I really love O’Keefe’s Working Hands hand cream. Doesn’t sting when they’re really cracked, just soothes and doesn’t leave your hands feeling oily. Unfortunately, no recommendations for nail polish. I gave up long ago.
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strongly recommend never wash dishes without gloves. the soap that gets grease out of the way strips the natural oils of the nails.
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Yes, all cleaning chores involving soap and water are death on nails.
I have very sensitive skin yet never found that lotions burned my hands. Do you have an allergy? The shifts from cold to heat can cause prickling fingers that’s very painful, but that’s not from lotion.
I actually hate the way creams feel on my skin (I know, I’m weird), but for cracked fingers. I find the best thing is to cover them with clear liquid bandages, rather than moisturizer. Sealing them up prevents the cracking from getting worse.
Polish and remover can be hard on the nails, so another vote for clean, short, and natural.
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I have used Corona for my hands… very protective. Lots of lanolin in it.
The Aveeno 24 hour hand cream is good, and not expensive. I also use the Udderly Smooth FOOT cream- not greasy and soaks in quickly. I also second (triple?) wearing gloves when ever possible. I cream my clean hands then use cotton liners under work gloves for most barn work.
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I have a friend who is an oiler for heavy equipment who tried this stuff and liked it:
Gloves help with the nails. Mine are hopelessly short and ugly so I don’t know much about taking care of them!
Part time farmer here and full time homemaker, and I second O’Keefe’s Working Hands. I find housework is harder on my hands than farming because I tend to wear gloves outside and never think to wear them indoors. I slather it on generously and rub it in well. I use it all year round and it does make a difference.
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Vaseline Intensive Care Advanced Repair lotion works. It is an unscented formula (since scents often cause allergic reactions). The only downside is it contains parabens. It’s a big enough brand that I’m sure you can find it in Canada.
Another is Cerave’s Moisturizing Cream, which is unscented and does not contain parabens. It’s thicker than the Vaseline lotion, but it absorbs more quickly. (It’s also more expensive, and may be available in fewer places).
Cetaphil is amazing and the only reason my hands survive winter.
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As far as the nail polish question in the OP, I haven’t tried for decades. I work in a field where the norm is a healthy look, business casual range of clothes, minimal makeup and no nail polish. So my thought is that the number one thing is to get the cracked dry skin under control. Do you actually have a form of dermatitis or eczema and might a doctor or dermatologist have suggestions? Most people don’t get cracked hands evrn in Canadian winters.
I would address that before I thought about nail polish. If your hands are chapped or cracked or raw, nail polish will draw attention to that and can also be an irritant. On the other hand, if your hands have healthy skin, short clean unpolished nails will look fine in most situations.
I’ve never found a nail polish that doesn’t chip off fairly quickly. I think the new gel nail polishes might require UV light to set? There has been a lot of innovation since I gave up on nail polish, I’ve never had fake salon nails or evrn been tempted.
My nails are however a bit bendy. So nail polish chips because the tips bend. Then the tip will just spontaneously crack off. The only time my nails grew nicely at all was when I was on more or less bed rest a few years back for a medical reason. 
It’s better to prevent than repair, but I never think of wearing gloves before cleaning dishes etc. So repair it is.
My favorite hand creams are Burt’s Bee shea butter Hand Repair cream (unfortunately I don’t think they make it anymore), J.R. Watkins hand cream, and Nuxe rêve de miel hand cream. I keep them everywhere in the house, the car, my handbag, so I can always moisturize.
I keep my nails short and natural, so no help there.
I second the Burts Bees! The hydration day lotion works really well for me.
Really? I don’t work on a farm and get cracked fingers all winter long, as soon as it goes below a certain temperature. I do ride, run outside, and do yardwork, but wear gloves almost always for all three activities in the cold.
Like I said above, the moisturizer doesn’t really help; if anything it just irritates things, so I seal the cracks with liquid bandages. It’s not exactly funny, but every now and then they’ve bled during ordinary things, and really freaked me out until I realized where the blood was coming from!
@Impractical_Horsewoman, you might have eczema. Basic instructions are 1) don’t wash or get your hands wet any more than absolutely necessary, and 2) always use a cream - more often than you think you need to. I like the Eucerin Eczema Relief Cream for hand eczema. I keep a bottle EVERYWHERE and it has absolutely changed my life.
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Ah, I didn’t mean no one else gets cracked hands just that every one doesn’t get them so its worth getting more investigation of why!
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Ha! Already have it! But really, the only thing that helps is gluing myself back together.
Yeah, I’ve gotten steroid ointments for my various rashes over the years before. I do agree that it’s genetic, but alas, I don’t think all skin conditions are 100% preventable. I’ve tried other creams and things but…always back to the liquid bandage glue in the end for the cracking after a certain point! It’s odd, because I don’t have dry skin–far from it. Skin is so weird! I guess that’s why dermatologists make the big bucks!
A couple of decades ago I tried Gramp Lyford’s Country Salve and it is all I have used since. My hands got so dry that the skin on my fingers split open. I used skin glue and band-aids. usually 2-3 on each hand. Very fashionable look. I found it at a medical equipment supplier (crutches, potty chairs, etc.). The woman at the desk said it was the only thing that helped her with eczema. It takes a very small glob so a tube lasts longer than you think. I was amazed that it got rid of the dry skin and the cuts healed up and I was back to normal skin. It stayed that way. They are in Vermont. I don’t know if they ship to Canada.
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I worked in a restaurant and had to cut up pork shoulders every day. My hands were lush and beautiful.
A potter I worked with swore by almond oil as a hand lotion. Just that and nothing else, applied after cleaning all the clay of his hands at the end of a session.
