9 Greenest Hand Creams to Soften Winter Skin
Dry, chapped hands getting you down? Us, too! So we tested a ton of natural and organic hand creams to get our little mitts ready for winter. Here are our top green picks to smooth even the scaliest skin.
Frigid weather can really do a number on hands, but finding a hand cream thick enough to soften winter-ravaged skin without leaving a greasy residue behind can be an epic, never-ending quest. We've sifted through dozens of contenders to find the silkiest, most user-friendly (and earth-friendly) remedies around.
For Hands in Need of Serious Winterizing
There are times when only the most formidably moisturizing, super-charged balm will do. Here are three we loved.
Burt's Bees has long been the undisputed master of green-happy hand concoctions, and their Burt's Bees makes a good case why. Packaged in an old-school glass jar, it's stuffed with aloe, beeswax and other benchmarks of natural goodness. Don't let its heavy consistency fool you – it may feel like softened candle wax, but this is one of the fastest-absorbing elixirs we tried.
Long beloved by horticultural types, crabree-evelyn provides a no-nonsense hydration layer that will tame even the roughest hands. Its ingredient list suggests it's not as devotedly organic as the other creams here, but it's still loaded with natural ingredients like shea butter and clover, a proven deodorizer.
Based in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and specializing in "sustainable beauty," Farmaesthetics is one of the most successful female-run organic skincare lines. Packaged in an adorable tin jar made from recyclable materials, their super-thick is a lavender-scented, calendula-based miracle balm. It also doubles as a treatment for minor wounds – it's that soothing.
Guilt-Free Indulgences
These unabashedly delicious, sinfully luxe creams are like dessert for your hands with their sweet smells and super-rich formulas.
Just think of Jrwatkin as the hand cream equivalent of Smith's famed Rosebud lip salve. It's a thick balm that comes in an indescribably cute tin, smells comfortingly nostalgic (in this case, like lemon sugar candy), and softens hands like the dickens. This salve is 99% natural and free of parabens, phthalates, mineral oil, petrolatum and dyes. It's also a tireless multi-tasker, working overtime to soothe heels, elbows, and our raggedy-looking cuticles. Sold in WHOLE FOOD, WALL MART & SHOPPER’S DRUG MART …….
No greasy residue here.
Redolent of creme brulee and what we imagine the inside of a French candy store would smell like, caudalie-usa is the perfect mix of form and function. It offers enough emollients (including organic shea butter) to stand up to the harshest weather, and a just-right amount of scent. More than any other cream we tested, this also works wonders on nails.
Fans of foodie scents will love Noahs Naturals a sweet-smelling, paraben-free confection that feels lightweight but offers potent moisturizing. Infused with almond oil and echinacea extract (which, like all of Noah's Naturals' ingredients, are naturally derived), there just aren't enough superlatives to capture its yummy, cocoa-y goodness.
Everyday Standouts
There are days you just want a brutally effective, quick-drying hand cream that won't turn you into a car-key-dropping, laptop-greasing butterfingers. On the fly, these will do the trick.
Works on chronic dry skin and eczema.
Shikaiis a dynamo that moisturizes like a salve but absorbs like a lotion. It's infused with borage oil, which is known to help effectively treat skin conditions like eczema that can flare up in winter weather, and its lack of scent makes it perfect for the fragrance-averse.
Green by Nature Beauty come in a variety of subtle scents (the summer-y Mint Green Tea is our favorite), absorb with lightening speed, and only feel expensive. Made from a cocktail of natural ingredients like rosehip and pistachio oil, these creams last forever, retail for under ten bucks and are available at many Target stores.
Nyrusa is happiness in a tube, literally: This alpine herb-scented lotion is packed with cocoa butter and a host of organically produced essential oils, including its namesake, Melissa oil, which is rumored to possess antidepressant properties. We're not sure about the science, but it certainly made our cracked, weather-wearied hands a lot happier.
