Hand Cream Detox

So, I am trying very hard to move to as close to all-natural beauty regimen as possible. Getting rid of some favorites is hard – I completely fell off the wagon this week when I ordered some Coconut Hut Hawaiian Whipped Icing Scrubs. Coconut Hut has wonderful high quality products, including two amazing, almost all-natural products (the Big Kahuna Body Butter and the Poi-Fection Shea Crème). Sadly, her just as amazing scrub has some parabens in it. Coconut Hut is also the best place that I have found to get tropical scented scrubs, though, and I was out of coconut scrubs, and well …..

I am consoling myself by 1. reminding myself most of my scrub stash does not have parabens and 2. finding another area of my beauty stash to detox.

So I looked towards my hand creams. For the last few years, I have used the following, on rotation:

1. L’Occitane: I have been a huge fan of L’Occitane’s 20% shea Hand Cream for years.

2. Couvent de Minimes (a.k.a. L’Occitane doppelganger): When Bath and Body Works partnered with L’Occitane to make Couvent de Minimes, I immediately loved their Nourishing Hand Cream (despite the fact that at the time I did not like honey scents much). Burt’s Bees Almond Milk and Beeswax Hand Cream: I knew I could save this one from the exclusion of the above two

3. Bliss High Intensity Hand Cream: I have always liked this when I wanted a break from the above two shea-butter based products. No parabens in the ingredient list, but enough chemical ingredients to make me decide it was time to let go of another staple.

4. Burt’s Bees Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Crème: This was languishing at the bottom of my vanity for the last year, but I just rediscovered it a few weeks ago. Good thing too, considering it is 100% natural. Still, as much as I love this product, its strong scent makes me shy away from using it at work.

So, time to look for new hand creams (a girl needs more than one in my opinion!). My first instinct was to try out other Burt’s Bees hand creams:

• Burt’s Bees Thoroughly Therapeutic Honey & Grapeseed Oil Hand Crème – Like the Bliss cream, this product has Macademia and Grapeseed oil, but has a strong honey scent. So, while the texture is similar to the Bliss product, the scent is a stronger version of the Couvent de Minimes.
• Burt’s Bees Banana and Beeswax Hand Crème – I like foody scents, but this is just too strongly banana scented. Texture wise, it is similar to the Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Crème.
• Burt’s Bees Shea Butter Hand Repair Cream – I had really high hopes for this one, especially since I loved my L’Occitane and Couvent shea butter hand creams, but I just could not get used to the scent. Furthermore, while it is a shea cream, unlike the L’Occitane and the Couvent, shea butter is not the second ingredient in it, so it does not have the texture I was looking for..

So for now, my rotation has just the two Burt’s Bees hand creams (Almond Milk and Thoroughly Therapeutic Honey) but I plan to try the following hand creams (seem close to all natural) and report back:

• Australian Organics Rejuvenating Hand Treatment Cream with Sweet Almond Oil – it looks like the main preservative in this product is essentials oils and, according to reviews, the scent is light yet pleasing.
  

• Boscia Daily Hand Revival Therapy SPF 15 – I saw this line at the Sephora on 34th Street. What I do like about it is every product’s ingredient label lists what ingredients are natural and/or organic

• Origins – I want to try both Make a Difference and Handle with Care, although I might wait until July 1 when all their products will be paraben-free.