Best Hand Creams for Dry Skin: A Fishermen's Recipe and Modern Tubes

Dear Friends, in 1969 the president of Neutrogena, Lloyd Cotsen, had hands left dry and cracked after cleaning soap vats. Someone handed him a sample of a traditional hand-healing recipe used by Arctic fishermen, and a small dab was enough to bring relief. Three years later, in 1972, it launched as Neutrogena Norwegian Formula, a glycerin-rich cream. I like that it started with a practical problem.

 

So what can we take from it. Mostly this: the best hand creams for dry skin are not mysterious, they are rich, they sit on the skin for hours, and they get used often. I have gathered modern options for every kind of dryness, and we begin with the richest shelf. The American Academy of Dermatology says to look for ceramides, glycerin and an occlusive such as petrolatum, so keep that checklist in mind. I went deeper on a related idea in The Best Hand Creams for Dry Skin. I went deeper on a related idea in Ceramide Skincare for Dewy Skin: Hydrating Serums and Creams.

 

For hands that are properly dry, the Kiehl's Ultimate Strength Hand Salve is where I would begin. The brand started in 1851 as Brunswick Apotheke in New York's East Village, and the heavy-duty formula with shea butter, avocado and sesame oils is still made for severely dry, active hands. The L'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream, in its silver and blue tube with 20% shea butter, dates from 1993, when Olivier Baussan, who founded the house at 23 by distilling rosemary, gave it a metal tube inspired by paint tubes. The Augustinus Bader Hand Treatment, navy with a copper cap, is rich and fast-absorbing, and the Sisley Paris Restorative Hand Cream, the Clarins Hand and Nail Treatment Cream and the Clinique Deep Comfort Hand and Cuticle Cream look after nails and cuticles too. The CHANEL La Crème Main Texture Riche is the egg-shaped white pod.

 

Practical tip: the AAD says creams you squeeze from a tube are more effective than thin pump lotions, so I would choose a tube from this shelf first.

Picture her on a cold platform at 8am, gloves off, knuckles stinging from a perfume she thought she loved. For hands like that, the unscented shelf is the place to start. The AAD advises lipids such as ceramides, humectants such as glycerin and occlusives such as petrolatum, and these tubes follow that brief closely.

 

The O'Keeffe's Working Hands in its green tube has a great origin: Tara O'Keeffe Broadbent, a pharmacist, spent countless hours testing recipes for her sheep-rancher father, and made the first batches in a farmhouse kitchen with a food processor and a microwave. The company was incorporated in 1994 in Bend, Oregon. It is a glycerin-based formula made for very dry cracked hands, and it is unscented. The Eucerin Advanced Repair and the Vaseline Dry Hands Rescue, with its blue Clinical Care label, are equally plain in the best way. The CeraVe Therapeutic Hand Cream is the ceramide choice, and the La Roche-Posay Cicaplast hand lotion in travel size fits a coat pocket. Then the newer names: the Nécessaire hand cream, with 5 ceramides, 5 peptides and niacinamide, and the Drunk Elephant Therabu, which promises up to 24 hours of moisture. The Soft Services Theraplush is a refillable pod with retinol and no fragrance.

 

Mayo Clinic suggests putting moisturizer on while skin is still damp after washing, so pat your hands, then use the cream. Check that the label says unscented, not just light scent. (The AAD also notes that gardening and long spells with hands in water can worsen dry skin, so gloves for the dishes are worth it.)

 

What I would skip: a pretty fragrance note while your knuckles are cracked or raw.

In my fashion dreams it is a Sunday in October and a small scented tube sits next to a laptop, ready for the tenth hand wash of the day. A scented cream earns its place on the desk because you reach for it so often that the smell should be one you chose on purpose.

 

Jo Malone London has two easy ways in. The English Pear and Freesia is the soft one, in the cream and black striped tube. The Wood Sage and Sea Salt is drier, formulated with hyaluronic acid and sold in a recyclable tube. Byredo offers two minimal white tubes with black type: Mojave Ghost, woody and aromatic, and Gypsy Water, which opens with bergamot and lemon. The Nécessaire Hand Lotion Santal is a nourishing lotion with a warm, woodsy sandalwood scent. Diptyque has Do Son, with its tuberose scent, and Fleur de Peau, a musky floral inspired by a Grecian love story. The Maison Francis Kurkdjian Oud Satin Mood is the one I would keep for evenings.

 

Rub a little on the back of your hand, wait ten minutes, and see how the scent settles. A cream that smells lovely at first and sharp by lunch is not the one.

 

What I would skip: a strong perfumed cream if you share an office or a quiet desk.

Balms and masks are for the nights your hands have given up. The daily tube does the steady work, and a thicker layer does the rescue, ideally on damp skin as Mayo Clinic advises.

 

The Aesop Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm, in a pink tube, is a rich blend of fragrant botanicals and skin-softening emollients. The Le Labo Basil Hand Pomade is plant-based, basil-scented and made with shea butter. Diptyque's Luxurious Hand Balm is silky, infused with almonds and cordoba apricot, and the L'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Balm is an ultrarich 25% shea formula for dry to very dry hands. For a single-use treatment, the Aquaphor Advanced Therapy Repairing Hand Mask and the Aveeno Repairing CICA Hand Mask arrive as pairs of gloves, and the Aveeno one is fragrance free. The Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream is the small yellow tin for edges, and the Soft Services Theraplush Hold is the overnight retinol pod.

 

Wear a mask while you read or catch up on a show, then rub in whatever is left. At bedtime, press a little balm into the cuticles, where skin tends to tear first.

 

What I would skip: the retinol pod before a long day outdoors, and I would start slowly if your skin is touchy.

Cold air outside and heated rooms inside is the combination that dries hands fastest, and October is when it starts. A small tube in a coat pocket from now until spring is a very sensible habit.

 

The trios make the most sense as sets. The Caudalie Hand and Nail Cream Trio comes in a pink box with travel-size tubes. The L'Occitane Travel Favorites Set is a yellow gift box of shea, almond and lavender creams, and the Glasshouse Fragrances Hand Cream Trio is a limited edition box of three scents. The Jo Malone London Hand Cream Trio gives you three scented striped tubes, and the Le Labo Perfuming Hand Cream Gift Set holds Another 13, Santal 33 and The Noir 29 in black-capped tubes. If you prefer a single, the Kiehl's Mini Ultimate Strength Hand Salve has a light eucalyptus scent, the L'Occitane Mini Hand Cream is the shea one in a 1 oz tube, and the Gold Bond Healing Trial Size is an aloe lotion in a small gold and white tube.

 

Put one at the door, one in your bag and one on your desk. Press each cap shut before it goes in a bag, because tubes leak, and try a scent on your wrist before you commit to three of it.

 

What I would skip: a trio you will not finish, if only one of the scents is really yours.

Here is what I would do, in order. Choose a fragrance-free tube with ceramides and glycerin for daily use. Keep a rich salve or balm by the bed and a mask for the worst nights, then add one scented cream you love and a small one for your bag.

 

Apply after washing while your hands are still damp, and wear gloves for dishes and the garden. Lloyd Cotsen only needed one small dab of a fishermen's recipe to be convinced, and I like that a good cream can win you over that fast.

 

With love, and soft hands,