I've lost count of the number of intro paragraphs I started writing for this post. Maybe half a dozen? I can't seem to make any headway because cuticle cream is at its core extremely boring. Who talks about cuticle cream? It's not glamorous. It's something maybe more mature people would appreciate using. Lately however, I'm really liking the Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream since it smells so nice and it resuscitates my dying cuticles! 

It peeves me when negative things attract more interest than positive ones. People who think other people are stupid, those who are jealous, those who are just a certain flavor of malicious - it's like a snake eating its own tail. They're the source of negativity and they also feed that negativity. They love a story where they can show just how superior they are to all the other people making mistakes, as if they never make one. 

You may not be a negative person normally, but tell me honestly, did your ears prick up with that first paragraph? I notice that I do the same thing whenever I get a whiff of controversy in my circle. I try to be conscious of and try to control it, but sometimes I just can't help it. I wanna know more. I wanna sneer more. I wanna take the high ground as if that's my permanent address.

However, I always tell myself never to judge. Or at least, not to judge harshly. We never really know the full story - we may never do. I think it helps us to be kinder just to know that.

Anyway! Today I'd like to show you the best hand cream I've tried so far: the Burt's Bees Shea Butter Hand Repair Cream (P950 for 90g). I got this as part of a gift set so I'm not sure if 50 grams is the full tube, but I do love the size (update: the full tube is 90 grams, and 50 grams is only P550 but this isn't available at Beauty Bar). It's ideal to bring during the day when my hands get dry!

And boy, do they go dry. I've never had such serious dryness before. When my partner touches my hand now he says it feels like cardboard! Ugh. It must be all the hand washing after scratching my dog's belly, and the dish washing too. I'm lucky not to need to wash my clothes, but I imagine that the dryness would be much worse if it were otherwise.

I've tried other hand creams before but I honestly can't use them as regularly as I want to. They are usually greasy and they take forever to get absorbed! I have this compulsion to always check my phone, my laptop, so ten minutes away is such a hassle. I always end up washing my hands to remove the cream, just so I can move on with my life.

Enter this Burt's Bees hand cream.

How often do you use hand cream? I admit I can be pretty lazy most days. I usually put off using hand cream until my hands can't take the dryness anymore - by that time, they're already so wrinkly and hard! Yuck. That's a bad bad habit because the hands, other than the neck, betray our age sooner than we'd like. That's why it pays in the long run to use a specialized moisturizer for them.

I've recently been enjoying the Bobbi Brown Extra Hand Cream (P1,700). It's a 50ml tube of moisture-boosting cream that contains shea butter and clary sage to improve our hands' moisture barrier, glucosamine to gently exfoliate, and licorice extract to help lessen discoloration.

This is a very heavy cream - a little goes a long way, and it indeed helps soften super dry hands instantly. It's like you coated your skin in this cocoon of smoothing, reviving oil! This actually has avocado and corn kernel oil for that purpose.

Five years ago I wouldn't have looked twice at healing and repairing skincare products. I mean, what was there to repair when you're a girl of 19? Maybe I'm just ultra-sensitive because I work in the beauty and fashion industry, but I have noticed that my skin is becoming drier over the years. It's not as elastic and fresh as it used to be. Again, the difference may be unnoticeable to most, but since I write about beauty products day in and day out I am hyper observant of my hide. 

Anyway, my main skin problem is dryness on my hands and legs. My hands, particularly, are starting to feel crackly because I wash them so much (I have an active dog)! Thus I use a heavy moisturizer a few times every week to make sure that my hands are soft and smooth (my legs too). I love the Vitacreme B12 Body Milk but it's horribly expensive. I'm happy to announce a way cheaper alternative!

I received these Jergens Overnight Repair and Ultra Healing Moisturizers (P99/ 100ml and P342/650ml pump) a month ago and I find that they do exactly what they promise. These are heavy-duty, thick moisturizers that are designed to heal skin and restore it to suppleness.

A majority of Filipinas may be hesitant when it comes to makeup, but you can bet that we loooove our bath and body products. Actually we just love our baths, period. We're no Frenchmen.

It's no wonder that aisles and aisles of drugstores and supermarkets are dedicated just for the riot of body care products. There's always something new, something exciting to buy and try! One of them is Watsons' latest bath and body care line called H Bella.

It's a pretty solid collection. I tried everything and all of them met my criteria for body products - they're light, non-sticky, not scratchy at all, and most importantly, they smell great. Here's my quick review of each product in the line:

Protect & Nourish Hand Cream. It's very light and gets absorbed by my skin quickly. Do you hate the greasy feeling of hand lotions? Do you hate how they turn greasy again after you wet your hands? This is not one of those hand creams.