As good as Palmers may be, the stuff is made of shit. It's full of polyparabens and all other sorts of carcinogenic wank
It still smells nice though.
Best advice though is to get mechanical: occassionally take a pair of nail-clipper / scissors to any tiny "tags" of loose skin or incipient flappers before they tear and take off half a finger. Sanding / emery boarding callouses near the finger joints before they split or catch and rip on a crystal is also good. A recent copy of Climbing or Rock&Ice had a bizarre procedure involving a butter knife for removing horrendous build-ups of dead skin!. I'll dig it out and if it's any good type it up here. Though frankly those scoopy shaped file things for removing dead skin from your heels work pretty well for heavy duty skin removal.
The climb on balm's also good on new tat's if anyones interested....
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Eucerin. Its brilliant. You can get it from Boots. It comes in various strengths and there is one specifically for the hands. I have tried lots of moisturizers (E45, Ocitane Shea Butter stuff, Climb on etc) and this one is by far the best. It is made from Urea (like piss), which is the bodies natural moisturizer. It's about a tenner a tube, but worth it.
Look out for Moon's forthcoming 'Manicure Maintenance' pack. On shelves soon!