The moment the first autumn leaf hit the ground, my skin knew. I woke up with a roughness to my hands, a promise of the dehydration to come as the temperatures continue to dip.
The earlier and more frequently you can moisturize your hands the better. When putting on your face moisturizer, bring it down to the neck and then rub your hands together to get rid of the excess. Our hands get beaten up throughout the day and age drastically throughout our lifetimes because while we put SPF and lotions and potions on our faces and bodies, we often neglect our hands.
From October to March I have to keep an armada of hand creams on my desk, next to the bed, and in my purse to keep the dryness at bay. These lotions and balms from local brands are a few to consider for your moisturizing needs this season.
Lush
Lush is, of course, a global corporation, but it's headquartered in London, Vancouver, and Toronto. The first ever Lush store in North America opened in Vancouver in 1996 and there's a Lush factory on Ontario Street. So when you use one of Lush's four hand products, it was made in Vancouver. Lush has a citrus hand balm that uses aloe, orange, and shea butter, a chamomile cream with cocoa butter, and a thicker cream that uses cashew, almond and pumpkin seed butters. For those with extra dry cracked skin around the nails, there is also cuticle butter with beeswax, lemon oil, and mango. Some of the ingredients are even sourced from surrounding B.C. farms and growers.
Harlow
Harlow's body moisturizing products are multi-purpose. The body balm and body salve can be used on hands as well as the rest of the body and comes in four different scents or unscented for people allergic to fragrance. The brand is all-natural and uses essential oils to scent its products, not synthetics. The base of the body balm is shea butter and coconut oil spiced with combinations of lavender, bergamot, citrus, jasmine, cedar, among other ingredients. The slave, meanwhile, is pure beeswax, shea butter, and olive oil. That's it. That's the whole list of ingredients.
Harlow has a storefront on East 15th in the Fraser-Kingsway area.
Saje
Saje is best known for its diffusers and essential oil blends but during the pandemic, it introduced hand sanitizer and antimicrobial hand lotion — and is one of the few businesses that hasn't discontinued the offering since. The wellness brand offers two types of hand lotion, including a citrus hand cream in Liquid Sunshine, Also one of the diffuser scents, it blends shea butter, oat extract, and mandarin. The brand also makes a moisturizing topical antimicrobial called Safe Hands with lavender, patchouli, tea tree, aloe, sunflower seed oil, and shea nut oil.
Barefoot Venus
This Kelowna-based company has over a dozen different small-batch hand creams in sumptuous scents like Apricot Brandy and Lavender Smoke so you can mix and match fragrances in the car, living room and office. People can choose between two slightly different formulas for hydration, or repair and protection. The base of the squeezy tube hand creams are macadamia nut oil, shea butter, almond oil, elderflower extract and silk amino acids. The hand repair jars have a thicker more balmy consistency because it mixes mango and shea butter with olive and soybean oils. Both of them contain fragrances.
Scentuals
This Vancouver skincare brand has been around since 2005. Scentuals make a scent-free moisturizing hand and body cream with organic aloe, shea butter and avocado oil, which repairs damage and soothes as well as hydrates. It's suitable for people with psoriasis, eczema, and sensitive skin. The formula was developed in collaboration with the Canadian Cancer Society. Three per cent of each sale benefits the organization.
Scentuals is carried across the Lower Mainland but you can also find it at most Superstores.
Sangre De Fruta
Luxury skincare brand Sangre De Fruta is based on Bowen Island and has been featured on Goop and in the 2019 Emmy gift bags. Its botanical hand and body lotion is formulated with aloe vera, avocado, olive and jojoba oil, and sea buckthorn. That mixture is then blended with calendula, horsetail, and marigold extract. It's scented with cedar, sandalwood, and bergamot for a heady botanical finish, hence the name. This is a pricey, decadent (though refillable) hand cream that you would be proud to put out on the bathroom counter before guests come over.
Pink House
Family-run natural beauty brand Pink House makes a Calm Balm for dry irritated skin. It can be used on all skin types on the face or body. Raw shea butter and coconut oil infused with chamomile, calendula, lavender and comfrey are mixed with cocoa butter, beeswax, meadowfoam oil, mango butter, tamanu nut oil and vitamin E to soothe and speed up the body's natural healing process. The all-natural product is a smooth consistency but Pink House warns that it can get grainy over time. The company suggests placing the glass jar in the oven without the lid at the lowest temperature for 10 minutes and then putting it in the fridge until it firms up again.
Midnight Paloma
Midnight Paloma is a local skin and body care brand that partnered with another Vancouver brand, Brunette the Label, to create a cuticle saviour hand cream. As part of the two companies' Self Care Club collaboration, the cream was released alongside loungewear and, you guessed it, self-care essentials like bath soaks, gua shas, and headbands. The lightweight rose and geranium scented hand lotion was released as a limited edition. When it runs out, Midnight Paloma has an everything balm also suitable for hands. It combines cocoa butter, rice bran oil, and rosemary extract to nourish, moisturize, and plump skin.
