If your hands and cuticles feel drier than ever, know that you’re not alone. I have chronically dry hands to begin with, but the increased hand washing and sanitization this past year has truly wreaked havoc on my skin and it feels terrible. I’ve always been a solid advocate for body creams and hand creams being readily available everywhere that I go (I literally have hand cream in every single one of my purses). After trying and testing out a bunch of different ones through this past year (and previous ones of course), here are some of my tried and true ones!
Before we dive right into these, I wanted to preface that I have a pretty rigid grading structure for my hand creams, and that here are the following criteria that they need to fit under: ease of dispensation (is that word?), ease of application, fragrance, absorption rate, oiliness, effectiveness, and price. So for any hand cream to get past even qualifying as a repurchase, it’s definitely got to pass all of those qualifying aspects. Needless to say, these hand creams that I’m about to share with you are the cream of the crop—pun 100% intended.
★★★★☆ Ease of Application
★★☆☆☆ Fragrance
★★★☆☆ Absorption Rate
★★★★☆ Oiliness
★★★★★ Effectiveness
★★★★★ Price – $21.00/100 ml ($0.21/ml)
This stuff is thick. I’m not even kidding. This is probably the thickest hand cream that I own and it definitely takes a bit of time to massage and absorb into your skin, hence the 3/5 stars for the absorption rate. But lets run through all of the factors. It’s easy to apply, although the formulation is thick, it melts quickly with your body heat. It just takes a little while to fully sink into your skin. There’s definitely an herbally smell to this hand cream. It’s not the worst, but it’s definitely not my favourite which is why I gave it such a low score. Because of the thickness of it, it leaves a very thick oily veil on your hands. This is a cream that I would recommend applying at night so that it can soak into your skin while you’re asleep—unless you’re comfortable with leaving oily finger prints everywhere you go.
But for the thickness, it really does do its job. When I apply this overnight, I always wake with the softness skin so it’s totally worth the oiliness. It’s also one of the more affordable hand creams that I enjoy using so it gets a 5/5 stars price wise for me!
★★★★☆ Ease of Application
★★★☆☆ Fragrance
★★★☆☆ Absorption Rate
★★☆☆☆ Oiliness
★★★★☆ Effectiveness
★★★★☆ Price – $12.00/30 ml ($0.40/ml)
I’m a suck for l’Occitane’s body butters, so naturally I also love their hand creams. This is a current favourite scent of mine (they regularly release limited edition fragrances), but when I run out, I always revert back to their trusty Shea Butter classic.
I really enjoy the formula of their hand creams, they’re of the perfect thickness that just feels luxurious, but doesn’t take forever to work into your skin. I find that their products are very heavily scented, but that the fragrance doesn’t linger for too long. If you’re a hand talker like me, you won’t have to worry about getting a wiff every few seconds whilst waving your hand around to talk. The creams absorb quite quickly and I don’t find that they often leave behind any weird oily residues. Some of the formulas are a little oilier than others, but I would give this hand cream a solid score for daytime usage. And last but not least, their effectiveness. Not only are l’Occitane’s hand creams relatively lightweight, but their extremely effective at restoring moisture into my desert-like hands. Although it’s not as thick as The Body Shop one, so usually throughout the day I do need at least 1 re-application.
★★★★★ Ease of Application
★★★★★ Fragrance
★★★★★ Absorption Rate
☆☆☆☆☆ Oiliness
★★★☆☆ Effectiveness
★★★★★ Price – $20.00/50 ml ($0.40/ml) It’s currently on sale for $10.00/50 ml ($0.20/ml)
This one was a surprise for me. I honestly didn’t expect it to perform so well because although Lano is a well known brand, it doesn’t have as large of a cult following here as say l’Occitane does when it comes to hand creams. I instantly fell in love with this hand cream primarily due to its scent. When it comes to rose scented anything, I’m immediately sold. Besides the fragrance though, the application is something that I’ve never experienced before. It starts off feeling thick and oily, but then it quickly rubs into your skin and creates this interesting sticky texture, yet it doesn’t leave any sort of strange oily residue. I don’t know how to explain it, the texture and application process is something that you’d have to experience yourself to understand.
Besides that, it absorbs exponentially faster than any other hand cream that I have tried in my life. So much so that I can instantly go from applying the hand cream to using my phone within less than a minute and not worrying about leaving any weird streaks on my phone screen. It does perform exceptionally well and I know that on severely dry days, I can rely on it to instantly fix my hands. It’s not exactly the cheapest hand cream on the market, but it’s currently marked down to about half price on Sephora, making it the cheapest one of the bunch in my round up.
★★★★★ Ease of Application
★★★★☆ Fragrance
★★★★☆ Absorption Rate
☆☆☆☆☆ Oiliness
★★☆☆☆ Effectiveness
★★★★★ Price – $22.00/100 ml ($0.22/ml) It’s currently on sale for $17.60/100 ml ($0.18/ml)
Laline is a brand that was new to me last year and I was pleasantly surprised by it! I loved how lightweight their formulas are and how gentle the fragrances are too. Their hand creams are quite light in texture and are easy to apply, you don’t need to use too much effort massaging it into your skin for it to melt and it absorbs fairly quickly. This one in particular is more of a gel consistency and I found that it absorbed fast enough that I could use my phone within a minute or two of application. They have a variety of fragrances, but what I love about this one is the light sandalwood scent. It has a very tranquil and calming scent that almost transports me back to a spa (back when spas were accessible).
Being such a lightweight formula, I don’t find that it leaves behind any oily residue at all. Even when repeated application, I don’t ever find myself feeling sticky or unable to touch things with the fear of leaving behind an oily trail. However it’s only downfall is that because the formula is so lightweight, I don’t find that the hydration properties last for long. This hand cream would make for a phenomenal deskside one as it won’t leave your hands feeling like you can’t touch anything, but it’ll still give it a quick and instant hit of hydration. Keep it around though because you’ll want to reapply later into the day.
★★★☆☆ Ease of Application
★★★☆☆ Fragrance
★★★☆☆ Absorption Rate
★★★☆☆ Oiliness
★★★★☆ Effectiveness
★★☆☆☆ Price – $65.00/100 ml ($0.65/ml)
Oribe is first and foremost a haircare brand, and you know the amount of work that hair stylists put their hands through, so if this hand cream is tough enough to withstand the abuse that their hands go through, then you know that it’s good. Made with a blend of Shea butter and other various oils, you know that this is going to be a relatively heavy cream. It comes out quite thick similar to The Body Shop one, and definitely takes a bit of time to melt into your skin to get it to fully absorb, but once it does, your hands feel like velvet. Because of its thickness, I prefer to use this cream at night right before going to bed, or if I know that I won’t be using my hands for awhile so that I’m not leaving behind oily residue or marks everywhere that I go. That being said though, the hand cream itself isn’t overly oily. Once you do get it to fully absorb into your skin, it sort of coats your hands in a hydrated veil and isn’t too slick. You could if you wanted to immediately use your touchscreen phone right after, but you might leave some slick marks here and there until the cream has 100% absorbed into your skin.
Although the fragrance is a light one, expect it to be similar to fragrances that you would expect from hair products. It’s quite floral, so if you’re not into sweet and flowery scents, this one wont be it for you. I personally love it and it’s right up my alley though. Price at $65.00 for a tube with 100 ml, it’s definitely not a cheap hand cream, but it does do its job. If you purchase this larger size vs. the smaller 35 ml one, you also get a turn key with it, making it easier to extract every last drop from the packaging. Would I repurchase this once I finish it? Definitely—not only does it do it’s job, but I know that it’s thick and effective enough for even the driest of winter days.
★★★★★ Ease of Application
★★★★☆ Fragrance
★★★★★ Absorption Rate
★☆☆☆☆ Oiliness
★★★☆☆ Effectiveness
★☆☆☆☆ Price – $90.00/50 ml ($1.80/ml)
I really didn’t expect or want to like this hand cream, especially because of the astronomical price tag attached to it, but I did. I received this as a gift from a friend and hesitated from using it for the longest time out of fear that if I used it all up, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to repurchase it—jokes on me because I definitely would.
Not only is the formula amazingly easy to apply (it literally melts into your skin like butter), it takes almost next to no time to absorb. After massaging it into your skin, not only do the fine lines on the back of my hands disappear, but it feels like there’s some sort of soft veil or protective coating on my hands that I don’t find irritating. Almost as if it has the same effect as a silicon based primer has on your face when you apply it. Smooth like a baby’s bottom.
It also has an extremely lightweight floral fragrance that almost immediately disappears upon absorption, so you don’t have to worry about any weird lingering scents if you’re easily bothered by fragrances. There is literally no oily residue, making this a great hand cream to store in your bag on the go and rely on being able to immediately use your touch screen phone after application. Overall the effectiveness of this hand cream is quite good, but it’s definitely not as nourishing as a thicker cream based formula. I wish that I could love this more if it wasn’t for the price, but I do think that its formulation and price is fairly justified.
