[Review] Bigelow Chemists : Bigelow Chapped Hands Soap-Free Cleanser

[Warning: potentially TMI photos]

Rating: 12 out of 5 stars

It is the middle of winter, and my wrists are not covered in tiny open sores. It is the middle of winter and my hands are not bleeding. It is the middle of winter and I can exercise without searing pain emanating from the skin on my hands and wrists. I have not had a winter day without pain in at least 12 years. I was the type of person who kept lotion in my purse, desk at work, car, desk at home, bathroom, kitchen, living room, every coat pocket, and anywhere else I thought to stash a bottle. Finding myself without lotion actually constituted an emergency, and I would stop at the nearest convenience store to pick some up if I was going to be away from home for more than an hour. That was just to keep the open sores from worsening. The pain never really went away, and actually most lotions made my skin burn.

It has been about a month since I acquired this stuff, and I feel that I can confidently say that it has changed my life. I have not had to use lotion more than once per day since I started using this once or twice a day, even though I still wash my hands with regular soap very often and use alcohol-based hand sanitizer. My use of lotion has also definitely been of the non-emergent variety.

I was going to give it a mere 4 because it doesn't make my skin perfect and magically silky smooth, but then I looked at a photo of my wrist last year (yes, I am exactly the kind of person who documents bodily grossities-- want to see my bike accident scars?!) and it turns out that, no, it's exactly as awesome as I thought it was.

This is my skin last year:

This is my skin this year: