Ahava’s Dead Sea Mineral Hand Cream Will Keep Your Hands Soft | Review

My hands have spent the last year in a deep, smoldering depression. (The body attached to them also had a rough go of it, but that is another story entirely.) Due to global events beyond their feeble grasp, they were laid off from their job of touching things very early on. Intimacy was absolutely forbidden; trips outside were less forbidden but still pretty forbidden, and often bookended with strenuous washing, as if to rinse away any joy they might have encountered in the open world. Remember the open world? Not really, they say. What does grass feel like?

In the past year, many previously unobserved aspects of human life have buoyed to the top of our consciousness, where they will probably remain for the length of our lives. A big one: Viral disease transmission! Another big one: The production of hand sanitizer, and the scarcity of hand sanitizer, and the desire to have no fewer than four bottles of hand sanitizer in one’s possession at all times. Then, much lower on the list, there it is: The importance of hand cream. 

According to the CDC’s recommendations for hand washing frequency, a human pair of hands should receive about six baths a day. (Unless you have children, in which case they need to be washed every fifteen minutes.) If you’re already soothing them during this unprecedented time with as much moisture as you can, that is lovely news, and I send you on your blessed way. If not… May I suggest Ahava’s Dead Sea mineral hand cream?

Personally, I love its cream cheese frosting texture, which sinks indelibly into hand cracks like rainfall greeting a sun-scorched plain. I love a single application lasts hours, probably due to water-binding minerals like potassium and calcium. I love that it has witch hazel, for when my eczema recurs. I didn’t love that it included fragrance in the formula, but then I smelled it (light, foresty) and I loved it—and didn’t experience any sensitivity on my (eczema-prone, remember?) hands. Two thumbs up!