I’m doing really well with hand care at the mo, although regular readers will know that I tend to dip in and out, furiously applying liberal amounts of hand cream every hour for a few weeks, before finding it tedious and not bothering for another few weeks. However, it’s been a little longer than I few weeks that I’ve been following some great hand habits, using hydrating soaps, a pumice on any rough bits every night and plenty of hand cream throughout the day. I’ve also recently introduced two new members to my hand care family, from the lovely Margaret Dabbs Fabulous Hands range. Margaret Dabbs is most famed for her podiatry thanks to her Marylebone clinic and range of foot products. However, she’s recently branched into hand care with a great selection of products to cover all aspects of maintaining fabulous hands. I’ve been playing around with a couple of these new launches, one of which is amazing, the other of which is quite fun and has it’s place, but probably isn’t an essential.
Starting with the non-essential which is the Hand Protection and Finishing Spray. Just as you have a setting spray for your face and a a finishing spray for your hair, you can now get one for your hands too. None of these types of sprays are absolutely necessary, but they do serve a purpose, with the particular intentions of this spray being mostly to protect hands from the elements and any external factors that dry or age hands. The cynic in me says this is a bit of a waste of money, but the beauty-lover in me cannot get enough of the concept. I just love the fact that after a manicure, or a good hand scrub or even just before bed after applying my other hand care products, I can set all my good work in place with a couple of sprays of this. It’s got a lovely, fresh fragrance of mandarin and geranium, and it works by forming a very thin film over hands to create a barrier. It’s non-greasy, you can’t feel it at all once applied and whilst it isn’t an absolute essential for me, it’s certainly something I’ll continue using. You can find it here – link – for £22.
Now on to the star product out of the two, which is the Nourishing Nail & Cuticle Serum. A quick scan of Instagram feed for my NOTD posts will show you just how awful my cuticles are, even though I have weekly manicures; they’re dry, flaky, extremely obvious and very tired looking, and I’ve tried all sorts of oils with varying degrees of success. This serum has made the most amazing difference to my cuticles, so much so that my manicurist thought I’d been for another manicure elsewhere in-between visits. I apply this every evening – two pumps cover all 10 nails – and my cuticles are no longer raggedy, uneven or dry looking, and instead are starting to look like those lovely clean lines you find on the cuticles of Nail Bloggers, which, up until recently, I concluded was only achievable via wizardly. If you struggle with rubbish cuticles then you absolutely need this handbag-sized hero in your arsenal. It’s £12 here – link – and it’s safe to say I’ll be stocking up.
I had a feeling I’d like the Margaret Dabbs products as her brand has such a good name, so I’m excited to try other things from the range such as the Hydrating Hand Sanitizer – how good does that sound? – the Intensive Anti-Ageing Serum and Nourishing Hand Wash, all of which can be viewed here – link.
*PR Samples
