Warning: Don’t look at the last image if you don’t like blood
Ever since I’ve moved to my current apartment, I’ve been dealing with extremely dry hands every winter to the point that they’d painfully crack and bleed no matter what I used. I bought so many hand lotions and oils based off what friends and the internet suggested, I’d cover my hands in Vaseline every night before bed, but nothing worked.
For the past 3 months I’ve been using the Round Lab 1025 Dokdo Toner and Aestura Atobarrier365 Cream on my hands, and it’s INSANE the difference it has made. I only use them twice a day (once in the morning and again before bed), but it completely prevents my hands from getting dry enough to crack and bleed. They even survived when I was sick with a cold and was washing my hands constantly (sometimes 3 times within 5 minutes, not kidding). And if I get lazy with my routine and my hands start to regress, it only takes 3-5 days for them to recover when I restart.
Hand Routine:
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Wet my hands and dry them (optional, but I do feel like it helps the toner absorb better).
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Apply toner on my hands and let it dry to 85-90%. Your hands should look dry but still feel slightly damp.
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Apply the cream. You don’t need a lot, a little goes a long way, especially if your hands are still a little damp from the toner.
Small warning though, if your hands are already cracked and bleeding, starting the routine will sting in the beginning, but it’ll get better.
Sometimes I get lazy and only use the cream, but if I do it for too long my hands will start getting dry again, so there’s something about the Dokdo toner that’s keeping my hands hydrated.
Sadly the Atobarrier365 Cream has been reformulated with niacinamide, so even though my bottle is almost out, I’m not buying another one (niacinamide always gives me dry skin patches 😭). But I did look up some replacement options for it in a different thread and saw that someone suggested the COSRX Ceramide Skin Barrier Moisturizer, so I picked up a bottle of that and will be trying it out in my routine.
TL;DR: Round Lab 1025 Dokdo Toner + Aestura Atobarrier365 Cream. They reformulated the cream with niacinamide though, so I’m going to try replacing it with COSRX Ceramide Skin Barrier Moisturizer
by anxie__tea