Makes hands soft for touching! (Neutrogena Hand Cream)

Member Name: Dooyaa

Product:	Neutrogena Hand Cream
Date:	19/03/08 (91 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Soft hands, non greasy

Disadvantages: None

**INTRODUCTION**

Various things in my daily life leave my hands dry, sore, weather beaten and just unpleasant to look at. These things can include everyday chores such as the washing up (another reason why this is the bane of my existance) to indulging in my favourite hobby, horseriding, a notoriously bad hobby for the hands, due to it being dusty as can be and with all that dry leather around!

Add into this that I just moved from pretty mild-in-the-winter Liverpool to oh-my-god-its-cold Cotswolds. The cold weather has done a surprising amount of damage to my hands (as I regularly lose my gloves!) as has the central heating I am forced to have blaring at all times to prevent frostbite. Stupid midlands!

The result? My hands needed help. Serious help. And I had heard on the grapevine (ok, the television) that this may be the cream to help me. I had tried hand creams before, particularly vaseline, and just didn't like the greasy feeling that they gave me, that feeling that I couldn't touch anything for a few minutes after applying, and also they simply just didn't do the job I wanted them to.

This one, however, is neutrogena norwegian formula hand cream. Formulated, surprisingly enough, for Norwegian climates, what this means is that this is a cream that will stand up to the elements, restoring softness to even the nastiest cracked palms. Or so it's supposed to...we haven't got to the results yet!

**WHERE CAN YOU GET IT FROM??**

Off I toddled one day to my local superdrug, and there it was, in exactly where I thought it should be, with the hand creams! I'm a genius obviously. Other than in superdrug, you can also get it in Boots (along with those precious advantage points!!) and I'm sure many other places stock it as well - I haven't personally looked, but this stuff is a big seller, and so I'm sure many shops with any kind of hand cream selection will have it.

**HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?**

Time for the damage, i got to the till...£2.49? This seemed a little pricey for me, especially as the bottle is so small. I was later told (and discovered for myself, that this stuff is 'concentrated'. What that means, is that you get absolutely LOADS in one of these little tubes, and also, that you need to use very little to get results. I mean it, a dab will do. Use it sparingly and you will get the value for money.

**PACKAGING**

Pretty minimalistic (very scandinavian). This is a small 50ml white tube with blue banners and red writing, and a red lid on the bottom which screws off to reveal that this is a squeezy tube! Its handy having the lid on the bottom of the tube instead of the top, this means that when the cream is running out it's much easier to get the very last remains out of the tube!

Ingredients are listed on the back of the tube. I also found out a few things, such as this is a glycerin enriched cream. I don't know what glycerin does exactly, but it sounds good and scientific. Also, this is concentrated, like I said before, apparently for over 200 applications worth! That's rather a lot from this little tube.

I quite like the packaging. I'm very odd with products, I like them to look nice and everything has to sort of look 'right' to me, especially if like this, I will be carrying it around with me in my handbag. Call me crazy, it's probably true, but I like the look of this one. The white and blue and red is a nice colour scheme, very clean and light.

I also think that the tube may be recyclable, but don't quote me on that one just yet!

**APPLICATION**

Well, it says that a dab is all you need, and to be honest, a dab is really all you can get at once! Very little comes out when you first squeeze the tube. Applying this, my hands felt like they had no cream on them whatsoever, so I added another little dab just to make sure I had enough on my skin.

The cream itself is a white blobby balm, but a very different consistency to most creams, one which I find it difficult to describe, it's almost...SOFT? I'm not sure. But it's nice all the same. Smell wise, well, it's unscented, so it doesn't smell of anything really! This is a good thing though, I don't want yucky artificial smells coming off of my hands, and I especially don't want harsh chemicals all over my soft new mitts!

One thing I did notice is how quickly this absorbs into the skin. Even if you apply lots of the cream, it still feels like there is nothing on your skin again after just a few seconds. This is very, very good as I'm always playing with my phone and ipod and don't like the feeling of getting greasy fingers all over the screens!

**RESULTS**

Crunch time, did it actually work! Well, yes it did. I wouldn't say I have baby soft hands or that it has completely reversed time and given me brand new skin, but overall, hands felt softer, more protected, almost as if the balm was forming a protective barrier over my skin and stopping those nasty elements from wreaking their havoc!!

It lasted forever as well. My first tube that I ever bought lasted easily a year. I obviously didn't apply it every day, but whenever my hands felt dry I would put some on. If you were to apply this a few times every day, it would probably last about 4 or 5 months, which is really, really good. As well as this, you would also probably have super silky palms just made for holding hands!

**VERDICT**

I was really pleased with this cream. I really liked the results I got and even though at first I thought it was a little expensive, I see now that it is good value, as not only does it last for a very, very long time, but it is worth it anyway for the nice soft supple skin you get, and also for the lack of greasiness, which for me is a big issue with other hand creams.

I will definately continue to buy this in the future!

Summary: A great hand cream that lasts ages and makes skin lovely and soft!