Margaret Dabbs, the self styled queen of feet has progressed to handcare with two hard working products that can be slotted into your existing hand care routine.
Margaret Dabbs Intensive Anti Ageing Hand Serum £30)
I use a serum on my face regularly – often twice a day but the concept of a serum for my hands? I was not sure how I felt about it. The hand serum follows that same concept as a serum for the face. It is marketed as an intensive way to apply ingredients that boost the impact on the skin. It’s an ‘anti-ageing’ product so it is looking at age spots and elasticity in the skin. It is a light gel so you can do as instructed and apply your regular hand cream afterwards. You probably want to do this process first thing in the morning and or last thing at night. I really wish that this product was housing in a pump rather than being housed in a tub that you have to dunk your fingers into. It would make it easier to use and of course more sanitary.
On the skin
The brand claims that it absorbs quickly into the skin and this is very true. I have dry hands so generally prefer an emollient product on my hands. It does impact what I do next, but my skin needs it. This light gel texture absorbed quickly and leaves the skin hydrated and nourished, but not at all greasy. There are occasions for me when this is perfect, for example if I am knitting, having greasy hands is a non-starter. It also helps with those lotions and creams that I generally find are not emollient enough for my dry skin. Instead of my skin returning to an ashy mess within an hour, my skin retains some hydration.
Margaret Dabbs Nourishing Nail and Cuticle Serum (£12)
The bain of my nails on both my hands and feet is my dry cuticles. If I don’t maintain my cuticles regularly, they build up and are thick which makes them difficult to remove. I am a fan of cuticle oils which soften the cuticule and nourish the nail. As much as I am a fan of oils for my skin, cuticle oil can be a bit of a faff as it leaves your fingertips covered in oil, meaning that you are not able to do much until it is absorbed. The Margaret Dabbs Nourishing Nail and cuticle oil has a light lotion texture. You pump it onto the nail, it is hard to control so you end up pumping out more than you need to but you can use it across the rest of your nails. I am more likely to use this product once a day rather than whenever I remember as I would with an oil because of the tea tree element. As with the hand serum it absorbs quickly into the skin. I have a particularly virulent cuticle on the middle finger of my righ hand. I found that it made a significant difference to the cuticle on that nail.
Final thoughts.
If you are serious about your hands and feet, regardless of whther you love your mani/ped or bare nails, these two products are a great addition to your beauty kit. The fact that you use them in conjunction with your existing hand and nail products means that you can dip in and out of them as and when you feel the need.
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