UKC

I have the Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream and ClimbSkin and use a combination of the two.

I have recently upped the amount of climbing I am doing and I am not sure if the ClimbSkin is as good as I thought.

What is the best hand balm? Opinions?

Try Joshua Tree Climbing Salve?

I use 8hr at night and raw garlic after climbing

I like waitrose baby bottom butter.  

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-baby-bottom-butter/006360-2...

Someone in our club bought some "working hands" cream, initial thoughts were good. Maybe worth a look  

I've had good results with just coconut oil

This works for me:

https://www.neutrogena.co.uk/product/hand-cream/norwegian-formula-unscented...

I prefer cocoa butter to the the specially made products. Ive also found the bodyshop hemp hand cream quite good.

Vaseline works best for me. Tried all kinds of different products and still have a few packages of climbon laying around, but vaseline just works best and is cheap. 

We make our own because it works way better than anything else. Ingredients are something like this: 

• Beeswax
• Shea butter
• Lavendar oil
• Apricot kernel oil
• Vitamin E 

It's not comprehensive and I don't know the quantities (my girlfriend is the one with the know-how) but it performs considerably better than Climb On and the likes - when I use it every day I have massively better quality skin - tough, supple and fast-healing. Maybe look into making your own? Personally I think the fast healing comes from the vitamin content but I've no background in the area so it's totally annecdotal whereas my girlfriend worked for Lush for a good while so knows her way around cosmetic stuff to a given extent. 

My hands get absolutely battered between work and climbing. I've been using O'Keefes working hands and its really good stuff

Thanks for the advise!

Interesting that most use generic hand creams rather than climbing specific ones.

Is this as they are no better or because of price?

Jeez! It'll be what's your favourite eye shadow next.

I've tried most of the 'climbing specific' commercial ones and Climb On Creme (in the tube, not the pots) is the best (IMHO),

It simply heals me the quickest and I like the smell.  It is a bit greasy but as long as you don't use too much, it gets absorbed quickly.

Stroke a sheep as often as possible. The lanolin in their wool is brilliant for the skin.

Lansinoh 100% pure lanolin, keeps my tips in condition, can also be used on nips.

My wife bought me a tube of this, as I get really dry hands in winter, but I find it horrible to use and too greasy - takes ages to sink in.

I much prefer Neutrogena.

Would she be willing to share her recipe?

My current favourite is Climb On bar. It really helps, but applying it 10+ times a day is getting expensive. I like the idea of making my own.

It might be said that someone who does not care about the skin on their fingertips, does not care about how hard they can climb

In reply to Jon Greengrass:

Re lanolin, an easy to find pure lanolin ointment is nipple cream for breast-feeding mums.  Far too greasy for use during the day, as are the very good Climb On and Elizabeth Arden, but works wonders if applied overnight (although it can ruin bed-sheets!). 

For me, the best creams suitable for daytime use (non greasy, sink in) are Body Shop hemp cream, Udderly Lovely / Smooth / Foot Cream (originally formulated for cows udders but now with versions for people undergoing chemo and cyclists chamois creams), and Palmer's cocoa butter. 

Neutrogena Norwegian hand cream has been mentioned above and gets my vote.

As an archaeologist and climber it's the only thing I've tried out of everything mentioned that deals with very dry and battered skin. YMMV

Price, easy to get.  The Waitrose one is 2 or 3 pounds.  

Lanolin is good but some people are allergic to it.  

Skin care is such a personal issue, it depends on your skin type...do you have naturally dry or moist skin etc. Do you use any products prior to climbing?

Rhino Skin do a great range of skin solutions that cover pre climbing to after climbing for different skin types......but really it is trying to understand what you want from your skin care and how it relates to you skin type.

I use Palmer's cocoa butter moisturizer, can get a big tub of it off Amazon for not much. Really good. I boulder indoors 3/4 times a week so my skin takes a hammering, but put this stuff on evening and morning and no problems. Also have a small climb on bar in my climbing pack I use straight away. Combination of these seems to do the job! 

I found this on the Internet if anyone is interested in making their own.  

https://thenerdyfarmwife.com/dandelion-lotion-bars/

Any old hand cream or moisturiser will do the job. 

Climbing specific ones are just proof that climbers are just as susceptible as teenage girls to the woo and bird ology of the makeup industry. 

The bar type ones do have the advantage that they don't burst in your bag and make a mess of your kit and your bait taste bad. 

As somebody else mentioned up thread, it can be very personal. On a recent trip to the US I reluctantly bought some expensive Joshua Tree balm because it was all I could get at the time. It worked noticeably better than other skin moisturisers I've used. I tend to suffer from soft skin, whereas the JT balm left me with tougher, harder wearing skin. I've decided it's worth the extra cost (which is trivial in the grand scheme) to get the most out of my climbing.

FWIW, I've been making my own for ages; my basic recipe is:

50g shea butter 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon (approx) beeswax pellets optional: 40 drops of essential oils (I use roughly equal amounts of tea tree, clove and myrrh, which gives you something mildly antiseptic and analgesic for hands shredded by grit, and does seem to speed up skin healing a bit)

Melt the beeswax and shea butter in a bain marie (saucepan in a bigger saucepan of water), add the olive oil and essential oils, pour it into an old jar or tin and leave it to set.

It's thick and greasy but not quite as solid as Climb On. But you'd just need to tweak the ratios (bit more beeswax, less olive oil, etc.) if you wanted to get it more like that.

N.B. Don't use essential oils if you have cats -- they have very fragile livers and essential oils can poison them if they end up on their fur, get licked off, etc.

Okay, weird copy-and-paste error there. A more legible version:

50g shea butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon (approx) beeswax pellets

optional: 40 drops of essential oils (I use roughly equal amounts of tea tree, clove and myrrh, which gives you something mildly antiseptic and analgesic for hands shredded by grit, and does seem to speed up skin healing a bit)

Melt the beeswax and shea butter in a bain marie (saucepan in a bigger saucepan of water), add the olive oil and essential oils, pour it into an old jar or tin and leave it to set.

It's thick and greasy but not quite as solid as Climb On. But you'd just need to tweak the ratios (bit more beeswax, less olive oil, etc.) if you wanted to get it more like that.

N.B. Don't use essential oils if you have cats -- they have very fragile livers and essential oils can poison them if they end up on their fur, get licked off, etc.

BodyShop Hemp foot cream. Highly similar to ClimbOn stuff, but cheaper and higher moisturizing (glycerol?) effect. 

Oh, and Bepanthen. 

I have been using Rhino Skin for the past few weeks, to great result. I use Repair as a general post-climbing thing and Performance when I trash my skin and have to climb too many days in a row, as that contains a low concentration of Methenamine antihydral.