The highlights:
What is it?: This is my hand cream combination of Zerobase (for at home), O'Keefe's Working Hands (for my car/desk/school bag) and L'Occitane 20% Shea Butter (for my handbag/coat pocket). I have found that this combination of hand creams work the best for me.
Does it (or more accurately they) work?: Yes
Would I buy it (or them) again?: Yes...in fact I have, and do!
Other options?: There are lots of other hand creams out there, and this post isn't to say that they don't work, but this is just the best three that I have found that work for me
Where to buy: Zerobase, O'Keeffe's Working Hands and L'Occitane 20% Shea Butter are all available on Amazon. I haven't seen Zerobase in any other place (UK: Click here; USA: Click here). O'Keeffe's Working Hands is on Amazon (UK: Click here; USA: Click here) and available online from other stores, and I have also seen it a lot on the high street shops, so if you are out and about, keep an eye out for it. L'Occitane is available on Amazon (UK: Click here; USA: Click here) and is also available on lots of online stores and in department stores or L'Occitane stores - I used to get mine from their shop in Leeds near Harvey Nics - I don't know if the shop is still there though as it was about 7 years ago now, but if you live in Leeds you could pop in to try out their testers! Also the airports tend to have L'Occitane so take advantage of that duty free if you see it!. If you are a reader from outside of the UK or USA, click either of the above links - hopefully I have set it up correctly to match on Amazon to the identical product in your local Amazon - if there is no exact match, it is because it is not available to you locally. In which case, give it a google to see if there is a shop with international shipping, or a local shop to you that stocks these.
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To the review...
Oh my life I have tried a lot of different hand creams!
I get super dry skin on my hands (and as I have gotten older I have noticed it elsewhere, like on my legs), and it gets much worse in the colder months. The combination of wind, snow and rain has meant that my hands have taken a battering. I find this especially to when my hands are exposed to the elements, like when carrying a coffee on the walk across uni on my way to teach law to the undergrads, or when I am out and about with Obi dog on our walks, or when I have to carry a lot of stuff and can't wear gloves because then I would drop everything! Plus, I have quite short fingers, so gloves always end up having a long bit of material flapping around at the end of my fingers, making things like actually using my hands incredibly difficult! In fact, to help with my easy access to treats to deal with Obi's reactivity to other dogs (which you can read more about on my review of the Halti Head Collar that changed my life) my mum has even knitted me a pair of fingerless gloves for when we are out on our walks - look it! How lovely is she?
Anyway, this exposure to the cold weather elements means the skin on my hands gets super dry. At its worse, it cracks and bleeds between my knuckles (poor me right?). So, my skin on my hands is often on a sliding scale from a little dry and tight, to somewhat uncomfortable, to actually painful. Plus, other products can make my skin worse, like when I am cleaning (and struggle with cleaning with gloves on because, as stated above, I have stubby fingers!). I also like to do acrylic paint pouring, so my skin gets a little angry at me if I get the paint on my skin. I have tried all sorts of hand creams, and some certainly did work better than others, but the three that are now my go to option are Zerobase, O'Keeffe's Working hands and L'Occitane 20% Shea Butter.
I have 3 options for hand creams to cover all locations:
Zerobase is for when I am at home;
O'Keefe's Working Hands is for my desk drawer, car or school bag for uni; and
L'Occitane 20% Shea Butter is for when I am out and about as it fits in a small handbag or in my coat pocket.
For Home: Zerobase
I love this stuff - it comes in a massihoosive bottle of 500g, which means that it lasts a super long time! I have had this particular bottle for over 2 years now, and it still has about a quarter left in it - so it does last, for sure. I used to have the bottle sat on my desk at work, but now it tends to live on my bedside table. This is because I am a now hermit who spends most of my time scrunched up before a computer reading academic texts in the quest of writing my PhD, so no longer have a desk at work. Instead I have a desk at home covered in papers and highlighters!
The bottle itself has a push down dispenser on the top, but do not do a full push down - it will be way too much for your hands!
A quarter push is all I need, so go easy and build it up! Provided you do not use too much at once, this does not leave your hands feeling greasy, and it works so well! In fact, I noticed on my legs two spots of dry skin that began to resemble the skin of a scaly reptilian like creature from a mythical evil lagoon! You know - those little round scales that resemble a honeycomb. Why am I still single? lol! BUT using this cream on those two places across 7 days, and it is almost all gone and my skin now looks like a human's again! Success!
Also, because the dispenser is exposed to the air, it can get a little partially dried out gloop of cream on the end of it, but fear not! No need to waste it - as you rub it into your hands, it sort of turns back into a cream like substance and gets absorbed into the skin.
Using this just once a day is enough to keep my hands to a decent level of silky smooth, but in the winter months, I do tend to use it twice a day, or whenever I feel I need to add a little more moisture to my dried out scaly looking skin.
Zerobase says on the bottle that it 'relieves symptoms of red, inflamed, damaged, dry or chapped skin'. It says this is because it acts as 'an emollient' that 'protects raw areas of skin'. I don't have eczema, so can't comment on this part, but the bottle also says that 'the cream can be applied before a bath to stop the skin drying further'. This stuff also acts as a soap substitute, which I didn't realise until writing this post. Using it as a soap substitute is quite nice, it leaves my hands feeling softer than when I wash with normal soap and water. It doesn't lather up though, like soap does, which sort of makes me feel like I'm not using a soap at all, and I'm not sure I like that feeling?
The label on the bottle also says that you should seek medical advice before using if the skin is 'broken, badly cracked, infected or bleeding'. I have never had to seek this sort of medical advice. Sometimes the skin does crack and bleed, but it is only ever a very small area and once it has scabbed over (again, how attractive am I?) I find I can use this cream. If my hands get really bad (because I run out of hand cream when I'm out or use a soap that my skin really doesn't like, or its very windy and cold and icy and I am not wearing any gloves) then I also use a little Sudocrem Antiseptic Healing Cream (yes, the one for baby bum rashes!) for a day or two to help heal the skin before I go to the moisturiser option. If I don't do this first, using Zerobase can sting a little if my skin is really bad (although not cracked and bleeding), but I haven't had that problem for a while (and when using Sudocrem for a day or two first).
The Zerobase description does not say if it is fragranced or not, but based on my experience of using it, I don't think it is. It smells like a product, but there isn't any added smells like rose or some other flower like smell or anything, so I don't think this is fragranced. The description on Amazon says that it is vegetarian and fragrance free, so I guess that settles that debate! lol!
It also has directions for use on adults, elderly and children (aged 1 and up), so seems to cover all stages of life. The label also comes with the warning that you should not use it if allergic to any of the ingredients. Here's the ingredients list for the bottle that I have, but you should double check the most recent ingredients list in case they have updated it since I bought this over a year ago.
It also warns to stop using if you experience an allergic reaction, but this is pretty standard as a warning for products that go on your skin.
I have also noticed (when searching for the link to add this into this blog post) that they do a whole host of other creams designed for specific skin conditions such as Eczema, Psoriasis & Dry Skin Conditions - I haven't tried these out but if you do, please comment below and let me know if they are any good!
All in all I love this hand cream, and have found it to be one of the most effective ones on the market for tackling dry, tight skin. However, as it comes in a huge bottle, it is not the most convenient to take out and about with you. I guess you could decant it into smaller travel size tubs, like these in the UK, or these if you are in the US, but I have found with other creams that this can lead to it drying out in the tub when it is not airtight. Also, that sounds like a bit of a faff to me. However, I have now seen that they also do smaller tubes of this in 50g (which I hadn't seen before now) so I will definitely add one of those to my next order of this!
So, moving on to the more portable of the hand creams...
Desk drawer, Car or School bag: O'Keeffe's Working Hands
This stuff is great for keeping in your desk drawer or school bag. They do it in lots of sizes. I have the tube of 80ml. I have the tube in my school bag for when I am on campus at uni. The description says that it is a 'concentrated hand cream' that 'relieves, hydrates and helps repair extremely dry, cracked hands'. It is unscented, hypoallergenic and non-greasy.
You don't need a lot of this - a tiny dot will do the back of my hand - and as always with all hand creams, start with a little and work your way up until you find you've added enough. It absorbs into the skin quickly, and instantly leaves my skin feeling softer.
Also, the back of the bottle offers a 100% Money Back Guarantee - I mean, anything that comes with a money back guarantee is usually gonna be pretty darn good! Plus, it means you can give it a go and (if it doesn't work for you) get your money back! Although, to do this you do have to post the bottle/tub back to them with a receipt so it may be more faff than it's worth considering how reasonably priced this stuff is!
Also, the shops online selling this product should have the full ingredients list available to see before you buy - so if you are allergic to products, make sure you check that list before buying!
The smallest tube they do in the Working Hands range is 80ml, so a little too large to fit in my handbag or coat pocket for a day out and about. So, I also have my go to "on-the-go" hand cream at just 30ml a bottle, which is the subject of the final part of this post...
For my Handbag or Coat Pocket: L'Occitane 20% Shea Butter Hand Cream
I have been using this L'Occitane hand cream for years! I mean like 10 years! I used to get the big tubes of 150ml to use at home before I discovered Zerobase. Since then, I stick to Zerobase at home (which is a lot cheaper for sure) and use L'Occitane when I am out and about.
This is because they do mini tubes of 30ml which fits in my small bag - I hate carrying large bags - and means that I have a really good hand cream that I can use when I am out and about! Again, this tends to be more in the winter months, but sometimes in the summer if I use a soap washing my hands in bars or restaurants, and it is not moisturising then my hands can get very dry. So I pull out my trusty L'Occitane, and I am good to go!
It can leave your hands feeling a little greasy if you use too much, so go easy and add more if you feel you need to. It works immediately, removing that tight skin feeling, so you should be able to tell if you need more or not. Again, if you are allergic to products, make sure you check the ingredient list before buying!
This one is designed for adults and has a slight fragrance to it, but its not overpowering. I think the smell is actually just the shea butter, rather than any added scents. In fact, it kind of smells a little bit like really good quality sun creams. It is suitable for Vegans, and declares itself as being 98% readily biodegradable (although I am not sure how a hand cream can be biodegradable - I mean, its absorbed by the skin...or is that a type of biodegradation?? Any scientists out there??). Also, when looking for this product on Amazon, I can see that they have an exfoliant now too - I have not tried this yet, but I am soooo gonna be adding that to my Christmas list for this year!!!
This particular L'Occitane at 20% shea butter is the one that I first bought from them, and I was super impressed by it, so I did also give some of their other non-shea butter options a go. This was about 8 years ago now, so I don't remember the exact products I used (sorry) but I didn't buy them again, so I can't have been too impressed! Lol! If I remember correctly, I tried the Lavender scented one and was not overly impressed. It seemed to have compromised on its effectiveness of tackling dry skin in order to accommodate lovely smells, so that just didn't work for me. That's not to say that they weren't a good hand cream - if you have dry hands that don't get as bad as mine do, then they might still be an option for you. They just weren't as effective for me as the 20% shea butter was. I also tried their foot gel stuff, but again, I wasn't so impressed by that. I mean, I didn't buy it again in the future - which I take a pretty clear indication of how good something is. Also, I have tried to find the foot gel I used, and can't find it anymore, so it looks like they may have stopped making it! What's more, during this effort, I have discovered that they now do a shea butter collection for feet - I might have to check that out! Another Christmas list addition please if you're reading this mum! lol!
Also, their shea butter collection does have different percentages of shea butter - the one I use has 20%, but the other percentages might be nice too! I think I tried the 25% in the shop as a tester once, and it was very luxurious, but I seem to remember it being a little too rich, and leaving an oily substance on my skin, which did go away, but not as quickly as the cream being absorbed. Either way, L'Occitane is a luxury brand, so if you are looking for a present for someone, a nice little gift set would always be welcomed :) The whole range of their shea butter based products - including gift sets - is available on Amazon (or click here if in the USA) so you can always check that out if thinking of nice gifts for people!
Also, because L'Occitane is a luxury brand, it is not the cheapest option out there. I have tried to find other hand creams that are in small tubes like this. However, L'Occitane is the only brand that I have found which is lovely, works, and fits nicely in a smaller handbag. Perfect for those days that I venture into London and don't want a massive bag to carry around all day! As mentioned above, you could, of course, buy one hand cream, like Zerobase, and then decant it into smaller tubs to take out and about with you (a bit like these options in the USA or in the UK), or you could buy the 50g tube of Zerobase to see if that fits in your handbag or coat pocket too, but I feel like we all deserve a little bit of luxury every now and again. So go! Treat yourself!
In case you are convinced :) here are the relevant Amazon links again:
Amazon.co.uk links:
Amazon.com links:
For all my readers outside of the UK and USA, I have set up the Amazon links to take you to exact matches in your country, but this might reveal no results. I can set up closest matches as an alternative option, but didn't want for you, my lovely readers, to not realise that when living busy multi-tasking lives, and buy a product I haven't actually reviewed. Anyway, if it doesn't come up with an exact match on Amazon, give it a quick google - other shops local to you, or those with international shipping, might stock these!
with love
Rebecca
xxx
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