Happy Friday, Beautiful Blossoms! This week has been a rather rough one – from technical difficulties with my weekly video review to nearly forgetting that today is Currently Obsessed Friday to trying to figure out how to make Instagram work better to having a colleague out on a mini-break….

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I’m just glad I’m able to do something that isn’t making me go haywire: talk about one of my favorite beauty products. And this week it’s the Nivea Body Lotion… specifically, the Extended Moisture Body Lotion.

What makes this baby so great, you ask

It’s my body lotion HG. You see, me and body lotion had a very iffy history – I was trained to neurotically slather lotion on myself to keep my skin from being dry and ashy at a young age. And when you’re young, you tend to do rather questionable things that you don’t reflect on until you’re older and wiser. In my case, there were instances when I would grab something to eat, conveniently forgetting that I had put lotion on my hands.

Which meant I ate body lotion along with my food. Did I ever wash my hands? Of course! But each time I washed my hands, I had to put lotion on. LOTS of lotion. Because of that logic, I stayed away from using lotion after washing my hands to prevent me from ingesting lotion with my food. And this went on for years until my lazy route took its toll on my skin and it showed: my hands were drier and ashier than Mars. It became more obvious when I was a practicing radiography school student – handwashing is a MUST. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

So winter + frequent handwashing + no lotion = dry, ashy skin that was prone to cuts. I had to do something about it. A trip to the lotion aisle introduced me to all sorts of brands: Jergens, Vaseline, Lubriderm, Eucerin, and Nivea. The last one got to me with the Extended Moisture Body Lotion, promising to keep my skin smooth and moist for 48 hours. The nice scent was an added bonus.

Now the challenge was to consistently put lotion after each time I washed my hands. For a week. I was determined to get rid of the dry, ashy appearance on my hands so I wasn’t about to let procrastination take over. That and I was curious to see if Nivea could stack up to years’ worth of skincare neglect.

I gave it a week. And Nivea did not fail me – in fact, it went above and beyond. By Friday of the week I started using the Extended Body Lotion, my skin had no trace of its former self. I’m not exaggerating when I say that my hands felt as smooth as a baby’s butt (that’s one of those things in life where you just gotta experience in a non-sexual and/or perverted way before you die).

I left the bottle of Nivea Extended Body Lotion (yep, I took the whole bottle with me wherever I went. Kinda caused problems when I had to work at CVS because it looked like I swiped it off the shelf when it wasn’t even the case ; – 😉 out in the open one time so that people could use it too and experience the smoothness that is Nivea. It just so happens that my clinical professor noticed the bottle and pumped some lotion onto her own hands because Old Man Winter was giving every exposed skin his seasonal touch.

She was so impressed by how smooth her hands felt after applying that she nearly swiped the bottle for herself. You know you got something good if your professor was willing to snatch your HG lotion. Thankfully, I let her know that the bottle was mine and I wasn’t about to give it away. Nope. Not when I purchased the damn thing on minimum wage.

Ever since then, I’ve never strayed from Nivea. I use it all over my body whenever possible and it also helps that the scent isn’t overpowering (I’m looking at you, Bath and Body Works! ಠ_ಠ) or leaves a greasy feel. A little does go a long way when using it on your hands, but for body parts that have large areas, use as much as you need.

If Nivea body lotions ever go on sale, you bet I’m going to hoard as many as I can…. which is probably why I should stay away from Walmart – they sell cheaper there than in drugstores, even with the occasional sale.

And that’s it for today’s Currently Obsessed! Tune in next Friday to find out what I use to the point of obsession!

Stay Blooming, Beautiful Blossoms!