"We have more dangerous things to worry about, but it is like anywhere else that you go - if you don't take care of your hands and feet, you are not going to have a good day here." -Navy Communications Adviser, Brian Porch, Stationed Southern Iraq
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Remember to Protect Hands when working in the Garden
Las Vegas Review Journal
"I had tried just about every cream on the market to improve the situation, but nothing worked until I stumbled upon O'Keeffe's Working Hands Créme at my local feed store," said Livermore. "They were offering samples at an opportune time. That day, my hands and knuckles were cracked and bleeding. After I put it on, they felt better, so I went ahead and bought a container. Now I use it several times a day."
Blame it on the potatoes. The no-nonsense hand cream Tara O'Keeffe invented in her kitchen to help her rancher father deal with dry, cracked skin is on the verge of booming success. After years of steady, word-of-mouth growth, O'Keeffe's Working Hands has its shot at the big time. Download PDF of entire article
There are those who say that, by definition, slathering your guy-hammers with scented moisturizer isn't manly. Dave disagrees. Sandpapery mitts are fine for slaping granite but not for the more gentle caress that 3-D Dave livin' (and lovin') requires. The finest Dave-approved mixture is O'Keeffe's Working Hands, a cocktail of glycerin, paraffin, and unpronounceable chemicals that's used by ranchers and mechanics, as well as dog mushers, who rub the stuff on the chapped paws of their curly-tailed finest. It comes in a 3.4-ounce circular green tin commonly mistaken for a rounder of Skoal Long Cut, so you won't have to "explain" yourself. I use O'Keeffe's when I'm low on my homemade mixture: equal parts bear fat, beeswax, and Muralo spackle, with a drop of Drakkar Noir for bouquet.
Do it yourselfers know what it means to have rough, working hands. Perhaps they get those hands from gardening and working in the dirt and water, or maybe they get them from painting and working with solvents. Now, on top of all that, dry winter weather is adding to the woes of working folks who are developing dry, cracked split hands.
O'Keeffe's Workings Hands Crème is the solution to that problem, and the story behinds its development is one of determination and the love of a pharmacist daughter for her father.
The father is Bill O'Keeffe. Twenty-five years ago he ranched in the arid region along the California-Oregon border known as the Klamath Basin. Between the hard work of ranching and the weather, his hands were so dried and cracked that he could hardly shake hands, and his feet were so dried and cracked that it was painful for him to walk. No medication helped, so he urged his daughter Tara, just out of pharmacy school, to see what she could do. Over years, Tara experimented with a variety of formulas, using her kitchen food processor. Eventually she developed a very different crème that contains no oil--and thus attracts moisture into the skin.
O'Keeffe's Working Hands Crème works and is endorsed by working men and women everywhere. The crème is chemically different from any other product out there. There is no oil and thus no greasy feel. It is odorless, and it provides overnight relief.
Recently, Tara has used her expertise in healing skin and has introduced O'Keeffe's Working Feet, a slightly different formulation that is highly effective for dry, cracked and calloused feet.
As a bonus, both of these products are recommended by diabetes educators.
If you have dry, cracked split hands or feet, stop by Bob's and check out the products that Tara has developed. A representative of O'Keeffe's Working Hands Crème will be at Bob's Hardware and Home Center on Saturday, Dec. 2, to answer questions about the product.
Balm O'Keeffe: Basin native spreads lotion Product sprang from her attempts to heal father's hands
By LEE JUILLERAT, H&N Regional Editor
December 2005
It began as an act of love, not as a business.
When Tara O'Keeffe was growing up in Butte Valley and the Merrill areas, she worried while watching her father, Bill, suffer from the effects of severely dry skin. His skin was so dry that it cracked and bled, that it hurt to shake hands, that it pained him to walk. So dry that, eventually, the front of his feet were amputated. "That's why the product is named 'Working Hands,' because that was how he spent his life, working," Tara said.
O'Keeffe's Working Hands is the skin therapy lotion she developed to protect and treat hands. She also has a second product, O'Keeffe's Working Feet.
What started out 11 years ago as a kitchen-counter project has evolved to an expanding business that counted 1.5 million sales last year. Those numbers should balloon as the product she created for her father gets into hands of customers at Walgreens and, possibly, Wal-Mart. Tara also hopes to see "Working Hands" at places like Home Depot and Lowe's. It's currently available at Big R, Rite-Aid and Ace Hardware stores.
O'Keeffe's Co. owner Tara O'Keeffe stands in the production area at the company location in Sisters. The packaging for her Working Hands lotion has won her international attention and numerous awards for design and innovation.
This newly designed O'Keeffe's Co. owner and creator Tara O'Keeffe manufactures the lotion in Sisters and sells 500,000 cans throughout the U.S. each year.
You can tell a lot by someone's hands-if they're cracked, dried and split, for example, you know theirs are "working hands". That's the niche the O'Keeffe's Company has been targeting in the 10 years it has marketed O'Keeffe's Working Hands cream. These days, though, the brand is looking to do a little more male bonding. A new flat polypropylene jar touted as a "grip pack" has recently been introduced in a can't-miss color scheme of orange and lime green and with a rubberized tool-like grip on a lid that's sized to fit your palm. Though it doesn't replace O'Keeffe's classic white jar, the design is intended to make a stronger impact with male consumers and, according to the Sisters, Oregon-based company, the hardware and home center retail channel. This new packaging is available in 3.4-ounce and 5-ounce sizes ($7.99 and $9.99 respectively) and marks O'Keeffe's entry into the flurry of personal care products targeting men.
When Tara O'Keeffe was growing up in Butte Valley and the Merrill areas, she worried while watching her father, Bill, suffer from the effects of severely dry skin. His skin was so dry that it cracked and bled, that it hurt to shake hands, that it pained him to walk. So dry that, eventually, the front of his feet were amputated. "That's why the product is named 'Working Hands,' because that was how he spent his life, working," Tara said.
What started out 11 years ago as a kitchen-counter project has evolved to an expanding business that counted 1.5 million sales last year. Those numbers should balloon as the product she created for her father gets into hands of customers at Walgreens and, possibly, Wal-Mart. Tara also hopes to see "Working Hands" at places like Home Depot and Lowe's. It's currently available at Big R, Rite-Aid and Ace Hardware stores.
O'Keeffe's Co. owner Tara O'Keeffe stands in the production area at the company location in Sisters. The packaging for her Working Hands lotion has won her international attention and numerous awards for design and innovation. 
You can tell a lot by someone's hands-if they're cracked, dried and split, for example, you know theirs are "working hands". That's the niche the O'Keeffe's Company has been targeting in the 10 years it has marketed O'Keeffe's Working Hands cream. These days, though, the brand is looking to do a little more male bonding. A new flat polypropylene jar touted as a "grip pack" has recently been introduced in a can't-miss color scheme of orange and lime green and with a rubberized tool-like grip on a lid that's sized to fit your palm. Though it doesn't replace O'Keeffe's classic white jar, the design is intended to make a stronger impact with male consumers and, according to the Sisters, Oregon-based company, the hardware and home center retail channel. This new packaging is available in 3.4-ounce and 5-ounce sizes ($7.99 and $9.99 respectively) and marks O'Keeffe's entry into the flurry of personal care products targeting men.