The 6 best hand creams to buy in 2019

Here’s the saviour for dry hands. Neutrogena Nourishing Hand Cream has an incredible ability to moisturise and calm dry, irritated hands.. In the winter, this is a helpful companion, and the small size of the tube means you can easily pop it into your bag. After rubbing it in, your skin becomes smooth and soft. The cream is very economical, and as long as you don’t put too much on it’s not sticky. The consistency is rather stiff. This means that the best method for applying the cream is to put a dab on each hand and then rub it into one hand at a time.

The tube has a screw cap. This is obviously rather fiddly, and makes it more difficult to apply the cream somewhere like an underground train or bus. The faint, neutral scent means that it suits both men and women. Neutrogena Nourishing Hand Cream has a very low price, which together with all of these positive characteristics quite clearly makes it a fantastic choice of hand cream.

Clarins Hand & Nail Treatment is absorbed by the skin incredibly quickly and gives soft hands without leaving a film of grease. After use, it feels like your skin is naturally this soft. The cream is economical and it’s easy to apply the right amount, which means that it lasts a long time. The skin on your hands becomes smooth and the creamy consistency is easy to spread evenly. The mature scent may first strike you as strong, but it subsides and becomes fainter after you have finished rubbing the cream into your hands.

Clarins have given their tube the same classic design as all the brand’s products. It simply looks exclusive. Unfortunately, the tube has a screw top and is quite large, which means it’s not very practical to take with you on the go. This type of packaging is most suitable for keeping in the bathroom cabinet or standing on your desk. But this disadvantage can be seen as marginal, because the other positive characteristics are more important. Because of the fantastic results achieved with this hand cream, Clarins Hand & Nail Treatment takes a well-deserved top position.

This product looks at first glance like a cream, but according to Elizabeth Arden it’s a combination of cream and a gel. And that becomes apparent when you use it. It’s absorbed by the skin as easily as a gel while leaving the hands as moisturised as if you had used a cream. And it really does moisturise, entirely without stickiness. Eight Hour Cream Hand Treatment makes the hands soft and keeps the skin feeling elastic. Although you can rapidly carry out dry activities after using it, your hands can be a little oily on contact with water.

As the scent is not too sweet, this product is suitable for both men and women. The scent can initially seem too strong, but it subsides after a while. However, for sensitive users the strength of the initial scent can be too much. The tube is small and neat to carry with you, and has the classic Elizabeth Arden appearance. The cream is rather expensive, but it is economical and the moisturising ability means that Eight Hour Cream Hand Treatment is very good value for money.

You only need a small pea-sized amount of this cream for both hands, which makes it very economical and means that the tube lasts a long time. Biomains Hand & Nail Treatment is quite oily. The cream moisturises well, but still dries quite quickly. These are perfect characteristics for a cream to have with you on the run if you quickly want to carry on with your tasks after moisturising your hands. However, if the cream isn’t carefully rubbed in, it can continue to feel rather sticky at the roots of the fingers.

The relatively large tube has an attractive design and is obviously a Biotherm product. The size means that the cream isn’t so useful for carrying in your bag. But this is balanced by the fresh but faint scent that means you can even use the cream in the office or in other environments where you need to think of other people's sensitivities. Because the scent is so neutral, the cream is also suitable for both genders. The price is high, but given the positive characteristics of Biotherm Biomains Hand & Nail Treatment, it’s worth it.

L’Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream is an extremely moisturising hand cream – a real saviour for hands dried out by winter weather. Only a very small amount, slightly larger than a pea, is enough to moisturise both hands. The consistency is thick and creamy, but the cream is still easy to spread evenly over both hands. Because the hand cream is so greasy, it takes quite a long time for it to be absorbed. If the hands aren’t completely dry, it’s also more difficult for the skin to absorb all the moisture, which can produce a sticky feeling.

The stylishly designed tube comes in an exclusive box and the packaging gives an impression of luxury. As the tube is relatively large, it’s most suitable for keeping at home in the bathroom cabinet. The scent is very faint and is therefore also suitable for sensitive users. L’Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream is an extremely nourishing cream for hands needing an extra moisture boost.

Nivea’s container for Repair & Care is unlike the majority of others as the cream comes in a flat tub with rounded edges. This is a useful format as it means that it fits into even narrow bags and on all of the shelves in the bathroom cabinet. Unfortunately the contents aren’t so good. When you apply the cream, it feels like there’s still a film of grease on your skin. It takes a long time for the cream to sink in and even quite a while after using it your hands still feel sticky. Nor is it particularly moisturising compared to its competitors. For normal skin it works as intended even with a small amount, which means that the cream lasts for a long time. However, dry hands are often too tough a challenge, meaning that more cream has to be applied – and then Repair & Care is no longer particularly economical.

The hand cream has practically no scent at all, which means that it can be used even with other people around you. The scent is also sufficiently neutral for use regardless of gender or if you also want to be able to use other perfumes. Despite the fact that the price of Repair & Care is so low, we expected more of a hand cream from such a well established manufacturer as Nivea.