Yes Vaseline is good to apply to dry skin as the Vaseline helps to keep the moisture in your skin.
Vaseline which is petroleum jelly is very gentle on skin and helps to keep moisture in your skin where it belongs to prevent your skin from drying out.
You can also by hand and skin lotion that has some petroleum jelly mixed in with it which is also a good way to keep your skin moisturized and helps to lock in the moisture.
What I do is use hand and skin lotion on my skin and then rub some petroleum jelly onto my skin to help lock in the moisture.
Doing that I have not had dry skin in about 5 years now.
So Vaseline does work great for sealing in moisture and helps keep your skin from drying out and cracking.