When repeated intensive hand washing became mandatory in March, a friend phoned me in distress about her very dry hands, which had become red, chapped and sore. It wasn’t just her but also her grown-up children – she thought there might be a genetic component in their sensitive parched skin. My instant response was: ‘get Gloves In A Bottle – now!’ She ordered supplies from Victoria Health and a week or so later reported that this barrier hand cream had ‘worked miracles’ for all of them.

I was glad but not surprised. Over the years, I have distributed ‘Gloves’ to lots of people including farmers in the West Country with weeping swollen red knuckles and hands.  More recently, I gave some to the team of wonderful district nurses looking after my very ill brother at home in Somerset. They were amazed that I knew about it – ‘we thought it was just nurses who used it,’ one told me – and delighted to have supplies to supplement their solo precious bottle, kept at HQ. Importantly for nurses and other healthcare workers (and many of us now), research shows that, correctly applied, using Gloves doesn’t suppress the activity of a hand sanitizer.

In fact, ‘Gloves’ has become a legend worldwide now because of its unique formula, which makes an electrostatic bond with the outer skin cells to create an invisible shield. This protects hands from external invaders as well as trapping moisture in the skin for two to three hours, even through hand washing.

When I first wrote about it in YOU magazine, way back, droves of readers told me how grateful they were. One well-known cook with contact dermatitis collared me in the Ladies loo at a charity Quiz Night to tell me how much it had helped her.

So how did this phenomenal formula come about? It’s a fascinating history going back to the founder Dan Mueller’s involvement in the gold mining industry in the early 1990s. UK Managing Director William Jordan explains that ‘during the extraction process, Dan noticed the workers would put a thick paste under their industrial gloves to prevent any of the harsh acids and dangerous chemicals coming into contact with the skin’.

Realising that other professions and even domestic settings meant people were exposed to potentially harmful chemicals and irritants, Dan worked with doctors and chemists to create a non-greasy lotion that was easy to apply and more user-friendly all round. After several years’ development, Gloves In A Bottle was launched in California in the mid 1990s. Initially, it was only available in DIY stores, paint shops and ironmongers but around 1998 a dermatologist read an article about Gloves in a boating magazine. He trialled it on patients with contact dermatitis/eczema and discovered this ‘shielding lotion’ worked better than any other product he knew of. Other doctors and dermatologists recommended the product and distribution spread into pharmacies.

Gloves In A Bottle was launched in the UK in 2005 with Victoria Health and is now available globally. Frankly, we think everyone, everywhere, should know about it. It comes in a useful handbag size £5.15/60ml, as well as the large 240ml bottle for £10.50. Great value, great results. And, of course, you don’t need to have a problem to use Gloves In A Bottle; some reviewers swear by it as a rejuvenating hand lotion for more mature paws.

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