Linda Rose has always let her fingers do the talking.

Her career as the first professional hand model may not have made her face instantly recognizable, but chances are you’re familiar with her work. She was Lauren Hutton’s hands holding a Revlon compact. She was Jane Withers’ hands cleaning a kitchen sink with Comet. Her digits dubbed for Cybill Shepherd’s in Clairol ads and for Farrah Fawcett’s in commercials for Faberge. She pulled double duty in Palmolive ads: She was Madge’s hands as well as the soakee’s.

Now, the 62-year-old is traveling around the country promoting her hand-care products. The Linda Rose Hand Care System is a two-part program comprised of Active Hand Cream (glycolic acid, lactic acid, vitamin B and SPF 15) and Protective Hand Gel (anti-oxidant vitamins B and E, aloe vera, rosemary extracts, glycerine). The two 4-ounce bottles cost $45. Two weeks ago, Rose debuted her Nail & Cuticle Serum with Liquid Collagen to soothe dry, rough cuticles and nails; a half-ounce bottle sells for $30. Linda Rose products are available at Neiman Marcus stores.

Rose got her start during the so-called Golden Age of television when programs and commercials were broadcast live. “I was doing six or seven commercials a day for shows like Ed Sullivan and Person to Person With Ed Murrow,” Rose said. “They were paying me $70 a day and I was thrilled. I also carried two babies during that. I also did about 150 commercials where they did use my face. I was always the mommy type. I was the Dristan lady. I inhaled. I’ve done 300 commercials where they just used my voice and about 5,000 commercials where they used my hands.”

Rose’s first commercial break came when she was doing junior modeling during a summer break from Vassar College. “I was 16. My first commercial was for Lux soap,” Rose said from her home in Southern California. “They were looking for someone who could simulate Gene Tierney’s handwriting, y’know, as if she were signing an autograph. Since I was in college, the director figured that I was intelligent enough to forge Gene Tierney’s signature. And I did.”

In 1973, she put all of her hand-grooming knowledge in a book aptly titled Hands (Simon & Schuster, $14.95). The book was reprinted in 1980. In 1992 she started developing her own line of hand-care products, which got her spots on David Letterman and ABC News after Sharon Stone and Bernadette Peters became fans.

“The biggest mistake that people make is forgetting how important our hands are,” Rose said. “They are the first thing to give away your age, no matter how young your face may look. And like it or not, they are difficult to disguise or cover up and are always center stage.”

While she marinated her own hands in lotions and used scrubs before donning white gloves for work, Rose doesn’t believe in pampering hands to the point of non-use in her private life. “I’ve raised two kids with these hands. I love to garden, which is hell on hands. I know no one is going to do the things I have to do for my hands. That’s why I came up with something that takes less than a minute a day.”