These little bumps in the palms of both my hands recently appeared just after the holidays, although they did not itch at first and you could only really see them at a certain angle in certain light. They then started to get somewhat itchy, and as I scratched a bit they became more prominent and turned a bit red. They're not constantly red and seem to 'flare up' after rinsing or washing my hands even though I only use a really gentle supposedly 'ph balanced' soap. Anyways I highly doubt it would be the soap irritating me mainly because I've never really been sensitive to soap and been using this one for ever now...

They seem to be kind of embedded in the flesh or sitting 'under' the skin as opposed to being surface type bumps. This is why I doubt the soap or over-washing has any role in this because my hands are not dry at all either. It's just this deep-seated poison ivy like itch that occurs even after just rinsing with plain water.(I could upload a picture of when it is at its worst if that would help at all) Another weird thing is the tips of some of my fingers feel sort of 'leathery' (almost like a decreased sense of touch) to the touch, but without feeling dry or chapped.

Anyways all I could really come up with while googling was those two conditions mentioned in the title. Although none of the pictures I found resembled exactly what I'm experiencing, the description of the symptoms are pretty similar.

I've never really had anything like this on my hands before and don't suspect it's an allergic reaction to anything because I've never had typical allergy problems in my life. (maybe this is a first?)

Just wondering if there is anything specific I could try whether topical for instant relief or internal to address an actual cause? I've been putting a bit of diluted vinegar on them in case it's a PH thing (also relieves the itch a bit), as well as this polysporin anti itch gel. I'm going to try soaking them in some licorice root water tonight seeing as the search results I had come up with mostly recommended some steroidal creams.

thank you in advance for any suggestions or ideas!