This is definitely not a beauty blog so this post might seem a little off-topic. You’ll have to trust me that it is craft-related.
I work with paper. I’m guessing you spend a lot of time with it too. And when you’ve done a lot of paper-based projects (or just handle paper in the course of your day) you know it can make your hands really dry. Like, painfully dry.
I experienced this when I was designing my DVD for Paper Wishes. It was January, and I’d been working on these card projects for months. Winter in Poland is freezing cold and dry, a combination that looks pretty outside but turns your skin into lizard hide. Snow and wind means you don’t go outside unless you have to. So you’re inside with the heat on, which is…dry. Hello, Lizard Lady.
The DVD is on mixed media, so most of the projects involved stencils, paint, gesso, embossing paste, stamps and other things that require regular hand and tool-washing.
The end result—between the paper, the cold and the washing—is that my hands got super-scaly. Lotion during the day doesn’t really work because I don’t want to get it all over my projects. What’s a Lizard Lady Crafter to do?
Here’s my tip: Spa gloves and vegetable oil. Yes, really.
I saw these little cotton “spa gloves” at the local drugstore and thought—Oh, no, does this make me a diva? Is it one short step to wearing a leopard-print eye mask? While reaching for the gloves with red, raw hands, I figured I’d better try it anyway. So I put vegetable oil all over my hands, put on the gloves (endured my husband’s witty comment about mime school) and wore them overnight. After a few nights it made such a difference I wanted to give everyone a set of these cheapie spa gloves and a bottle of Wesson.
So yes, that’s my Crafting Beauty Secret. Glamorous, right? Who cares, it works.
You can also use hand lotion, but vegetable oil is a natural option and doesn’t have any dyes or perfumes that can irritate your skin. Yes, you do feel a bit like a French fry but it’s worth it if you’re allergic or have sensitive skin.
We’re hopefully out of the winter cold now—even though I was wearing a coat and gloves to the store the other day. It still happens that paper handling and frequent hand-washing (and stencil washing, brush washing and stamp washing) can be hard on our hands no matter what the season, so now I’m doing this treatment about once a week to as a preventative measure.
And come next winter, I’ll be ready at the first snowfall.
