Like many people, I have a slight obsession with skin care and beauty in general. This fixation is partly due to socially constructed norms, but I also believe it stems from the fact that our skin is our largest organ—a people-facing organ at that. Although I didn’t pursue a career in beauty, I chose a field that involves caring for people during their most vulnerable moments. One thing I quickly learned was the importance of hand hygiene and simple hand washing. Hand washing is the single most important strategy for preventing infections, including the spread of bacteria and viruses. Hand washing saves lives, end of story. But with that came the ever-present and severely uncomfortable issue of dry hands.
Dry, itchy, cracked hands that never seemed to feel better, even after using those so-called “best hand creams” you see mentioned on online beauty review blogs. After a long shift, or even during my shift, I’d often type into the Google search bar: “dry hands cream”—a fairly regular occurrence. I felt like I had tried every hand cream out there. Nothing had the functionality I needed in my line of work. At times, my dry hands were so unbearable that it was all I thought about—not only at work but also when I got home and in my everyday life.
My friends and colleagues who were also healthcare professionals—nurses, doctors, and therapists—had a similar issue, so it wasn’t unique to me. Not only were the dry hands super uncomfortable, but another thing that always bothered me was the fact that I was killing not only the bad bacteria on my hands but also the good ones through constant hand washing. I needed a really good cream for dry hands, one that was good for your skin and also supported the beneficial little bacteria that protect the skin barrier.
Search for the best cream for dry hands
The search for the perfect hand cream was a challenge because to my surprise none were as effective or functional as I needed them to be. I could not apply the cream and get right back to work, which was imperative in my line of work. These so-called amazing creams for dry hands either had a long drying period, strong fragrances or toxic ingredients, none of which I wanted to deal with. The most frustrating quality was the long drying period or the stickiness that remained after the dry-down. These are qualities that are not good for a very busy medical professional with multiple patient to see within the hour.
I may have tried most of the best luxury hand creams out there but none of them satisfied my needs. I wanted a hand cream that was extremely light weight, provided great hydration, moisturized and was fast drying so that a busy nurse, doctor or any medical professional could get back to work immediately! But with all those functional aspects, I wanted my unique so-called “BEST EVER CREAM FOR DRY HANDS” to be protective of the skin’s microbiome. I wanted to help restore some of those lost metabolites, bacteria and emollients to help support the microbiome. I also wanted my hand cream to be natural and exclude toxic ingredients, because like I said earlier, the skin is our largest organ!
What is probiotic skin care?
On my quest for the best cream for dry hands I researched formulating probiotics in skin care, an innovative approach to caring for the whole skin microbiome (more on this later). In short, the focus of probiotic skin care is on how to care for both the physical skin and also the little microbes that inhabit and benefit the skin. The good bacteria that live on our skin are there to help keep the bad bacteria at a reasonable level and maintain balance (homeostasis).
Probiotics are often referred to as the "beneficial bacteria", and rightly so. To understand how probiotic infused skincare work we must understand what probiotics do and its interaction with a thing called the microbiome. Probiotics are the good bacteria that reside on your skin in an environment called the microbiome and helps to maintain balance within that environment and the production of beneficial metabolites. Shifting the skins microbiome out of balance can lead to many unpleasant effects that manifest visibly on the skins surface, which probiotic skin care attempts to address.
The most well-known probiotics are those for your gut, however recent studies have shown that those beneficial effects that probiotics deliver to your gut are also great for your skin too! The Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium are the most studied probiotics for skin problems. Research into probiotics for skin conditions is a fairly new field but the evidence has suggested that probiotics can help with a variety of skin conditions.
Best lotion for frequently washed hands
It was out of the frustration to find a functional cream for dry hands and the benefits of including probiotics into skincare formulations that Nuebiome was founded. I wanted to formulate a skin care line that was supportive of the good bacteria that lived on the skin and also help to alleviate the discomfort that was experienced from constant hand washing.
During our extensive research it was discovered that by incorporating probiotics into the formulations it would have better hydration compared to hyaluronic acid, dead skin cells would be eliminated faster and red, irritated skin would be soothed. But that wasn’t all, if prebiotics and postbiotics were also included the benefits of the formulation would be amplified. The prebiotics would feed the good bacteria that lived on the skin to help support the skins natural defenses. The postbiotics would provide metabolites and amino acids to help soothe and condition the skin. It was my mission to incorporate all of these probiotics to create what I thought would be the best hand cream for nurses and doctors who frequently washed their hands.
We formulated our probiotic hand cream Amaretto and Biotic Hand Remedy. This is one of my favorites in the Nuebiome line, not only because it’s what started the entire probiotic skin care journey, but because its super effective and I finally found a hand cream that worked! I felt as if my hands were finally healed. Healed of dryness. Healed of the frustration. Healed from the constant search. Healed of the irritation and the discomfort that I experienced from the constant hand washing. We later formulated Biotic Relief Deep Hand Treatment to complement our hand therapy line. This rich hand cram is idea for the winter months and those suffering from severely dry hands.
