The best hand creams for men

The arithmetic of hands

Hands are washed ten times a day and moisturized once, if that. Every wash removes barrier lipids; one application replaces them. That is the whole problem, and it means the useful properties of a hand cream are slightly different from a body lotion's.

• Concentration matters more than volume. You want a small amount to do a lot, because the alternative is carrying a large tube.
• Absorption speed matters more than richness. A cream that leaves you unable to hold a phone for five minutes is a cream applied once and then avoided.
• Fragrance-free matters more than usual. Hands touch your face, and fragrance is the most common contact irritant in cosmetics.

Forty per cent, which is an unusual number

Glycerin is the most common humectant in skincare and it is normally present at a few per cent. Forty is an order of magnitude beyond that, and Neutrogena publishes it rather than implying it.

The practical consequence is the concentration point above: a pea-sized amount genuinely does what a fingertip of an ordinary lotion does not, which makes a 2 oz tube months of use and small enough to keep in a bag.

Seven ingredients total, and the fragrance-free version says so on the label rather than leaving you to check. That combination - a published concentration and a list short enough to read in five seconds - is why it finishes first.

The honest costs: forty per cent glycerin is tacky for a minute on application, and a humectant that strong wants sealing in genuinely dry indoor air, which is why it works best applied to damp hands.

When hands are hard rather than dry

Urea does something glycerin does not: it softens keratin. On hands that are calloused from work, tools or the gym, that is the property you actually need, and Eucerin publishes it at 5 per cent.

It also names ceramide NP in the list plus a published set of natural moisturizing factor components - sodium lactate, sodium PCA, glycine, alanine. That is barrier rebuilding rather than only hydration, which is the same distinction the dry skin guide makes about the three ingredient classes.

The trade is that urea stings on cracked skin - which is exactly the state hands are in when people finally go looking for a hand cream.

The habit that beats the product

Applying after every wash rather than once a day changes the outcome more than which of these three you bought.

• To damp hands. Shake the water off rather than drying completely. Damp skin gives the humectant water to hold, and with a 40 per cent glycerin product that is not a marginal effect.
• Keep one where the washing happens. A tube by the kitchen sink gets used; a tube in a bathroom cabinet does not.
• The overnight version. A thicker layer at night plus cotton gloves is the hand equivalent of socks over foot cream, and it works for the same reason - eight hours of contact instead of ten minutes.
• Turn the water down. Hot water strips lipids faster than any cream replaces them, and hand-washing is where most people use water hotter than they need.

While you are there

Hand cream worked into the cuticle rather than only over the back of the hand does most of what a dedicated cuticle oil does, for nothing extra. The nail page covers the rest, and the two routines are effectively the same thirty seconds.