VT,

I don't know if you can get it in Great Britain, but Slippery Elm (ulmus rubra) root bark is very good for chronically dry skin - at least chewing strips of the rootbark is. I used it for years until my divorce from my herbalist/wildcrafter spouse, when I no longer had ready access to the bark, which we harvested and sold. Strips of the rootbark that we gathered ourselves is all I have ever used (and I used it nearly daily for years.) If you can get it, it will probably be in powder or capsule form, and I don't know if they would be as effective. for one thing, there is no way to know if you are getting only the inner bark of the root, or are getting the wood itself, or the inner tree bark (vs root bark), if you are buying it in capsule or powder form from a large distributor.

Might be worth trying it out.