These are our must-have products to leave hands and nails feeling smooth, soft and hydrated – from budget buys and luxurious splurges, to sustainable options
BEST ON A BUDGET
CeraVe – Reparative Hand Cream
This fragrance-free hand cream is ideal if you suffer from dry hands year round. Fast-absorbing and non-greasy, it leaves skin and nails feeling smooth, no matter how many times in a day you apply it. Great for hardworking hands, it’s cheap and cheerful without scrimping on efficacy and easy on your bank balance. It’s a formula rich in ceramides and hyaluronic acid, which hydrate, retain moisture, and prevent dryness, making it the perfect antidote for the harsh winter weather. A little goes a long way and we’d recommend keeping this by your bedside or desk for top ups during the day and before you hit the hay.
Verdict: This fuss-free hand cream is perfect for sensitive skin, absorbs fast and contains no fragrance.
Buy here (£5.99).
BEST ON A BUDGET
Eucerin – Urea Repair Plus 5% Hand Cream
This no-frills hand cream from dry skin experts Eucerin, packs a punch if dryness, redness, and scaling are giving you cause for concern. It boasts a blend of urea and lactate which will soothe sore hands, while ditching fragrance and colourants which can be a cause for irritation. This is a brilliant budget buy for those with particularly sensitive skin and an essential during the colder winter months. Softening without any stickiness or greasy feel, it’s fast to apply without leaving you with slippy hands for a phone or cup of tea to fall from. It also works to prevent future water loss so with regular use you’ll see lots of improvement.
Verdict: Great for sensitive skin, this lightweight hand cream is a brilliant bargain that’s fragrance free and delivers long lasting relief.
Buy here (£9).
BEST ON A BUDGET
Burt’s Bees – Moisturising Hand Cream
This hand cream contains a cocktail of ingredients such as shea butter, baobab, and pumpkin seed oil, that are a botanical blend to soften dry skin. The palm-size tube is easy to keep with you on the go and has a rich buttery, but lightweight, texture that doesn’t take an age to rub in. It’s sweetly scented with lavender and honey, but isn’t overpowering and adds a touch of luxury often missing from budget hand creams. Hands will feel moisturised but not slippery after use and its a simple but effective tube at delivering a boost of moisture without costing a fortune.
Verdict: This is a luxurious feeling hand cream on a shoestring budget that hydrates and softens hands.
Buy here (£6.99).
BEST ON A BUDGET
The Body Shop – Almond Milk & Honey Calming & Protecting Hand Cream
This is a great option if you want a hand cream that’s soothing and scented, without an overly floral fragrance. Designed to treat sensitive dry skin, it’s rich in organic almond milk that’s sustainably farmed by a small-scale cooperative in Spain that supports local growers. Blended together with honey, it leaves hands feeling super soft while having a lightweight texture that isn’t greasy. It doesn't irritate hands with mild eczema and is an easy option to incorporate into your bedtime routine.
Verdict: This hardworking cream has a subtle scent of organic almond oil and honey and will keep hands soft all day long.
Buy here (£5).
BEST LUXURIOUS BUYS
While you may expect a rich cream from something so luxurious, this is actually a very lightweight shea-butter based gel, that absorbs very quickly, with a little going a long way. There’s no greasiness with only a light floral fragrance to it and once absorbed hands feel softer and smoother. As an indulgent treat, it’s perfect for combatting the harshness of hand sanitisers with extremely high alcohol content. The packaging is nothing short of dreamy, and not as rigid as it may look, instead it's a squeezy bottle that is robust and compact enough to be the perfect handbag companion.
Verdict: Worth the splurge, this luxurious gel based hand cream is perfect for a lockdown treat.
Buy here (£45).
BEST LUXURIOUS BUYS
79 Lux – Intensely Restorative Protective Hand Cream
With ingredients commonly found in our skincare products, including vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, and squalane, this is a lavishly rich cream that will hydrate, prevent moisture loss, plump and brighten skin. Created by health and nutrition coach, Karen Cummings-Palmer, it’s the result of her own experience with eczema stemming from her childhood and the need to make a nourishing treatment that’s also luxurious. Suitable even for those who are eczema-prone, it has a light rose scent that isn’t overpowering without a sticky after-texture that richer creams can sometimes have. Smoothing and as intensely moisturising as the name suggests, the chic black tube is a luxe touch to an everyday essential.
Verdict: This rich hand cream is fast-absorbing and effective at instantly soothing dry palms and cuticles.
Buy here (£28).
BEST LUXURIOUS BUYS
Byredo – Hand Cream Tulipmania
Fragrance aficionados will love this strongly scented hand cream that gives a luminous glow to post-mani hands. Inspired by Byredo’s La Tulipe perfume that launched in 2010 as an ode to spring, it’s infused with notes of fresh tulips and freesias. Like wearing your favourite perfume in cream form, it also delivers on moisture, as it’s a rich cream that feels akin to a hand massage when rubbed in. You’ll only need a pea-sized amount to combat dryness stemming from winter weather, central heating and hand sanitiser use. It’s so nourishing that it can also be used on other dry areas of skin, including feet, and is worth every penny.
Verdict: This rich hand cream will keep skin feeling soft and supple.
Buy here (£44).
BEST LUXURIOUS BUYS
Le Labo – Santal 33 Hand & body lotion
If you love the cult fragrance, it’s accompanying ancillary products are a dream too. This hand and body lotion has all the signature notes of the perfume, cardamom, iris, violet, sandalwood, and cedarwood, but is enriched with added ingredients including aloe vera, coconut oil, and vitamin E to soften and smooth skin. It’s a surprisingly light texture too, and one pump of product is more than enough for your hands, wrists, and elbows. The fragrance lasts on hands all day and is perfect to layer beneath your perfume too. Worth every penny, it’s the lockdown treat we all deserve and there’s nothing not to love about the apothecary-style packaging.
Verdict: Lightweight, fast-absorbing and scented with the instantly recognisable aroma, this dry skin saviour is a must-have.
Buy here (£47).
BEST LUXURIOUS BUYS
Soapsmith – Hand & Body Lotion
British skincare brand Soapsmith has a range of hand and body lotions in seven London inspired scents, but this one pays homage to lazy summer days spent on the Hackney Marshes. Fragranced with bergamot, sandalwood, rosemary, and geranium, it’s handmade in the capital using organic, vegan-friendly ingredients and housed in a 100 per cent recyclable pump glass bottle, with a colourful label that will brighten up your bathroom sink. It’s a lovely lightweight texture that’s fast-absorbing and doubles up as a hydrating body moisturiser too to leave skin silky smooth. It’s worth splashing out on this lavish treat while in lockdown that’s gentle and soothing on dry hands.
Verdict: This is a lightweight cream that’s fast-absorbing and beautifully fragrant.
Buy here (£18.50).
BEST LUXURIOUS BUYS
Montamonta – Basil + Parsley + Black Pepper Hand Balm
For a balmy cream that packs a punch, try this skin soothing option from East London sustainable brand, Montamonta. The huge 500ml amber glass bottle will keep you topped up for months making it very cost-effective, is fully recyclable and designed to be infinitely refilled. Within it you’ll find a host of skin softening ingredients including shea and cocoa butters, sunflower oil, and aloe vera, that make a naturally fragrant mix that absorbs quickly, won't cause irritation to those prone to dry skin year round and is a must-have to keep next to your sink. It’s an effective hand cream with a fun and colourful packaging that is as great to look at as it is to use.
Verdict: This huge bottle will last ages, is naturally scented with essential oils and is a skin-soothing treat.
Buy here (£26).
BEST FOR THE ECO-CONSCIOUS CONSUMER
Beauty Kitchen – Ultra Restore Hand Cream
Unusually for a hand cream, this one comes in a tub and is a silky, rich texture that targets age spots, evens skin tone and helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Made with a blend of marine extracts, including microalgae and seaweed himalayan sea salt, it leaves behind a light layer of oil that makes nails shiny and skin brightened. It’s completely vegan too and strongly scented with blue chamomile, seaweed, cedarwood, and frankincense, so if you’re a fan of fragrance, this will be a treat. Not only that, the jar is recycled glass and the plastic lid is made from 100 per cent recycled material with rock paper labels created from 80 per cent limestone dust.
Verdict: Strongly scented and made with vegan ingredients, this is a decadent texture that will keep hands and nails in tip top condition.
Buy here (£20).
BEST FOR THE ECO-CONSCIOUS CONSUMER
Neighbourhood Botanicals – I Was A Teenage Hand Model Balm
This vegan solid balm melts into an oil when massaged into dry skin that takes longer to absorb but is a perfect excuse to give yourself a hand massage while mid-Zoom call. Rich in soya bean oil, mango, and shea butter, that work to prevent moisture loss and intensely hydrate, it’s nourishing but non-sticky and is a lovely pampering treat to keep by your laptop. Simply press down on one side of the shoe polish tin to open, and massage into cuticles, knuckles, and palms, it’s not overly waxy and a little goes a long way. Made in small batches in the UK, Neighbourhood Botanicals is an independent, female-owned brand that’s entirely vegan and uses recyclable and reusable packaging in all its products.
Verdict: This is a non-greasy balm becomes a luxurious oil when massaged into skin that intensely conditions hands, nails and cuticles.
Buy here (£16).
BEST FOR THE ECO-CONSCIOUS CONSUMER
L’Occitane – Shea Butter Hand Cream
There’s 20 per cent shea butter in this hand cream, a rich, creamy emollient that sinks into skin and leaves a barrier of moisture to treat dry hands. It also contains almond, honey, and coconut oil and is scented with jasmine and ylang-ylang for a subtle yet comforting scent. While the texture is quite thick, it’s quick to absorb into skin and leaves hands feeling soft, smooth, and non-greasy. All the shea butter L’Occitane uses is sourced through fair trade women’s cooperatives in Burkina Faso, West Africa too, which helps empower employees via financial independence and local education projects.
Verdict: Rich and creamy, this is a fast-absorbing cream that soothes the driest of hands.
Buy here (£21.50).
BEST FOR THE ECO-CONSCIOUS CONSUMER
Weleda – Pomegranate Regenerating Hand Cream
While the rich emollient cream is one of our hero products for a dry complexion, its pomegranate hand cream is also well worth treating yourself to. A touch of TLC in a tube, its formula is rich in organic pomegranate seed oil, shea butter, sesame oil, and golden millet extract to help combat the dryness winter brings. It keeps skin soft and supple with an inoffensive pomegranate scent and will ensure hands look their best. Suitable for vegans, 78 per cent of its raw materials come from certified organic or biodynamic farming along with the brand using as much post-consumer recycled material as possible and sourcing ingredients from cooperatives in Spain and Morocco.
Verdict: Simple but effective, this is a no-brainer buy that has a lightweight creamy texture.
Buy here (£12.95).
BEST FOR THE ECO-CONSCIOUS CONSUMER
Bonum Pellis – Neroli + Mandarin Hydrating Hand Lotion
Harrogate based brand Bonum Pellis (Latin for good skin) is home to carefully created apparel, hand and body care products that are gender-neutral and created in small batches to reduce waste. All of its packaging is plastic-free and biodegradable and this hand lotion is housed in a chic recyclable glass bottle that will make a beautiful addition to your bathroom shelf. Scented with the essential oils of mandarin and neroli for a citrus burst, the formula is rich in coconut, almond, blackcurrant, and apricot kernel oil that’s lightweight, quick to absorb, and free from artificial colours or fragrances for minimal irritation. A real feel-good buy, it’s also the perfect opportunity to support a small business during the pandemic.
Verdict: This weightless cream comes with a refreshing summery scent that makes moisturising a treat for the senses.
Buy here (£20).
BEST FOR THE ECO-CONSCIOUS CONSUMER
Sister & Co. – Rosa Hand Cream
As far as luxury or eco-friendly hand creams go, this doesn’t cost the earth but is a lovely, colourful addition to your body care routine. Made from a blend of organic shea butter, apricot oil, rose geranium, mandarin, palmarosa, it has an uplifting fresh floral scent thanks to the added notes of grapefruit, aloe, and mandarin. All its ingredients are sustainably sourced too, mostly from essential oils from herbs, flowers, nut butters, and plant waxes. The screw top cap it comes with, is recyclable too and can easily be disposed of in your household recycling and the brand advocates for upcycling the aluminium bottles, suggesting to use them as vases in your home.
Verdict: Bright and beautiful, this fragrant hand cream will last ages and is made with hydrating ingredients your hands will love.
Buy here (£16.50).