In August the hands are washed a great deal. Back from a sweaty walk, alongside children in from the garden, before pouring a cold drink, in the kitchen, by the water. Count the washes in a day and ten is not unusual. Thought of from the point of view of applying something, those ten washes are ten occasions on which moisture is lost. Thought of from the point of view of washing, they become ten opportunities.
Soie's hand beauty rests on a single habit with two halves: wash, then moisturise. This article takes the first half, washing, and considers it as the entrance to beauty care. A hand soap is not merely a tool for removing dirt; it is the first decision that shapes how the hands look and feel.
What each wash takes away
When the hands are washed, the sebum film goes with the dirt. As the film that covered the water in the stratum corneum grows thinner, that water escapes into the air more readily, and the result is the tight, dry feeling that follows a wash. The back of the hand has little sebum to begin with, so the loss shows there sooner than on the face.
This is not a reason to wash less. Clean hands matter, in summer above all. It is a reason to look closely at what the hands are washed with, since the soap is the one variable in the equation that can be changed without changing the habit.
The stronger the cleanser, the more it removes. That is true of dirt, and it is equally true of the skin's own oils. A little is taken at each wash, faster than the skin can replace it. Dry hands, more often than not, advance within this accumulation.
Washing designed not to strip
From the point of view of hand beauty, the requirement of a soap is to remove dirt while leaving moisture behind. Soie's Moist Fragrance Hand & Body Soap is a moisturising formula built on a potassium soap base and containing moisturising ingredients such as glycerin, aloe vera leaf juice, hydrolysed collagen, placenta extract and allantoin. No petroleum-derived ingredients are used.
It is designed to keep moisture in during and after washing, without the tightness that follows an ordinary hand soap. More than twenty botanical extracts, including rosemary, chamomile, lavender and sage, are also included. The hands are left supple yet without any heaviness: a light finish that still feels moisturised.
Wrapping the hands in foam
How the hands are washed matters as much as which soap is used. Take a suitable amount, lather it lightly, and wash as if wrapping the hands in a soft foam. The lather acts as a cushion and softens the friction of hand against hand.
Use lukewarm water, since hot water strips the skin's oils. Carry the foam over the backs of the hands, between the fingers and around the nails, then rinse thoroughly; soap left behind is a cause of chapping. Dry by pressing a towel gently to the skin rather than rubbing, leaving no droplets. Then moisturise. The whole sequence is set out in our hand beauty guide.
For the hands, and for the body
As the name says, Soie's soap is for both hands and body. The 300 mL bottle serves as a beauty soap for the hands at the basin and as a body soap in the bathroom. The soft lather washes hands and body alike.
One bottle in two rooms also simplifies a household. The same scent, the same feel on the skin, whether it is a quick wash before lunch or a long bath at the end of the day.
Extending hand beauty to the body rests on the obvious fact that the skin of the hands and the skin of the body are continuous. Elbows, knees, the neck and the arms also dry easily and lose moisture to washing. A way of washing that is good enough for the hands is a natural choice for the rest of the body too.
A scent that fills the washroom
The soap carries a delicate, perfume-grade fragrance created by Soie's own perfumer. It rises the moment the lather forms and spreads softly through the washroom or bathroom, so that an everyday wash or a bath becomes a slightly special interval.
On the washed hands, the scent remains at the level of something noticed when the hands come close. Follow with a serum in the same fragrance and the scent is layered through both washing and moisturising. It begins with the wash and continues with what comes after.
Washing as beauty care
Most people choose a hand soap by its scent or its appearance, and those are fair criteria. But for something that touches the hands ten times a day, add one more question. After washing, do the hands feel tight, or do they feel soft?
It is a question worth asking at the basin itself, with wet hands, rather than in front of a shelf. The answer arrives within a minute of drying, and the hands give it honestly.
If the answer is soft, then washing is already part of hand beauty. Each wash replenishes moisture, and the skin is left in a condition that lets the serum that follows sink in more readily. Washing stops being an act of taking away and becomes an act of putting in order.
How Soie approaches it
Soie sets moisture, smoothness and radiance as its measures of beautiful hands and places the foundation of all three in washing. Moist Fragrance Hand & Body Soap moisturises and scents with every wash. Worked from the back of the hand to the fingertips afterwards, Enlight Hand Serum completes the habit.
In a season when the hands are washed so often, let hand beauty begin at the basin. The soap is described in full in the hand soap collection.
