Despite the focused attention we put on delaying or reducing signs of ageing, many of us neglect the two most visible and age-sensitive areas on our bodies: the hands and arms.
Limiting your age-defying energy to your face is a common oversight we urge you to rethink. Your hands and arms deserve the same attention you give your face, and with just a few tweaks, incorporating youthful practices for these areas is an easy addition to your daily skin care routine.
How to have younger-looking hands and arms
It isn’t difficult to achieve younger-looking skin on the hands and arms. The reason? The exact same types of products and targeted ingredients that work for your face and neck work beautifully on your hands and arms, too!
Although there are some differences between the skin on your face and the skin on your body, there’s no research showing those areas require different ingredients to keep skin looking and feeling younger. What contributes to signs of ageing are the same for your hands and arms as they are for your face.
The basic concepts of skin care we talk about all the time (gentle cleansing, non-abrasive exfoliation, sun protection, using products loaded with antioxidants and skin-restoring ingredients, along with a product containing skin-brightening ingredients) apply perfectly for your hands and arms.
Essential steps for beautiful hands & arms
To see improvement and keep your hands and arms looking healthy and youthful, you must be as consistent in taking care of those areas as you are with your facial skin care routine. Following these steps is the key to unlocking the youthful potential of your hands and arms and maintaining results.
- Avoid washing your hands with bar soap or drying cleansers. As much as possible, only wash your hands with a gentle water-soluble cleanser or moisturising body wash. Being gentle with your hands is critical to keeping the surface strong, supple, and smooth.
- Non-abrasive, gentle exfoliation is important for your hands and arms, too. Removing built-up dead surface skin will reveal the radiant, healthy skin hiding beneath. Paula’s trick is to take the cotton pad she uses on her face with our leave-on SKIN PERFECTING 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant and apply the remaining amount to her hands and arms. This gentle but extremely effective exfoliant will help you shed dead skin cells to visibly improve rough skin. It's even suitable for those with keratosis pilaris (KP)-prone skin (which can appear as small, hard bumps on the body).
- If uneven tone on the hands and arms is a concern, incorporate a niacinamide body serum into your post-shower routine. Niacinamide, when in concentrations of 5% or above, works to tackle pre-existing pigmentation, as well as prevent it from forming by blocking key pathways excess melanin follows. Our targeted 5% Niacinamide Body Serum can improve the look of many types of hyperpigmentation that cause uneven tone including darkened spots from sun damage, post breakout marks, and discolourations from past injuries.
- At night, consider a creamy moisturiser featuring anti-ageing superstar retinol that targets wrinkles and makes skin feel firmer. Paula’s Choice Retinol Skin-Smoothing Body Treatment helps fight signs of ageing while providing rich moisture with a non-greasy feel.
- Every morning after you’ve applied your cleanser, exfoliant, and moisturiser, you must liberally apply a water-resistant sunscreen. Don’t forget to reapply it as needed throughout the day. Just like for your face, this is the most crucial step to fighting early signs of ageing. This habit will also help reduce the risk of skin cancer in the short term and the long term.
Hands do take a bit more effort
How often we wash or sanitise our hands impacts how we take care of them during daylight hours. As mentioned above, protecting skin from the sun with a water-resistant sunscreen is vital, but every time you wash your hands, even if you’re using a water-resistant sunscreen, you wash off some of that sunscreen. That's why reapplying sunscreen after you wash or sanitise your hands is critical, even if it's a pain. If you aren't diligent about reapplying sunscreen after handwashing, your hands can develop sun damage and a creepy appearance, and all the other skin care steps won’t save them from the inevitable.
Treatment options beyond skin care
When it comes to fighting signs of ageing, there’s only so much that a good skin care routine can do to reverse visible damage. After a certain point (and to get truly impressive results), you may want to consider having cosmetic corrective procedures performed on your hands, the same types of procedures doctors commonly perform on the face. Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Joyce Park notes that “Dermatologists often perform laser, chemical peels, and injections of filler into the hands to create a more youthful look.” It’s important to balance out all the options for having the best skin of your life.
No matter which methods you use to make your hands and arms look younger, it all starts with great skin care, especially sun protection you use consistently, day in and day out. As long as you're willing to commit to this, you may even be able to skip any further, pricy intervention down the road!
Learn more about body care.
References for this information:
Aesthetic Surgery Journal, May 2021, pages NP472–NP483
Experimental Dermatology, February 2019, Supplement 1, pages 15-22; and October 2018, ePublication
Clinical, Cosmetic, and Investigational Dermatology, August 2015, pages 455–461
