Ouch! What do you use?

Same here! And I work around food so I wash my hands a billion times a day, making the problem so much worse.
I don't know for sure the lotions you've tried, but the ones that have helped me the most are:
Udderly Smooth Udder cream (sounds gross, I know) &
Crabtree & Evelyn Gardeners Hand Therepy

I also bought some Aloe gloves from Kohls hand therapy collection that I sleep in after lotioning up.

Bag Balm works great, it was once recommended to me by a Doctor. Same concept as the Udderly Smooth, but it works. It is greasy, so you want to apply when you don't have plans to do much else for a bit, but if you leave it, you'll be amazed at how much better your hands and feet look and feel after just one use.

Alternatively, you might think about getting a parrafin bath for home use. They aren't particularly inexpensive, but they are wonderful. I've had mine for years. Target used to sell one by Therabath and still may. Most beauty supply stores will carry a professional one, which is what I have. They really do the trick!

I have eczema on my fingers, so I deal with crazy amounts of cracking and bleeding.

You should be able to get a 1% cortisone cream at the drug store. It's a steroid cream that helps your skin to retain moisture. When my hands get really bad, I slather that on at night, then put on those cotton beauty gloves over top. It really helps, and I find it doesn't give me the waxy feeling that most effective skin creams do.

Do you have the problem in the summer?
I tend to have that problem, and when it is very cold and the house is heated the problem is worse.

Are you certain it is just dry skin and not something more serious? There are many medical conditions that are easily treated which can cause skin problems. Start with the doctor. The most common is an underactive thyroid.

If it's weather related dry skin, there is really no lotion that will solve this permanently unless you are slathering several times a day. Many times it is your diet.



After the doctor, some things to try:

Make certain you are getting enough fat in your diet. Your skin and hair need oils (so does the rest of your body, however skin and hair are visible.)

Take shorter showers with cooler water. Hot water dries skin.

If you live somewhere with low humidity and can afford it, look into buying a humidifier.



I think the most important thing is diet. Good luck.

I use Aquaphilic hand cream every day to keep my hands from getting dried out and cracked and It works amazing.

Eucerin lotion.
Don't use anti-bacterial soap , very drying.
Don't use hand sanitizer that has alcohol in it.
Take fish oil supplements.

I mix baby oil gel with cocoa butter & shea body lotion and put it on right after I get out of the shower. Yes. it is greasy for a little bit, but goes away. Never had any more trouble with dry skin.

I use the Burt's Bees Hand Repair Kit - http://www.burtsbees.com/natural-products/body-hands-feet-hand-moisturizers/hand-repair-kit.html

Comes with gloves, 2 different hand cremes and a cuticle creme. I try and lather on one of the hand cremes and the cuticle creme every night and put the gloves on but I usually remember 4x a week. My hands got SO bad last year and this is the only thing that helped them. Pretty reasonable value for $13 I think.

Another thing that helps is watch out for anything with lotions/scents added, including dishwasher gel. I try and wear dishwashing gloves as the excess soap/water tends to crack my hands worse than anything else.

I agree with the cortisone cream, I have some if you want And use burts bees...I have that too! That is what Andrew and I use