O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream

Moisturizing without watering down your macho persona

Text & photos by Tom Hintz

Posted – 11-2-2011

With winter fast approaching the season for dry skin and those irritating cracks and soreness is upon us. The wood and lots of the things we use while working with it can induce these symptoms on their own but in the dry air of winter heating they just make things worse. O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream was made to combat these problems and it is Made in the United States.

O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream appears to be packaged and marketed with men in mind. I know that women also work with their hands but more often than not they have the good sense to take care of their skin without being told to do so. O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream is meant to be applied at night, before bed which allows image-fearing guys to engage in a sort of stealth treatment which will remain our little secret. Applying O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream at night is suggested on the container because evening coincides with the body’s natural tendency to increase temperature during sleep which increases blood flow and makes full use of the hydrating properties of this cream.

The O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream package warns that applying it over a cut or wound might sting. I can't remember getting this cut and it did not sting putting the cream on over it. That means you can act macho while putting it on without worry of a whimper slipping out.
Click image to enlarge

The O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream package claims that this cream is totally odorless and non-greasy. The odorless thing means your buddies won’t be sniffing you and making strange faces. The non-greasy property means that you won’t have “slippery” as an excuse for tools mysteriously flying out of your hands towards the buddy making the afore-mentioned faces.

Not in the Shop

After getting the O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream I began following the directions to evaluate it fairly. I never applied this cream in the shop but rather a small amount every evening before bed where none of you could see me do it. During the days I went about the normal things that I do in the shop. While evaluating the O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream I was actually doing a bit more woodworking than normal and the temperatures were dropping so the heat was beginning to dry everything including me out.

I could describe me putting on a small amount of O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream once for every day of the test but that would bore both of us to tears so imagine 8 days passing by swiftly. I tried to stick with the suggested “small amount” and found that a portion of O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream about twice the size of a pea seemed to be enough to cover my hands evenly. During the evaluation I used no other hydrating products and did nothing out of the ordinary to dry my skin out more than normal.

Conclusions

I have no concept of how often skin creams actually work but the O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream certainly did for me. I don’t typically have serious dry skin issues but my advancing age in recent years seems to be making me crack in places (on my hands!) that I had not before. Using just that two-pea sized dab of the O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream every night has kept enough moisture in me to prevent the stiff feeling, dry skin I usually have by now.

I found that a dab about the size of two peas (left) was plenty to work into my hands. You will also be happy to know that there is no hand-tool vs. power tool technique (right) to worry about. Just rub it in and go to sleep and quit bothering people!
Click images to enlarge

The package warns that the O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream might cause some stinging if you apply it to existing cracks or wounds. I did have a few nicks and the cream did cause stinging but not any more than the pain felt while getting the nicks in the first place. Discomfort associated with the O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream appears to be a non-issue.

The claims that the O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream is odor free are to be believed. The non-greasy claims are also true. While applying the O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream and then quickly grabbing a hammer would place you on the dumb side of the scale the little amount of slick it does give your hands goes away in minutes. Applying it at night also makes this minor slick condition a non-issue.

A 3.4-oz container of O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream carries a street price of around $9 to $10 (11-2-2011) and I know that sounds steep. The reality is that so little is needed per application to your hands that that little container goes a long way making the actual cost per use very low. To me preventing the dry cracking skin is worth way more but I will happily take the O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream at the current price!

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