It’s that time of year, when countless magazines, websites and television shows remind us that we are not perfect and encourage us to resolve to do better. Like the rest of America, I’m planning on finally getting that gym membership and eating more fruits and veggies. But the resolutions I’m most excited about are those that involve looking fantastically beautiful and perfectly put together.

Time for beauty resolutions.

I thought of many, but I think my main focus will be on two areas: great skin and pretty hands.

I’ve been blessed with some pretty good skin. Occasional volcanic pimple aside, I don’t really break out and I have small pores. I do get rather dry in the winter but that has always been curable with moisturizer. So I can get by on little effort and still have okay looking skin, but I can also try a little more and have fantastic skin. So my number one beauty resolution this year is to cleanse and moisturize every day.

It seems simple, but just making sure you wash your makeup off at night can make a huge difference in tone and brightness of your skin. Not to mention it’s a lot easier to avoid bumps and blemishes if your pores aren’t clogged with yesterday’s foundation.

In honor of this resolution, I surfed my way over to the Clarins website (www.clarins.com) and completed the beauty prescription survey. It only took a few moments, and matched me with a slew of covetable products. I ordered the Water Purify One-Step Cleanser as my new year’s treat. I can’t wait to see how it works.

My second resolution is to achieve beautiful hands. This will be a harder task, because I’m a nail biter, have really dry hands, and currently have about 47 hangnails.

To stop biting my nails I have enlisted my boyfriend’s help. (He scolds me loudly when he catches me doing it; I now know how our dog feels when he sternly tells her to stop her incessant barking.) Where scolding falls short, I’m hoping a good manicure will pick up the slack, so I also plan to keep my nails trimmed and painted with a clear nail strengthening top coat. My current favorite comes from Essie.

I’m still on the lookout for the perfect hand lotion, so please feel free to let me know if any of you have found the miracle cure for dry hands.

I figure concentration on a nice complexion and repairing my damaged hands will be enough to keep me busy for a while. Now if I could only find time for the gym…