Rough and Ready or Soft and Supple?

I have gardener's hands.  Even though spring is clearly not here yet - I am writing this as Mother Nature ravages the farm with howling winds and sheets of ice pellets - my hands are already a nightmare.  When this is "clean", you know that you have a problem

The dirt is literally ground into my skin.
No amount of scrubbing helps.

From past experience, I know that this is only going to get worse when gardening season actually arrives.  I love the feel of soil in my bare hands so unless I am dealing with prickly weeds, garden gloves are not for me.  So, it is time to make some kind of hand cream to combat my rough and ready hands and prevent them from getting worse.

I do not use many cosmetics, homemade or otherwise.  However, sunscreen, lip balm, and hand cream are staples.   For my hand cream, I decided on a body butter style because it does not require the addition of water.  I do not use preservatives in my creams but I also use them up rather slowly, so a cream without water will have the longest shelf life and thus is the best choice for me.  Besides, whipped body butter looks incredible!

I mixed 2 parts coconut oil to 1 part shea butter and 1 part sweet almond oil.  I also added vitamin E oil. I measured, melted, cooled, and whipped.

The result:

And with the addition of a few drops of sweet orange essential oil, I made a different variety:

A common complaint with body butter is that it goes on greasy.  This is true of mine, especially if you use too much.  My research indicates that adding a thickening agent such as corn starch, tapioca starch, or arrowroot starch to your butter can make it feel less greasy.  This is may be something I can try when I finally get through the three jars of butter I just made.  This is going to last me forever!

My solution to greasiness for now:

Load up my hands and feet with body butter, put old socks on all appendages, and go to bed.  Soft and supple hands, here I come!