Why your hands get worse inside the gloves that are supposed to protect them

It's not the brand. It's not the material. It's not how much you sweat.

You've seen this. You just never had a word for it.

You pull off your gloves. Skin is pale, wrinkled, soft. By morning — tight, dry, cracking. You moisturize. It calms down over the weekend. Monday, gloves go back on. It starts again. It's not sensitive skin. It's physics.

What actually happens inside a sealed glove

Your skin needs to release moisture to stay intact. A sealed glove stops that process. Humidity hits 100%. The gradient reverses — moisture pushes back into the skin instead of out. This is called occlusion.

The barrier softens

Moisture breaks down the structure holding skin cells together.

Bacteria multiply

1.72× more bacterial growth under occluded skin than uncovered.

Chemicals move in

A softened barrier is a permeable barrier. Irritants pass through.

Cotton liners

Absorb moisture — then hold it against your skin. Inside a sealed glove, you're pressing a wet cloth against damaged skin.

Moisturizers and barrier creams

Add moisture to skin that's already overhydrated. Inside a sealed glove, it has no way to leave.

Switching glove brands or materials

Nitrile, latex, vinyl, rubber — they all occlude. Switching changes the feel. Not the physics.

One cause. One requirement.

For skin to survive inside a glove, moisture must leave the skin surface continuously. No liner, no cream, and no glove on the market does that. That's what we built.

See how it works