I have extremely dry skin and nails too. I also have to keep my nails short because of the peeling. I was perusing the board one day and looked in the recipe section. Lo and behold, there is a recipe in there for quilter's hand cream. It makes a very large batch so make sure you have some empty small jars or a tupperware canister to store it in. I keep mine in the fridge...well labeled of course. It works really well. Give it a try.