Review: Nivea Hand Creme

FTC: I bought this product myself. I am not sponsored for this review.

I bought this hand creme sometime in 2011 or early 2012 at Target. At the time it was part of a bundle with a Nivea Express Hydration Lotion (review coming later). Individually, this product can be purchased for $1 at any drugstore or supermarket.

This product is actually pretty handy because it is very travel-friendly. It is small and can fit in any purse, backpack, traveler's bag, etc. In fact, that's probably one of the reasons why I got it in the first place!

Flash forward to July 2012.... soon after I started med school, I quickly realized how drying washing one's hands repetitively can be. Think about all of the hand washes after Gross Anatomy Lab, clinics, hospital duties, etc. Yeah. Basically I realized that I needed something to prevent my skin from cracking and bleeding due to dryness. Yikes!

In comes this product; it had been at the bottom of my bundle of beauty/skincare products. Thus, why not? I decided to give it a try.

Truthfully, it actually worked pretty well. It's a very emollient formula, as shown here (from Walgreens):

Water , Mineral Oil , Petrolatum , Glycerin , Microcrystalline Wax , Lanolin Alcohol , Paraffin , Panthenol , Magnesium Sulfate , Decyl Oleate , Octyldodecanol , Aluminum Stearate , Fragrance , Citric Acid , Magnesium Stearate , Methylchloroisothiazolinone , Methylisothiazolinone

As you can see above, a lot of the top ingredients are very emollient substances - mineral oil, petrolatum, glycerin, microcrystalline wax, lanolin alcohol (a fatty alcohol). Truthfully, the product did do it's job of being very moisture-retaining and hydrating.

However, there were downsides. It was slightly sticky so it was kind of awkward typing on my laptop and writing after application. Also, there were times where I felt it was perhaps kind of irritating - perhaps the fragrance and the citric acid were sensitizing my skin or something?

Another pro is that this product lasts a long time. Seriously, I didn't expect this, but a little does really go a long way on this product. I just needed a little bit to cover all of my hands. After all, in truth, after almost 10 months of steady use, I've used up this much:

And for reference, this is how greasy it looks on my hands after application:

Overall, would I recommend this product? If you are in a pinch, and you need a travel-friendly product, and don't have sensitive skin, then I would recommend it. Personally, I did enjoy using this product, but I think there probably are products out on the market that may be better suited for my skin.


P.S. Oh yeah, and that writing on the pages there? That was me studying for my tests this past week -_-