American women, suddenly waking up to the incongruous difference between their botoxed faces and their hands, are going to serious lengths to improve ageing hands. However, many cosmetic procedures designed for the face are not only ineffective but also dangerous when used on hands, warns Dr Karyn Grossman, consultant dermatologist for Prescriptives. “Skin on the hands is thinner and does not have the same number of glands as the skin on the face,” she says. “Procedures such as laser resurfacing or deep peels are taboo on the hands, as there is a high risk of scarring.”
Instead of drastic surgery, Grossman’s buzz words are protection and correction. If you use anti-wrinkle cream on your face, she says, use it on your hands, too. She recommends Prescriptives Super Line Preventor (£30 for 100ml), followed by Crème de la Mer Hand Treatment (£60 for 100ml; 0870 034 2566) by day, and Prescriptives Skin Renewal Cream (£44 for 30ml) at night.
The award-winning manicurist Leighton Denny, at Harrods Urban Retreat, says the problem with hands is not so much one of ageing but neglect. “When a woman has a problem with her hair, she’ll try endless products and look for solutions. If you didn’t do anything to your hair and your face, imagine the state you’d look. Many women’s hands look terrible because they don’t give them the attention they need.” Denny, whose clients include Jade Jagger and Jemima Goldsmith, spent three years developing his excellent range, which includes Leighton Denny Skin Like Silk (£8 for 50g; 0845 004 2053), a salt-free scrub that gently sloughs off dead skin, and then turns to gel with water for added moisturising.
“Hand and nail care is as crucial to a woman’s wellbeing as it is to her anti-ageing regime,” says Jessica Vartoughian, known as the first lady of nails since she opened a nail salon in 1969. “Whatever you use on your hands should be good enough to use on the rest of your skin.” Her latest Jessana Hand Spa range is exactly that, with some of the products easily doubling up as body treatments: the Ionized Nail Soak (£12.95; 020 8381 7793) is a heavenly sea-salt treatment that works well as a bath soak, and the Marine Collagen Gel (£20.50), with silk, marine collagen and algae, is a light, luxurious hand lotion formulated also for use on the face and neck.
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In winter, low temperatures and changes in humidity further disturb the skin’s protection process, which, combined with less fat in the hands, causes chapped skin. Wearing gloves in cold weather is therefore essential, just as you should always wear rubber gloves when washing up to protect your hands against detergents.
Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream Intensive Moisturizing Hand Treatment (£15 for 75ml) is a lighter, less greasy version of its versatile, highly popular Eight Hour face cream and a must for surviving the cold. Tony Vargas, the company’s vice-president of research and development, says women must have a daily hand routine. “Women pay more attention to hands during the cold months,” he says, “but the sun is a far bigger ageing factor. A classic is driving in the sunshine and not realising the hands are exposed to all that sun damage. An SPF15 cream is essential.”
Exposure to UV rays also aggravates age spots caused by excess pigmentation due to hormonal changes. Many products on the market are multipurpose: moisturising, protecting and correcting. Sisley’s Sisleya Global Anti-Age Hand Care SPF10 (£65 for 75ml; 020 7491 2722) is the Rolls-Royce of hand treatments, while Lancôme’s Absolue Mains (£41 for 100ml) is a replenishing, anti-dark-spot hand treatment with SPF15, containing wild yam, soya and sea algae to target hormonal changes that affect the skin.
It’s easy to question why a cream that is likely to be washed off regularly should merit using — and buying at such high prices. However, cheap hand creams are often gunky, as most contain too much water and alcohol to be absorbed. An exception is Duchy Originals Hand Moisturiser (£5.95 for 250ml, from Waitrose; 0800 188884), which contains uplifting organic essential oils such as rose and mandarin or lime and bergamot.
Save the richer hand treatments for end-of-the-day pampering. Mary Cohr’s rejuvenating Youth and Beauty Hand Cream (£9 for 75ml; 0808 100 3102) boasts a catalogue of amino acids, vitamins and biological ingredients. Apart from being great value for a salon product, it’s ideal for parched gardening hands, including knuckles and nails, and it even works to minimise age spots. How handy is that?