Yes, I've never seen this question on the list before, but maybe no
one was brave enough to ask such a simple question.  Of course, I'm
talking about getting grease and grunge out from under the
fingernails, cuticles, and skin folds.   Before everyone laughs me
off the list, I'll bet others are wondering the very same thing.  To
satisfy Jim, I am referring specifically to Vanagon grease that we
all know and love so well.  to eliminate a lot of obvious answers,
here's what I have experimented with over the last 40 years and
nothing really seems to do the trick except a really prolonged
scrubbing with Fast Orange repeatedly, followed by a long hot shower
and scratching my soap bar vigorously with my fingernails so they
fill up with the white stuff, and then eventually, the fingernail
brush from an auto parts store eventually gets the rest of it out.

  Okay, here's what I've tried and why I don't think these items and
procedures are the Holy Grail.
1.  Blue Nitrile Exam Gloves.  I'm not allergic to latex or vinyl,
but those gloves don't hold up even as well as the Nitrile.  Yes, I
use them for CV Joint repacking and a couple of other really nasty
jobs, but for everyday mechanical repairs, they don't hold up and
repeated use gets expensive.  I know some auto stores sell Heavy Duty
ones, but still after 30 minutes or so, your hands get really clammy
and wet and that makes putting on the next  pair difficult.  I DO use
these gloves extensively when working with Epoxy and other nasty
resins though and they do fine for that, but that work doesn't
require all the abrasion of the auto work..

2. Kerrodex barrier cream-  Your spozed to rub this stuff into your
fingernails and exposed skin before you begin and after the mech
work, rinse with water and all of the dirt goes bye bye.  Spozed to
work for fiberglass resins too and it doesn't  It smells like soap in
a tube and hasn't performed anywhere near the way I'd like it to,
especially for the cost of it.

3. Fast Orange/Go-Jo/Pumice cleaners/Lava/ you name it- EVENTUALLY,
they get the stuff off, but the dirtier you get, the time to clean up
gets exponentially longer and once you rinse with water, the
effectiveness of the repeated applications diminishes a great
deal.  EEven the "natural" versions of this stuff dry out the skin badly.

Enough of my ranting here.  I never hear anyone else complain about
this necessary job, so I'd be really indebted to the list to cough up
your favorite potions for keeping naked hands clean or at least
minimizing the clean up time afterward.

TIA

DM&FS