For about the same price as most of the salves in our test, you get about six times the volume. If you’re a frequent user, that adds up. And unless you’re pretty meticulous about your skin care, the difference between our best and worst performers isn’t drastic. Methenamine produces formaldehyde on reaction with water in the skin. If you are allergic to formaldehyde don’t use it. As ever consult a doctor for professional opinions and don’t use the internet for health advice. Urgent Care – Repair Split Finger Tips, Flappers, Cuts

As I mentioned above, finding consistency wasn’t easy in this test. To make matters more difficult, the more I used the salves the harder it was to wear down my skin for testing. If you ever want an incentive to train all the time, salve testing is a good last resort. To make matters worse, the oily residue means that it’s impossible to do anything else for about 10 minutes after application. Unless you have the time to sit and wait for your hands to dry, this is a pain. Also try to keep your nails trimmed and neat. If you leave your nails to grow too long and then cut them close, your fingertips can feel very sensitive and bruise easily. Attentive climbing skin care is essential to long term performance. Some climbers that have very wet skin when climbing will use a drying agent. We don’t recommend this for the vast majority of people. If you take care of your hands properly with a good routine they should actually be less wet as they won’t be constantly trying to repair themselves. Combined with a good chalk this could solve a problem with wet hands without further action. O’Keeffe’s is the other cream-style product we tested, and it’s also the least climbing-oriented (or marketed) of the six.Because this is the primary function of the salves, this category was weighted most heavily in scoring. Feel What must also be noted is that your hands will soften more with this one than other products. We would say be careful not to overapply this bouldering hand cream, as you may end up regretting it! Even so, for stopping broken skin it is really effective. Climbing salves are best for restoring fingertips, especially after extreme abuse. They can be helpful, but many climbers get by well without them — don’t worry if you don’t use one. Hard Skin vs. Soft Skin Having a little kit ready to go is really helpful when you need to perform with interruption. Pros like Adam Ondra and Magnus Midtbo have kits at hand wherever they go. Totally indispensable for climbing holidays without time for rest days. This is what we recommend: – This is also a salve, but it is not bar-shaped. It is more like a vaseline tin, where you put your finger in and scoop some out. That is probably the main reason why it ranked lower than the bouldering hand creams on this list. Once again the products are natural, with beeswax, almond oil, mango oil, and jojoba all making appearances.

The ClimbSkin was the most pleasant to handle of any product in our test. It’s a soft tan cream that’s slightly cool to the touch, and it feels lovely on the skin. How easy is the salve to apply? How convenient is it to carry and use? Does the salve make it hard to carry out other tasks? Related Articles So, this choice mostly depends on your preferred skin texture. Wax-based salves are suitable for comparatively harder skin with their pros for climbers. To be as consistent as possible, I started with head-to-head testing between various salves. After a given session or two of climbing, I would apply one salve to each hand (after the session and before bed) and look for differences.However, the pros don’t outweigh the cons in this case – the residue of this salve is oily, so you’ll have to wait and sit around for about 10 minutes before you can go about your day. The idea of Crimp Oil is to keep your fingers in great shape and promote healthy muscles. It can be applied up to three or four times a day and it gives your hands the care they need to repair, but not to the point where they get too soft. There are dozens of amazing climbing salves that you can buy these days, from the premium ones like ClimbOn and ClimbSkin to some of the local mixtures. Here’s how you can choose the best one for yourself. 1. Make a budget. For the best performance, you’ll want to make sure your skin is the perfect level of durable. The first thing you need to do is thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water after climbing. This removes dirt and chalk and allows your pores to breathe. You should also try to avoid things like washing up or activities where your hands are wet for a long time. Wear gloves instead, this isn’t an excuse to skip chores… There are products like New-Skin Liquid Bandage that work as a disinfectant and a glue in one product, though they don’t work as well as each one used desperately. You can also cover any cuts with climbing tape to keep them closed and create an artificial grip that works nearly as well as your finger. If a nail breaks you can get nail repair kits and glue that work well.