Spa Paradisa are a range of toiletries stocked by both Debenhams and Superdrug, all paraben free, and all absolutely beautiful. I have been delighted with the shower cream which I have reviewed previously, so I decided to try another of their products, this time the hand and nail cream.

The toiletries come in three ranges, but the one which attracts me time and again is the "Coconut and Frangipani" which has a tropical design on the front, and which has all the fragrances of a summer holiday. Also within this range are shower creams, body balms, body scrubs, body butters, and all are designed to renew your skin.

www.spaparadisa.com

For paraben free toiletries these are a good value price, I paid £4.37 for a 100ml tube in Superdrug which is very competitive with other natural products. Parabens are banned now in Norway and Japan (with more countries now following) as their long term use may be in question. This may be due to their female hormone mimicking properties; I try to buy paraben free products if I know they are going to be absorbed. Hand cream is something I use a lot during the day, so feel it is probably the most important paraben free purchase I make.

This cream is something I would recommend to anyone who enjoys the fragrance of summer. The tube is a colourful image depicting a girl with flowers in her hair, carrying a basket of tropical fruits under a coconut tree-you can't get more exotic than that!

The cream benefits from the addition of Monoi de Tahiti, which is a rich oil made from gardenia flowers and coconut extract, and the product also contains shea butter. It also has vitamin C and E and olive oil.
The flip top lid at the base makes dispensing easy, but be careful as this cream is ultra greasy, and you only need a small amount. It is a creamy white liquid with an intense almondy rich fragrance which hits you as soon as you use it.

I have used this on my feet, and actually it is for this purpose that I mostly prefer it as the cream really does linger on the hands, and I dislike the greasy nature which seems to lie there for ages afterwards. I am sure this makes the hands soft, but it isn't a feeling I enjoy, and it isn't practical to use too often, as the residue is something I don't appreciate. I would say this is an intensive moisturiser and a treatment, not something to apply frequently throughout the day, but part of a treat you could use with a manicure or pedicure.

I think also it would be perfect for chapped winter hands, which need a little more loving care. It is also particularly good at nourishing nail beds, so is a great product to use last thing at night. I have been using Lush- "The Soft Touch" for this recently, which is a mango, coconut, and vanilla butter ideal for this purpose. The Spa Paradisa performs equally well as this for that last thing at night treatment to keep hands soft and sweet smelling. Again you wouldn't use the Lush product all day long as it leaves an impractical greasy residue, just like the Spa Paradisa does.

I will certainly buy this again, but it is not my preferred paraben free "use all day long" cream. I buy the Marks and Spencer Natural Beauty Intensive Nail Cream for this, as it is a much lighter cream ideal for frequent use.

In conclusion I think this is a good product with a holiday fragrance for an affordable good value price. Just think of it as a treatment and not a frequent use cream and you have the picture.