ARE YOU GIVING YOUR HANDS ENOUGH ATTENTION?

Helpful tips to keep your hands gorgeous, hydrated, and youthful.

Our hands carry us though life. They pick up our belongings and our babies, they write down important details, type out papers, make our coffee in the early mornings, prepare our healthy meals - the meals for our families & our friends, they pour our wine after a long day, hold our loved ones close, create boundaries, protect us, and keep us healthy and thriving.

The American Cleaning Institute tells us that the average woman washes her hands about 8 times a day. That’s roughly 8 times a day our hands are susceptible to dryness, which is one of the leading causes of premature aging. Our hard-working hands are also constantly exposed to the sun, the most overexposed part of our body to the sun’s rays, besides our face. And while this helps our vitamin D levels in the safe zone, the sun is one of the leading causes of premature aging.

So why aren’t we paying exceptional attention to caring for this wildly important body part?

Taking care of the skin on our face is merely one of the more relevant steps in caring for our skin, but maintaining youthful hands can also help us feel, look, and actually stay young. Not only are we constantly looking at our hands, but so are others, and when we are striving to keep our complexion glowing and youthful, we neglect our hands; a visible reminder of our age and experience.

But caring for our hands is much easier than you think. Keeping consistency and routine alive, just like you do with your facial skin care regimen, is key. And here at Arianna, we are prepared to reveal some immensely important tips to turn back the hands of time – literally!

1. Don’t waste your facial crème. After applying your daytime Active Vitamin D Serum, or your Cellular Repair Day Cream Complex, or your daily AM or PM serums and moisturizers, don’t wipe the rest away! This is a fantastic time to take whatever excess is left on your hands and massage them into your hands and lower arms. This makes sure none of your product goes to waste, and ensures your hands are getting that extra boost of moisture, replenishment, and nourishment they so desperately deserve.

2. Exfoliate.  Washing your hands regularly makes sure you’re not spreading germs and bacteria, but exfoliating them insures they don’t develop thickened, calloused cells on the outermost layer of the skin, which can create the look of aged, toughened skin. Regular exfoliation of the hands sloughs off the keratinized cells that can develop from overuse (which we all know our hands are suffering from). Our Ultra Exfoliating Body Treatment is packed with dead sea minerals and natural oils, to not only exfoliate the hands, but help restore them with the vitamins and minerals needed to maintain soft and youthful skin.

3. Hydration is crucial. Constant cleansing strips the skin of its natural oils, and puts the skin in an imbalanced state. Because our hands work so hard, we’re often not thinking that we need to work on restoration of the moisture level, we’re simply making sure that they are kept clean. But keeping the skin of the hands deeply hydrated helps keep the oil levels equalized, which aids in the prevention of premature aging. Arianna’s Intensive Mineral Hand Treatment is loaded full of replenishing ingredients like Shea Butter, Olive Oil, Evening Primrose Oil, and Rose Hip Oil, which not only keep skin moisturized and soft, but also fight against free radicals and inflammation. For more intense hydration, Arianna’s Ultra Rich Mineral Body Butter helps prevent moisture loss by creating an occlusive layer on the skin, aiding in the binding of water molecules, which keeps skin young and supple.

4. Stretch it out. Bringing awareness to the hands can often start with physical movement. Regular stretches of the hands and strengthening activities keeps the hands powerful, flexible, and can help remind you the importance of regularly moisturizing or exfoliating as well. Try some of the supportive stretches and exercises in the diagram below, from Pitt County Schools.