Météo France announces the coldest winter in 100 years! These are the hand cream marks that will… rub their hands! Because they are particularly sensitive to cold and thermal shocks, have no sebaceous glands and are covered with a very thin hydrolipidic film, our hands need more creams in the cold season. Their tugging may border on the painful. Redness and chapping occur when you continually move from an overheated interior to the cold outside. More fragile than the body, directly exposed to external aggressions, limestone, frequent washing, household products… hands implore their need for attention and their Winter Rescue program. And he's just changing! After long years of monotony (hands are one of the great"chestnut trees" of winter for journalists) and effective but not very"exciting" hand creams, this sector deserved to be a little"shaken" and energized by new creations. This is the case, winter 2013 is a"year to hands"! The big question remains: Are women willing to spend more on their hands? When you know that Mixa Intensive Dry Skin allantoin hand cream is number 1 on the market (100 ml, 3.75 €), has been around for 51 years and is sold three times a minute in France, you may wonder. Response in spring 2014.

For now, our hands are discovering anti-aging. True state-of-the-art protocols in velvet gloves ! Although Neutrogena has offered an Anti-Aging Hand Cream since 2007 (50 ml, €8.46), it is a"simple" cream enriched with soya, with a sun protection factor of 25 to combat the formation of brown spots. The innovations that are seeing the light of day at the end of this year are, on the other hand, a complete range of care, inspired by the Hand Rejuvenation or worthy of professional care in manicure salons.

In January, Filorga launched the first plumping anti-aging gloves with filler-like active ingredients (Hand-Filler® Anti-Aging Mask for hands and nails, €39 per pair of gloves reusable 15 times). They reduce wrinkles and spots (wheat bran extract that regulates melanin synthesis), plump the back of the hands (hyaluronic acid + volumizing lipopetide), moisturize and nourish (urea and shea butter), while restoring the nails (Kératim S stimulates the production of cystine, an essential amino acid of keratin) which grow faster, become more resistant, smoother, clearer. The brand explains that with age, the back of the hands becomes as fragile as the neck and décolleté. The texture of the hands is refined, their dryness is accentuated, brown spots appear, muscles and fatty tissue melt, while the nails become striated and yellow. These black occlusive gloves house a new patented micro-encapsulation process (called"active printing") where the active ingredients are"self-guided". This technique, more powerful than the usual encapsulation of cosmetotextiles, allows motion-activated microsystems to"drive the active ingredients to their destination, during and especially after glove application. Vectorized assets are thus released for six to eight hours beyond the contact period.

Very pleasant to wear, cosmetic gloves provide a completely different sensation, which can be confusing at first. In terms of comfort, nothing to do with the relief provided by a cream, and yet when the gloves are removed, the hands are undeniably softer and in better shape, more supple, elastic and re-inflated. And what a pleasure to be able to read your favourite magazine without seeing the ink printed on the skin of your hands! With them, no greasy or sticky hands.

It is also the case of the Beauty Skin Hydrating Gloves from Lytess which arrive these days in pharmacy (17,90 €). They concentrate on hydration and nutrition, and are worn outside, offering a protective textile action, coupled with a moisturizing cosmetic effect (salicorne oil, shea butter, apricot oil…). Meryl® microfiber knitting acts as a skin barrier to improve and maintain the skin's water balance. As the textile rubs against the skin, millions of cosmetic microcapsules release their substances to continuously protect and nourish the epidermis. The brand emphasizes the fact that they are compatible with Smartphones and other tablets (thin, they do not interfere with gripping, keeping his hands warm).

Another global renovating treatment: Talika moisturizing gloves (120 € per pair, reusable up to forty times), which, in addition to the comfort they bring, smooth the skin surface, reduce brown spots and wrinkles, soften cuticles. These turquoise blue polymer gel gloves are impregnated with vegetable oils (avocado, jojoba, grape seed, canola, olive), ceramides III and vitamin E anti-redness.

Some advice on how to use these cosmetic gloves: put them on perfectly clean and dry hands. Let them work for at least 30 minutes. Use 3 times a week. Some can keep themselves all night (Talika). Washing gloves is not recommended to preserve anti-aging active ingredients that would be destroyed by detergents.

Still in this anti-aging trend, the Crystal Mask for Herborist hands (120 ml, 19 €, at Sephora), to use as a cream or mask, is a real good idea. Also worth mentioning is the Talika Hand Ritual Kit (49 €), which contains a specific hand scrub with salt and sugar crystals and apricot kernel oil (75 ml) and an anti-ageing and anti-stain hand serum (50 ml). But the favorite comes from an organic brand, Sénev, which offers 3 serums presented in ampoules: Nourris-Moi anti-drying elixir for dry hands, Console-moi anti-stress elixir for smokers, stressed hands, Eclaire-Moi anti-aging elixir for hands prone to brown spots (14 ampoules of 1.5 ml, 28.20 €). Apply under the City Hand Cream (50 ml, 17.20 €).

Let's finish with the latest hand creams that bring a little something extra: innovative texture, neat fragrance, water-resistant barrier… The case of Cicalfate Mains Crème réparatrice Avène (100 ml, 9,90 €), a"second skin" protection with an enveloping and absolutely non-sticky texture, endowed with an exceptional persistence in water (the protection of the hands is still higher than 56 % after 5 immersions in water). New barrier texture also for Cicaplast Mains La Roche-Posay, 50 ml, 7,50 €. Let us salute the particularly successful galenic of the Sothys Velvet Hand Cream (50 ml, 15.75 €), a rich and"waxy" cream that forms a protective glove on the surface of the epidermis. As well as Rogé Cavaillès (Nutrissance Nourishing Hand Cream, 50 ml, 4.90 €). Bonus: this last one durably revives the cycle of natural hydration, thanks to its richness in vitamins and trace elements which bring to the cells the necessary energy to do this.

Finally, the nomad format (30 ml) and the perfume seem to be the big deal of winter, the one that turns this daily care into a ritual pleasure. This is the case with Roger&Gallet and its hand creams scented with Orange Wood, Osmanthus Blossom or Rose (Hand & Body Creams, Osmanthus Creams, Osmanthus Creams); nails, 30 ml, 6,20 € each), of Caudalie who made compose the perfume of her new creams hands and nails by the immense perfumer, Olivia Giacobetti (Les Petites Récoltes, C gourmandes mains et onails Leaves de Cassis, Miel de Vigne ou Pamplemousse Rose, 30 ml, 6,90 €, limited editions). Or the organic brand Panier des Sens (Hand Cream Rose, Verbena, Provence or Lavender, 75 ml, 9,90 €). L'Occitane also offers a Crème Mains Cœur de Rose, from 22 January (150 ml, €19.50 or 30 ml, €7.50 - limited editions). The Provençal brand goes so far as to create a Collector's Edition of its Shea Butter Hand Cream (its best-seller), adorned with a new decoration with psychedelic blue designs (Shea Collector Hand Cream, 150 ml, 19.50 €).

Ariane Le Febvre