Getting older aint much fun, not least because of the uphill battle against the signs of aging. One area that’s often neglected until it’s too late is the hands. Apart from thinning skin, age spots on the hands are a dead giveaway of a persons, err, lack of youth.

I started noticing these horrid marks appearing on my hands a few years ago. First it was the odd one or two, but each year a few more would join. So now I regularly use a rich hand cream at night and another during the day. 



I don’t like spending much on hand cream so I was happy to be given a tube of Clarins Age-control hand lotion for my birthday last year. And no, I wasn’t insulted it was an ‘age-control’ product, because it was from my sister who knows all about my quests to defy the hands of time, excuse the pun!

One thing to make sure when wearing a hand cream during the day, is that it has an SPF of at least 15. It’s this that will help protect your hands from the damaging effects of the sun’s rays.

Unfortunately, I didn’t discover this until it was way too late. So now I have to keep trying products that promise to either prevent new age spots or somehow repair those that are already there.

What it Does

The Clarins Age-Control Hand Lotion states that it:

"Prevents age spots; Evens skin tone; Softens hands. It also has an SPF of 15. It’s described as ‘A lightweight, non-oily lotion formulated to promote soft, smooth, youthful-looking hands. Prevents age spots ad protects against UV rays. Perfect for daytime use, its rapidly absorbed texture leaves hands and nails ore beautiful."

It also says it instantly softens and smoothes hands. Avoids irregular pigmentation marks by continually protecting against harmful UV rays (SPF15). Helps minimize the appearance of existing age spots and evens skin tone. Moisturizes, nourishes and helps strengthen nails. That all sounds amazing and if it could do all that to my hands, then I’d buy it for life.

My Opinion

The first thing I noticed about the lotion was how thin it is. But I guess that’s because I usually use a cream rather than lotion. So, yes it is very thin. The first time I squeezed out far too much and ended up wiping the excess all over my arms. Not bad for the arms of course, but I didn’t want to waste any.

Unfortunately, I found it doesn’t sink in easily and I had to rub my hands continuously for a couple of minutes until it was finally absorbed. Even then, it left my hands quite greasy which made the handles of anything I held rather slippery. And when I was at my desk, my keyboard ended up quite slimy. My hands did look more hydrated after using it, but no more so than other, cheaper creams I’ve used.

My main concern, age spots, didn’t seem to diminish over the time I used the lotion. I can’t say I noticed new ones appearing, so perhaps it helped in that sense. My nails were in good condition but I can’t vouch that this was a result of Clarins Hand Lotion.

In the end, after using it for around 6 months, I was quite glad when I finished the bottle so I could get back to a richer moisturising cream which my dry hands really need. I think this Clarins Age-Control Hand Lotion would be useful as a prevention product for someone who doesn’t yet have tell-tale signs of aging on their hands.

The bottle size is 75ml (2.7oz). Plant extract ingredients: French Grape, Japanese Mulberry, Saxifrage and Scutellaria extracts (lightening action), Myrhh (strengthens nails).