The Best Hand Cream in Canada

O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Cream is also our choice for the best hand cream for cracked fingers.

O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Cream, often mentioned as the green hand cream by shoppers, is probably one of the most recognizable hand creams out there and for good reason. Take it from one of the numerous reviewers on Amazon: “Working Hands managed to actually help heal the painful cracks on my hands like magic overnight.” With a rating of 4.6 on Amazon, it’s one of (if not the most) top-rated hand creams out there. It’s relatively simple key ingredients of water, glycerin and paraffin help to hydrate your hands as well as keep moisture in. 

 At about $10 a tube or about $9 a jar, it’s an affordable option for just about anyone with cracked skin on their hands.  

This chamomile hand cream helps to soothe and calm irritated skin as well as effectively moisturize your hands. A lot of hand creams only focus on the moisturizing aspect of keeping your hands healthy, so this cream is a good option if you’d like your hand cream to do more for you. 

You can find the Glysomed hand cream for around $28 for 2 250 ml tubes. It might be a little pricier than other hand creams, but it’s still relatively affordable. It’s rated high on Amazon with 4.8 stars – people seem to love this hand cream for its richness and skin protection capabilities. 

This hand cream is great news if you’re on a budget but still want a hand cream to address the wrinkles on your hands. This can also be a great hand cream for ageing hands. Coming in usually under $5 for a bottle, you’ll be hard-pressed to find hand creams that are priced any lower.

For those of us who don’t know, Coenzyme Q10 (or just Q10) is an antioxidant in the skin that destroys free radicals in your body. Free radicals are highly reactive chemicals that can damage your skin cells, which can subsequently lead to wrinkles. Reviews from Amazon and other online retailers commonly describe this hand cream as being very smooth and moisturizing, but not too greasy. 

While technically this isn’t made specifically for your hands, we think it’s a good and affordable contender, nonetheless. It contains natural colloidal oatmeal which is a great anti-inflammatory ingredient that helps relieve irritation and protect your skin’s moisture barrier. It also provides broad-spectrum protection against both harmful UVB and UVA rays, which play a role in ageing and burning.

Usually under $10 for 347 ml, this is a budget-friendly option for daily protection of your hands from the sun.

The Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream is particularly rich in glycerin, which is a humectant. Humectants are ingredients in skincare products that attract water to themselves. Humectant rich hand creams are great for applying right after your wash your hands. In addition to glycerin, the Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream also contains Cetearyl alcohol, an emollient that you can find in coconut oil. According to Healthline, emollients are substances that help soften dry, flakey skin.  

In particular, thick moisturizers such as this one might be good for people who have eczema. According to Neutrogena, just a dab and your hands will be soft and moisturized again in no time. With an average Amazon rating of 4.7 stars and a relatively low price, we think this well-reviewed hand cream is worth a shot. 

Did you know that Kiehl’s makes more than just face creams and serums? While the Ultimate Strenght Hand Salve is definitely pricier than a lot of the other creams listed here, about $25 a tube is less of a sting to your wallet than you’d usually expect for a luxury brand.  

What makes this hand cream special is that it contains a blend of avocado oil and sesame oil, which moisturizes and softens the skin, forming a “glove-like” protective barrier against moisture loss. Reviews on Sephora cite this hand cream as being thick yet not greasy, with quick drying time. With a rating of 4.5 stars overall on Amazon, we’d say that this hand cream is a pretty safe bet if you want to pamper your hands a little. 

While this Eucerin hand cream doesn’t have packaging that necessarily jumps out at you, it’s a great choice for moisturizing and healing your winter bitten hands. After all, harsh weather conditions contribute to dry skin on your hands. One of the ingredients that stands out in this cream is ceramide-3; in general, ceramides help restore your skin’s barrier, which helps increase the moisture level of your skin. 

In addition, this cream contains urea that helps to keep your skin from drying out. In summary, rather than just supplementing your hand with moisture adding ingredients, the Eucerin Complete Repair Hand Cream works to repair your skin so that it better hold moisture on its own. Reviews on Amazon describe this cream as light and not leaving your hands greasy as other comparable hand creams do. 

Sometimes, men need a little nudge about applying skincare for hands. If you’re looking for a moisturizer they will actually use, the Nivea Men Revitalizing Body Lotion is a pretty contender. On Amazon, this lotion for men is rated at 4.5 stars overall, with the vast majority of its ratings being 5 stars. While it’s technically not made specifically for your hands, it will still work to moisturize your hands quite decently. What’s especially great about this lotion is that it’s non-greasy and it contains vitamin A. In case you don’t know, vitamin A can help encourage the production of new skin cells and prevent skin dryness.

This is also our pick for the best cheap hand cream.

If you’re looking for a fragrance-free hand cream that will last and won’t break the bank, that’s the one for you. When looking for a hand cream, many of us just want some relief for our hands, so having such a high-quality affordable option sounds like a great deal (especially if you don’t like or can’t use scented hand lotions.)

During our tests, we noticed that the Aveeno Intense Relief Hand Cream does last through hand washing as promised, which is quite a money- and time-saving feature. Most people don’t have the time or can’t afford to apply a hand lotion every other hour.

This scent-free hand cream is ideal for dry, cracked skin and it can moisturize for up to 24 hours, although there’s no consensus on that amongst users. Some consumers suggest you use it every 12 hours, whereas others suggest you apply the hand cream every 48 hours. For us, using it once a day was enough for our hands to look healthy even during winter in the Prairies. It really depends on your skin, the humidity levels in your area, and how you feel about your hands.