Gardening is a great hobby. It takes your mind out of everything. It is calm and relaxing. But while gardening has its perks, it has its downsides as well.
One of the biggest downsides of gardening is cracked hands. All those hours working in the garden put a toll on your hands. And it is time to restore their shine and softness.
To be fair, if you work in a garden, you cannot expect baby soft hands. That is just unfair. But you can have something decent and fairly good.
Here are some products that will help you restore softness to your hands. And we have to stress that we believe in natural products. You can never know what is inside the commercial products you buy.
1. Herb Infused Hand Lotion
Fun fact: you can get all the products for this cream in your garden. The main ingredient is calendula, a herb that is great for skin healing. Calendula soothes itchy and irritated skin. Combine it with dandelion, and you have a potent remedy. Dandelion is the best thing you can apply to worn skin.
2. Orange And Clove Gardener’s Hand Scrub
This is a hand scrub you can find in many stores. But why pay commercial prices? You can easily prepare it at home. The blend will remove dead skin cells and dig the dirt out of your hands. Most importantly, clove will help you disinfect your skin.
3. Gardener’s Bliss Salve
This homemade salve is great for dry and cracked skin. And it is perfect for gardeners. Really, it is great for anyone who spends a lot of time working with his hands. For example, your mother will probably love this is a Mother’s day gift.
Besides helping with dry and cracked skin, this salve relieves skin irritation.
4. Gardener’s Lemon Sugar Scrub
Lemon is one of the best exfoliating agents on the market. There is a reason why almost every commercial brand uses it. Plus, lemon packs a bundle of vitamin C, healing agent for your hands. Simply rubbing fresh lemon slices on your hands is enough. But let’s take things to the next level with this homemade scrub.
5. Intense Moisturizing Hand Cream
There are no preservatives or chemicals in this homemade cream. You can feel good about knowing what you put on your skin. And it will take you less than 20 minutes to prepare the cream.
We recommend buying the ingredients in bulk. That way the cheap cream becomes even cheaper. With Vitamin E oil and Rosemary oil, the cream packs a lot of antioxidants. You also get antibacterial and antifungal recipe. But most importantly, it is deeply moisturizing and hydrating.
6. Lavender Rosemary Soap
How often do you wash your hands with soap? Do you use regular soap? Do you know how many chemicals are there in the soap. Not only do you harm your hands by working in the garden, you put even more pressure with harmful soaps.
Instead, we recommend making your own soap. Lavender is calming and soothing. And it will help moisturize and heal your cracked skin.
7. Gardener’s Salve
This is an ultra-moisturizing and ultra-healing salve. Great for after cleaning bathroom, working on the car, working in the garden, or baking a bunch of bread. Simply put, it is a great remedy for your hands.
And the best part is, you probably have the ingredients at home. Here are they: coconut oil, olive oil, and beeswax. If you like, you can put some essential oils for a scented version. This should take you no more than 10 minutes to prepare it.
8. Honey Hand Scrub
Coconut is one of the best healing and moisturizing agents you can find. And most importantly, it is cheap. When you work on a budget, you need to find new and new ways to save some money. Well, we want to help you in that quest.
You can use it each afternoon and again in the evening. When your hands are back to good shape, you can use the cream after working in the garden.
9. Mango Butter Hand Salve
Butter, essential oils, and beeswax. Does it get any better than this? Probably not. This might be one of the best salve options for your dry and cracked skin.
The nourishing essential oils will make sure your skin gets vitamins and minerals, while butter and beeswax will provide further protection. The salve will bring life to your hard working hands in no time.
10. Non-Toxic Gardening Scrub
Even if you are not into DIY, you can prepare this scrub. It will help you remove dirt and stains. But most importantly, it will heal and soothe your damaged skin. After a couple of uses, your hands will be smooth and clean.
The best part is you can make a bunch of the scrub. Store it or share it with your friends. It is that good.
11. Castile Soap Gardener’s Scrub
Castile soap is a common DIY ingredient for soaps. Made from simple plant oils, it is one of the safest things even for sensitive skin. You can use it on oily and acne-prone skin.
In this remedy, castile soap helps clean, exfoliate, and moisturize the skin. But the best part about this scrub is the scent. It is so fresh, just like your garden. Whenever your hands get greasy and grimy, it is time to try this scrub.
12. Peppermint Gardener’s Scrub
Trying to find a cheap scrub on the market is challenging. Usually, scrubs are expensive. Even worse, they are loaded with chemical fillers. Why buy then?
There is no reason for that. You can easily make a scented scrub at home. This one works wonders with dry skin. It provides moisture and protection.
13. Almond Oil Hand Scrub
Time to refresh your hands with an affordable scrub you can easily make. This scrub exfoliates, cleanses, and moisturizes at the same time.
We use two popular essential oils for the recipe. The first one is tea tree oil, a powerful antibacterial and antiseptic oil. And the second is clary sage, an oil that helps regulate oil production.
14. Gardener’s Soap On A Rope
This soap is a bit different than the rest on the list. And the reason is simple, the ingredients are uncommon and unconventional. You need baby oil and cornmeal.
If you like, you can place the soap in a basket with gardening tools. That will make a perfect gift.
15. Nourishing Hand Cream
This is a rich hand cream you can easily make within minutes. It smells great, and contains only naturally nourishing ingredients. It is a great and affordable gift for homesteaders and gardeners. Or, of course, you can make it for yourself.
If you want to use it a gift, pour it into a decorative tin or jar. Add some ribbon, and you have a gift.
16. Rosemary And Sage Sugar Scrub
This scrub is safe to store in a container. You can store it, but we recommend to use it within a week. Therefore, make only small batches of scrub every week.
17. Herbal Hand Scrub
You can easily find most of the ingredients online or in your local craft store. As for moisturizing, the remedy contains sweet almond oil. Your skin will easily absorb this oil. But the best part is sweet almond oil contains a lot of antioxidants for your skin care.
18. Dandelion Salve
Dandelions are great for those who work outdoors and with their hands. Besides taking care for your hands, this salve can help in other aspects as well.
For example, you can use this salve for sore muscles and achy joints. Dandelions have so many health benefits. You should try using them at least once.
19. Shea Butter Hand Repair Cream
There is one principle we love when it comes to body and skin care. And that is “simple is better”. Our body and skin need a lot of care. So, we want to give you a great green living idea. Here is a salve that will help with your hands skin care.
20. Simple Gardener’s Exfoliating Soap
For our last recipe, we want to give you a refreshing and exfoliating soap. We said before lemons work well enough on their own. Well, it is time to put them to a good use for a decent soap.
With that in mind, we hope you enjoy spending time in the garden. But you should also take care for your hands. They need some love.
