, soak them again, but this time with the lemon juice and white wine vinegar.
For your face, here are 5 lighter-than-air whipped moisturizers that can handle cool temps. Or you can opt for a moisturizer in which the key ingredient is your own blood.
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