Mother's Day 2020.. hand care!

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It feels surreal writing this post right now when I took the pictures of these products last year in my old home, when I was actually meant to write this blog post for Mother's Day.. but it definitely is more relevant this year at this very uncertain and strange time.
The world is being told to "wash your hands for 20 seconds or more" due to the outbreak of Coronavirus and we're being told to practise social distancing to reduce spread of the virus or self isolation or quarantining.. so I thought I would use my extra time at home to achieve one of my goals I've been slacking on for the last two years - nurturing this very blog again <3
It's quite a worrying time for a lot of people, especially here in the UK when we're on a 2 week lag behind other countries where the virus has hit hard, but if you were still looking to buy something for your mum for Mother's Day here in the UK (or just any day to show you appreciate her), then I always thought hand care options would be best (as mum's use their hands so much!), so they deserve hand care products as a treat.

Obviously now with the government advising us to wash our hands with soap for 20 seconds+, pretty much everyone is experiencing ashy hand syndrome (including myself, even though I don't have eczema like my son), so tbh if you want to treat yourself here are some options I thought I'd include [some *gifted],  starting with my faves that are most affordable and then some special gift worthy treats:
Aveeno*

If you're following me on Instagram you'll know I've been an Aveeno Ambassador for almost a year now and whilst this post is unpaid, I genuinely cannot sing its praises enough, especially the Dermexa range for my son who constantly has the dreaded "ashy hand" as he has eczema. The hand cream pictured above is the standard cream from their Daily Moisturising range (buy here, £5.99), so for someone who has generally normal skin (watch my IGTV video describing the ranges and how they differ here).
If you have very dry skin (but still not eczema), then I'd recommend the Skin Relief hand cream as has additional Shea Butter in it (available here, £5.49) or the Nourish & Repair Cica Balm (buy here, £6.99) which has additional Glycerin and helps reinforce the skin barrier function (also described in more detail in my IGTV above). Finally, if you or your mum have eczema skin like my son and all this hand washing is wreaking absolute havoc on the skin (but not in need of steroids), then the Dermexa Emollient Balm is a Godsend as it really helps keep my son's hand looking healthy, feeling comfortable (so he doesn't itch) and just generally not greasy like all Aveeno creams tbf. I've linked the Baby Goodnight Emollient Balm here (£9.99, currently £6.66 on offer) as this is the one I use for him and I can't seem to find an adult one on the Boots website, but Feel Unique have the "adult" one here.

The Body Shop

The body shop has forever been a fave for most of us for their plethora of hand products including hand washes and hand moisturisers as they offer a variety of lovely scents. My personal favourite is the Coconut Hand Cream pictured above (buy here, £5) but I know a lot of people like the Hemp Hand Protector, so check it out here! 

Goutal*

On to the more special treat gifts now, Goutal offer hand washes and balms in a few fragrances available at Harvey Nichols and I was sent the "Garden" scent in both the balm and hand wash. The "Garden" scent is inspired by a walk in an English garden - fresh flowers, berries and blackcurrants and the hand wash (£31 here) looks pretty luxe in a bathroom and the hand balm (£26 here) is equally pretty for a dressing table or handbag.
Notes:

Top Notes: pink pepper, blackcurrant, raspberry, rose extracts

Heart Notes: Bulgarian rose, taïf rose, peony

Base Notes: cedar, patchouli, white musks

The floral Garden scent definitely feels worthy of mums (or grandmothers even!), but as I'm a mum too now, I quite like the sound of the Oriental scent as it has vanilla in it too which I always love in any fragrance and love the description of "wrapping hands in extreme softness like a velvet glove".


Jo Malone*

If stores were still open/touching was allowed, I would suggest getting your mum a complimentary Jo Malone hand massage which feels *heavenly*. They use the Hand Wash of your choice, then massage in a Body Creme so you get the full "fragrance combining" experience; or you could of course just choose to layer your favourite scent for example the Mimosa & Cardamom Hand Wash and Body Creme together. Mimosa and Cardamom is one of my fave JM scents as it's "clean" soft scent with the slightest hint of spice (cardamom).  I also love the Myrhh & Tonka scent for when I want something a bit more stronger.
Whilst writing up this post I discovered they do actually have a hand cream gift set (currently sold out here), a few of the scents in a Hand Cream format (£24 here) and a Hand Treatment too with Vitamin E (£44 here) which sounds really luxurious, so I'll see if I can try it at some point when all my current hand products are used up!
Hand Wash available at Jo Malone from £32 here.
Kilian*

I recently gushed about my love for Kilian fragrances over on the Mind Pretty Soul podcast (here) and generally love most of the Kilian scents (and super luxurious lipsticks!), so when I was gifted this hand cream last year I knew I had to include it in a hand care post at some point. Generally Kilian fragrances are sweet (which is why I love them so much), but the White Tea hand cream is made to be a cool, comforting daydream of sipping white tea in a bamboo forest with citrus and mimosa accords, aiming to give a cleansing and uplifting effect as well as baby soft skin.
It's fast absorbed and definitely feels like a treat to use, especially as I love the brand so much generally!
Available here at John Lewis (£42).
La Mer*

Now we all know La Mer is one of the most luxurious brands of skincare for years now and their inclusion of hand products is no exception, but if you wanted to show your mum just how special she is, this would be the mother of all hand treats.
The newest product La Mer launched last year for hands was The Rejuvenating Hand Serum where I was invited along to have a manicure at Dry By (my most favourite manicure to date), and I commemorated it with a nailfie of course on IG here. The pinky serum (pictured above) is of course enriched with the La Mer "Miracle Broth" - an elixir made from giant sea kelp - and this particular treatment is designed to re-establish moisture balance and even help promote a more resilient smoother texture even for problems like discolouration on the back of hands and lines. Admittedly, I haven't used the serum as often as I wanted to, to see if theres an actual difference to be worth the price tag, but now that I'm homebound for the foreseeable future I'm going to try my best to wear it morning and night and see if it can help with the freckles on the back of my hand in any way.
Currently available at Space NK, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Harrods (£95).
The Hand Treatment has been around for a bit longer, a silky treatment to relieve dryness, retexturise the skin and restore circulation with lasting hydration so you should (in theory) only need to moisturise twice a day. I like the size of this product as it's pretty big so should last long enough to justify the price tag!
Currently only available at Selfridges and Harvey Nichols (£85).

So there you have it! My Mother's Day hand care gift guide is finally up and most likely will do another hand care post soon at this rate of hand washing!

What are your favourite hand care products?