Long before I got concerned with my hands showing my age, I suffered from dryness of the skin. So, for many-many years I’ve been constantly using hand creams and lotions, as well as trying to avoid subjecting my hands to any household chemicals.
For years my go-to hand cream was NIVEA Soft Moisturizing Crème. I think that I liked it mostly for its texture and scent (though, I would have preferred the scent of the original Nivea cream in a navy tin). It was nice, it absorbed quickly, but I it seemed not to keep my hands moisturized for as long as I wanted to. Sometimes, I had to re-apply it during the night if I were to wake up and think that my hands were too dry, but I assumed that was the nature of the game.
Of course, had I spent any time looking into ingredients that were beneficial in hand creams, I would have realized sooner than not all creams were created equal. But somehow, I never doubted “old and proven” Nivea… And then, I did like the scent…
Since I didn’t think that there was anything wrong with the cream I was using, my several next explorations were all based on a scent.
Last summer, longing for a tropical vacation, I picked up the Moroccanoil hand cream the scent of which reminded me of my last trip to Hawaii. I liked it, and I might keep buying it from time to time, but since the scent is very pronounced, I didn’t (and wouldn’t) want to use it every night and definitely not during the day, I didn’t have a chance to notice its moisturizing properties.
At Christmas time, I usually crave everything fir scented. Partially, it’s because our Christmas tree, while being extremely lifelike, is still artificial. So, in addition to candles, room sprays and handwash with the coveted fir scent, last December I bought a tube of Thymes Frasier Fir hand cream. I love the scent! And it did a descent job providing moisture for my hands. But fir is a seasonal scent for me. It’s like with Christmas songs: I enjoy them all December long, but come January, they are banned in our household until the next year. So was that hand cream.
For my birthday, Lucas (Chemist in the Bottle) sent me (among other great things) a tube of a hand cream Plante Odżywczy from a Polish brand, Soraya. WOW. It’s the best black currant note in a beauty product I’ve ever smelled, including perfumes! If I could get it in a bottle, I would love to wear it as perfume. This 99% natural cream has nice ingredients, and I love it! But in our globalization era, there are still things that one cannot buy online and have it delivered. And this hand cream is one of those things. Maybe one day they will deliver to the US. For now, I’ll enjoy what I have.
The most recent discovery, thanks to one of my friend’s recommendations, was Aquaphor Healing Ointment. It doesn’t have any scent. It’s colorless. I do not enjoy using it whatsoever (and my vSO plainly refuses to, claiming that “it’s greasy” – it’s not). But it works. I think that my hands have never felt better than now (I mean, since I had to start using any creams). Not only I do not need to re-apply Aquaphor cream during the night, but I recently realized that during the day I feel the need to apply a hand cream much less often than I used to. And it absolutely does not interfere with my wearing or testing perfumes. So, probably for now I found my HG of hand creams. But it won’t stop me from enjoying from time to time some of the scented beauties that I have or hunt for new miracle hand helpers.
Images: my own
Undina's Looking Glass 
I suffer from very dry hands also and I discovered CeraVe super concentrated hand ointment a couple of years ago. I use it in winter and every day I use Yon-Ka Paris’shand cream. It has nice natural ingredients and it smells divine, like fresh oranges. I’ve tried other hand creams, including Chanel’s and I always come back to the Yon-Ka. I also like Malin & Goetz Vitamin B5 skin lotion. It’s good for body and hands.
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I added all of your recommendations to my Amazon cart (I do not necessarily will be buying them there, but I usually use it to remember what I was interested in).
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I am very lazy about using hand cream, though I do possess the products, partly thanks to you. ;) The Aquaphor is similar to a colloidal oatmeal cream the doctor gave me for my eczema to use as a cleanser or moisturiser when my skin is very irritated. I imagine your Aquaphor is also available in other body parts, or is the one you have multi-purpose in fact? It does not say hands on it?
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It is a multi-purpose ointment, not just for hand. It comes in larger tubes as well. Actually, that’s the one I currently use, the small one if for future use, once the large one is done: even though it’s more economical to buy a bigger tube, it is hard to squeeze, so I prefer smaller ones.
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There’s an Aquaphor Ointment Body Spray fragrance-free. I use it once a week because it tends to be super moisture resistant which is good but not for everyday use since skin needs to breathe.
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My heart quickened when I saw Thymes Frasir Fir hand cream. I am obsessed with this smell — the candle, the hand cream — but like you, only in the month of December. I have tried the Aquafor and it is very good. An everyday hand cream I really enjoy and that I originally got as a sample from somewhere is Ahava brand Deadsea Water Mineral Hand Cream. It is the perfect weight for everyday use, and the scent is extremely light but still pleasant. For those times in winter when my cuticles are cracked I enjoy Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream. It heals my hands with one application, but I find it too heavy unless my hands are extremely dry. It’s been awhile since I used it, but my memory is that it feels slightly greasy at first but if you’re patient for a minute, it sinks in quickly.
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Last holiday season I bought a liquid soap and a hand lotion for the guest bathroom in the same Frasier Fir. Most of it is still there since we have almost no guests :)
I tried both Ahava and Neutrogena. I liked them for night, but they both absorb too long for me to use them during the day, especially the Ahava one.
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So glad to see the Soraya cream you got from me.
You know – say one word and I can get you more of it to include in the next package I send your way!
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Deal! We’ll figure out the channel from you to me :) Have you tried anything else from that brand? I was really impressed by the creams you sent me.
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Love this post…I have been on a life-long quest to find the “perfect” hand lotion – one where I like the way it absorbs, has longevity and has a scent that I like thru the whole course of using the tube/bottle. I have bottles all over the place 2 on the desk, 3 or 4 on the nightstand, a couple on the coffee table. a couple on the dining room table, one or two by the kitchen sink and a couple in the cabinet that I haven’t even opened yet. I do tend to like the Bath and Body Works body cream but haven’t settled on one perfect scent. I also have a couple of bottles of Hempz. The one I keep coming back to is Infinite Aloe.
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I remember: you always had nicely smelling hand creams!
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I use Yu-Be brand hand creams in any one of 3 formulations: original (Orange pkg. and smells like menthol), fragrance free (green pkg.), and Yuzu flower scent (yellow pkg. and smells like yuzu).
I also use La Mer Rejuvenating Hand Serum.
I used to like Weleda Skin Food but the last time I used it, my hands felt like fire ants were consuming my skin and I had to wash it off and used hydrocortisone to calm the skin.
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I’ve been eyeing Yuzu Yu-Be hand cream online and still might go for it, though I recently had an issue with another yuzu-scented hand cream (it’ll be covered in one of the upcoming posts soon).
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