Gardeners spend their time digging, weeding, planting and picking. Often the hardest work is done when the weather is cold and even if your hands are covered in a pair of gloves, the bitter weather sneaks through and plays havoc with your hands and can leave skin looking worn, chapped and dry. Here’s where gardener’s hand cream comes in. Below we pick the best hand cream for gardeners, which will protect your cells from premature ageing.
Here are 10 of our favourite gardener’s hand creams that we think will do the job of protecting your hands from the elements perfectly.
For more kit for gardeners, head to our tools page and don’t miss our piece on the best floral facemasks.
The best hand cream for gardeners in 2022
Kiehl’s Ultimate Strength Hand Salve
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Kiehl’s started out as an apothecary and then a pharmacy in East Village, New York. They sell many products that are targeted solutions to common ailments, such as acne and uneven skin tone, drawing on years of experience and using naturally derived ingredients.
This is one of the more medicinal hand creams on the list and one of the most intense. The hand salve is thick and it takes a while for the cream to soak in, but once dry your hands feel as though they have gone through a beauty treatment.
The fragrance may not be to everyone’s liking but if you’re looking for a deep treatment from your gardener’s hand cream, this is it.
Cost: £15 for 75 ml
Crabtree + Evelyn: Gardeners Hand Cream
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Fragranced with green clover, lavender, sage, rosemary and thyme, this ultra-rich hand cream is a firm favourite among gardeners because of its ability to quickly nourish worn hands.
Crabtree and Evelyn offer a whole range of protective gardeners hand creams, which show their understanding of the amount of work our hands go through to keep our gardens looking great. This hand cream is made specifically with gardeners in mind and is inspired by natural ingredients.
The gardeners hand cream has a loyal base of followers that has built up over the years: a reason not to ignore this classic.
Cost: £31.50 per 250ml
Neal’s Yard Citrus Hand Softener
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Originally based in Covent Garden, Neal’s Yard is known for its holistic approach to beauty products and their commitment to organic ingredients.
This Citrus Hand Softener is lovely to put on your hands and its strong citrus smell is refreshing (although could prompt a ‘marmite’ reaction from those who dislike the bitter scent of peel!). Your hands feel instantly soft, although slightly greasy.
This would be a good gardening hand cream to apply before bed or after a bath when you have the time to let the cream sink in.
Cost: £15 per 50g
Molton Brown Orange and Bergamot hand cream
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This nourishing hand cream will be a balm for any hardworking gardener’s hands. It smells very citrussy with its top notes of orange and bergamot, and the gardener’s hand cream is paraben-free, gluten-free, cruelty-free and vegan. As well as its citrus top notes, expect hints of neroli, cardamom, galbanum, musk, ylang-ylang and cedarwood.
This cream is very silky smooth so immediately makes your hands feel moisturised and refreshed.
Molton Brown is an English-based company, which blends all its products on these shores too.
Cost: £22 per 300ml
Hemp Hand Protector
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For gardeners whose hands get super dry, this simple offering from The Body Shop could be your gardener’s hand cream saviour.
This cream is especially good for skin that’s been exposed to the elements, which means gardener’s hands! It offers 24 hour hydration and the hemp seed oil used comes from a hemp crop that helps to regenerate land and provide natural habitat for local wildlife in France.
Hemp itself is filled with beneficial fatty acids that don’t clog skin or pores and it’s worth noting that this definitely is not a greasy hand cream offering.
Cost: £5 per 30ml
L’Occitane Almond Delicious Hand Cream
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A soothing salve for your hands that smells of the lovely almond tree. This gardener’s hand cream features both almond milk and almond oil.
L’Occitane is committed to protecting plants and use ingredients that are traceable and sustainably sourced. The company has been working to bring back almond trees to Provence and protect the local lavender there too, which is under threat from climate change.
This hand cream is also satisfyingly non-greasy.
Cost: £16.50 per 75ml
Humble Rose and Frankincense Hand Lotion
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Presenter and environmentalist Kate Humble is behind this range, which aims to provide luxurious products that refrain from having a detrimental impact on the environment. Her products are natural, biodegradable and without parabens or SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulphate), which is believed to have carcinogenic properties.
This Rose and Frankincense Hand Lotion has a lovely smell – rich but not overpowering. Your hands are left feeling slightly waxy but not sticky or greasy. This is a good everyday hand product.
Cost: £8 per 285 ml
Noble Isle Rhubarb Rhubarb! Hand Lotion
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Noble Isle is a quintessential British brand that sources its ingredients from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Set up in 2011, Noble Isle has quickly established the brand as a ‘cruelty-free’, one-stop shop for natural, British, body care.
The forced rhubarb in this Rhubarb Rhubarb! Hand lotion is sourced from a sixth-generation rhubarb farm in the Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle. It has a wonderfully fresh fragrance that lingers on the skin but never becomes too overbearing. It leaves your gardener’s hands feeling soft and pampered.
Perfect as a light gardening hand cream moisturise, it doesn’t perhaps give quite the intense, healing treatment of other products mentioned here.
Cost: £21 per 250ml
Aesop Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm
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Aesop was established in Melbourne, Australia and aims to make products of the finest quality, only using ingredients from reputable sources. This hand balm is an ideal gardener’s hand cream because it combines botanical ingredients and softening emollients to offer natural but rich hydration. It has a strong earthy aroma, which is a welcome change from the more floral, and citrus based creams.
You instantly feel that this cream is retuning moisture back to your hands and the end result is soft, non-greasy skin that has a lingering woody fragrance.
Cost: £21 for 75ml
Beefayre Orange and Neroli Hand Cream
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Hand made in England, Beefayre donates 3 per cent of profits to bee conservation and research. They sustainably source all ingredients and ensure their packaging is low impact on the environment.
Parabens, sulphates and animal testing are strictly avoided and their products are organic where possible. This Bee Kind gardeners hand cream uses both beeswax and Shea butter and includes grapeseed and sunflower oils.
Cost £14.95 per 100ml