5 Best Anti-Aging Hand Creams

Women spend crap-loads of dosh on anti-wrinkle creams, lotions, gels, etc. We fuss and fret over laugh lines that only we can see, crow's feet no one else notices, forehead lines we actually need for proper emoting, and those annoying grooves you get on either side of your nose. We spend a week's salary on ridiculously priced elixirs -- most of them snake oil, by the way -- and yet... we don't seem to give a tosh about our hands. Well, not until Madonna was so cruelly picked on for her Granny hands.

Unkind as the media were to her, we should all be thanking Madonna for bringing our hands to our attention, cos most of us never even thought about it before her hands were plastered all over the internet. (And, hey, the woman will be 50 this year -- if I reach 50 and the only thing the press can fault me for are my Granny hands, I will be a happy bunny.) So anyway, the point is, we should be thanking her for making us all take note of our own hands. Personally, I've always had a very pale, thin, and virtually translucent dermis. While my veins don't puff up (yet) you can definitely see where they are with great ease -- and it's been that way for as long as I can remember. Which makes me particularly keen to keep the skin from deterioriating more than age forces it to. The following hand cremes are specifically marketed as anti-aging creams. If you've used them, feel free to leave your comments as to whether or not they worked for you.

This stuff is supposed to increase your hands' level of hydration by nearly 40%, and it's supposed to last for 4 hours. They say it creates a (and I quote) "second skin" that protects you from all those harmful environmental pollutants, UV rays, etc. They even say it relieves joint pain.... let's hope it smells better than Ben Gay!

They claim that this is non-irritating; I just want to warn you that some people do have unpleasant reactions to retinol, and I'm one of them. So, if you do try it, test a small patch of skin before you go slathering it everywhere in your pursuit of youthful digits. It's also supposed to diminish sun spots and whiten the skin.

This comes with an SPF of 10. Like the previous cream, this one is supposed to both whiten your skin, and reduce the appearance of age spots. Obviously, the best cure is prevention, so you're better of using something like this at the first sign of aging, as opposed to waiting until you have big spots everywhere. It's a hand cream, not a magic wand.

If you've read my other product reviews, you'll know I love Lancome. Love it. It's all I use, and it works miracles, I'm telling you. I haven't used this one specifically, but I have used Absolue's Eye Cream, and I can tell you it was very hydrating and a very good product. I have no doubt this stuff works just as well.

This one is SPF 15, contains Epidermal Growth Factor, retinol and skin lighteners. It claims to reude the crepiness of skin, which is really what most of us will need as we get older. That thin papery skin is what sinks down in-between your bones and veins to give you that Madonna Hand appearance.