Cold-weather care kit: the best lip balms, hand sanitisers and hand creams to soothe and protect
Photo: Claire Pepper. Large wrap scarf and hat both Jo Gordon
The cold winds of winter whipping across the country are harsh on exposed skin, drying it out and stripping it of its natural oils, resulting in chapped lips and cracked hands. Constant hand-washing and mask-wearing doesn’t help the situation. To see you through the next few months, we’ve come up with a handy, cold weather care kit:
Wave goodbye to dry hands
Rich, nourishing hand cream counteracts the dehydrating effects of exposure to cold winds, regular hand-washing, and the alcohol content of hand sanitiser. Soothing and healing properties help to reduce soreness, redness and irritation. Smaller tubes are great for popping in a pocket or bag to have to hand when you’re out and about. And don’t forget your gloves.
A fragrance-free, thick, white cream, Avène Cicalfate Restorative Hand Cream (100ml, £9.50) is ideal for hands that are already sore. It takes some rubbing in, but smooths and soothes skin, and stays put. It contains a postbiotic (essentially a fermentation by-product), which is beneficial for your skin’s microbiome, plus moisture-locking liquid paraffin, moisture-attracting beeswax, and spring water.
One of the company’s first products, Weleda Skin Food (75ml, £13.50) has been soothing skin since 1927, winning many, awards and devotees along the way. Its moisturising, soothing ingredients include sunflower oil, lanolin and sweet almond oil, backed by camomile and calendula and beeswax, with a clean, subtle aroma.
Balance Me’s multi-award-winning Super Moisturising Hand Cream ( 100ml, £10.85) smells lovely, has a rich texture and contains a blend of shea butter, benzoin essential oil and yarrow to heal and nourish the skin.
Paediatric nurse Antonia Philp and her husband Jonny launched Nursem hand cream (75ml, £10) through a Crowdfunder campaign in 2018. For every product sold, the company provides a month’s free Nursem hand care to a nurse or mid-wife, has been clinically tested, is free from parabens and petrochemicals, and suitable for sensitive skin. Downright sensible in every way, Nursem does the job brilliantly and leaves my hands feeling nurtured and smooth.
Keep hands clean
We’ve all got used to squirting hand sanitiser on all day. And although we now know the main way of spreading Covid is through airborne droplets, not surfaces, hand sanitiser has always been a great alternative to soap and water to keep hands squeaky-clean and germ-free when you’re on the go. You can buy hand sanitiser everywhere but something suffused with essential oils smells so much better, and they have anti-viral properties, too. A pocket-sized bottle is super-handy, although of course, you can decant any big bottle into a smaller spray bottle.
The alcohol content needed to make it effective can be drying on hands – another reason to treat yourself to softening, soothing, rich hand cream afterwards (see above).
Aesop Resurrection Rinse-Free Hand Wash (50ml, £7; 500ml, £33) is the perfect pocket-sized cleaning companion. Its subtle hint of mandarin peel oil leaves a sweet-smelling, fresh aroma pleasantly lingering on the hands.
With a lovely lemongrass scent, Neal’s Yard Natural Defence Hand Rub (40ml, £2.80; 200ml glass refill bottles, £10) also contains niaouli and witch hazel, with the optimum 70% alcohol content, and is small enough to keep to hand. Another sustainable brand with wonderful-smelling products and refillable bottles is Bramley.
Bioderma Biphase Lipo Alcoolique (100ml, £8, Bioderma) is 75% alcohol, backed up by shea butter and squalene, a plant-based oily compound that’s very similar to our skin’s own secretions, all designed to be effective against viruses and bacteria without drying out skin.
Kiss goodbye to chapped lips
Lips lose more moisture than any other part of the body. Having no oil glands, they become dry and chapped when they’re exposed to sun, wind and cold, dry air. That rough texture leads us to lick them, which only makes it worse. The drying is exacerbated by mask-wearing as that rubs off lipstick or balm, so you need to apply it more often. Once you find a balm you like, it’s worth keeping one in your coat pocket, bag, desk, car…
If your lips are already chapped, rather than chewing off those flakes of skin, make a lip scrub with a few drops of oil such as sweet almond or sunflower and a spoonful of sugar. Rub on to lips and rinse off.
Lip balms are so easily lost, or left elsewhere, that it pays to buy more than one at once. Burt’s Bees sells two-packs for £5.99 and four-packs for £11.99 in flavours (not that we should be licking our lips to taste them) including vanilla, honey and strawberry, as well as original beeswax, all packed with moisturising oils, butters and, yes, beeswax.
Lanolips 101 Ointment, (15g, £10.99) is a tiny tube of 100% pure lanolin that holds 200% of its weight in moisture. It’s free of fragrance, colouring and other additives, so is a great choice for sensitive skin. Its multiple non-lip-balm uses include chapped lips, dry cuticles, dry, itchy skin, and dry nasal passages.
For those who prefer plastic-free packaging and natural ingredients, try Lush Lip Service Lip Balm (12g, £7.50). This little tin is packed with moisturising shea butter, apricot kernel oil, cocoa butter and beeswax, with a tangy tangerine fragrance.
Adrienne Wyper is a health and lifestyle writer and regular TNMA contributor.
Our favourite cold weather essentials:
That’s Not My Age is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.
Discussion (18 Comments)
One of my friends says the same! And it’s founded by Marcia Kilgore who is brilliant.
Mrs Tonia says:
Thanks Adrienne for these pertinent tips here. I suffer from dry hands, even before hand sanitizer became necessary and dry lips. My go to hand creams are Caudalie one and Nuxe Reve de Miel. Both under £8 and excellent. I used to use the Clarins Jeunesse des Main handcream regularly but that’s ever more expensive as their other products due to euro exchange rates.
Less expensive but good I’ve found the range by German brand Lavera. Vegan and pure products. They make several lip balms. My current favourite is Lavera Bio Sensitive lip balm stick. Under £4.
And their SOS in a tube with mint flavour. Generally I don’t like flavoured ones. I used to use Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream. Brilliant for lips and much else but stopped because of petroleum content. Recently was given samples in Boots, the basic cream not specialised lip stuff which is overpriced. So effective for really chapped dry lips especially worn overnight. May get some to tide me over winter months.
I’ve also bought a stick balm Calm Balm by Elf. Good vegan product. Soft texture works well. Good value at £5 a tube.Gabrielle says:
Bioderma Atoderm ultra-moisturising lip balm is great, and you can buy multi-packs online. Never without one in a pocket or bag in winter.
Lizzie G says:
Cera-ve’s restorative hand cream is good (as are all of their products – their foot cream is fab too). And I endorse the Beauty Pie recommendation. Happy New Year Alyson and all readers. Here’s to the art of finding joy in small pleasures as we enter another Covid-restricted year.
Sara says:
Forget the balms, creams and sanitizers. That coat is just stunning! Is it really a wrap and not a coat? What a fab look, Alyson.
Thanks Sara. It’s a large wrap scarf from Jo Gordon (loaned for the shoot last year)
Cathy says:
I love that wrap too. Fantastic picture/ look. I’m of Scandinavian extraction and often find myself gravitating to these pfafff free gems.
bev says:
Aveeno Skin Relief Moisturising Hand Cream, Soothes and Moisturises Very Dry Hands – knocks every other hand cream out of the ballpark for me. At 63 I have finally found a hand cream that performs miracles and I have tried them all including the eye-wateringly expensive ones. So impressed I feel positively evangelical about spreading the word!
Christine Donne says:
That look is a knockout Alyson, you look absolutely fabulous! Following your blog & column in the Telegraph for the past 2 years has given me extra confidence in what I wear. Thank you. Although I’ve lived in the south for 20 years, I’m a Northern lass (Sheffield) & used to very cold winters – yet I still suffer from severe chilblains on my fingers & toes in spite of wearing sheepskin gloves & boots, so I’m certainly going to try a few of those creams. I’m now 81 so I only go out when I choose to but I do find wearing a mask protects that part of my face, to some extent, from the severe cold & wind.
Yes! The dreaded mask DOES keep your face a lot warmer and stops your lips getting so chapped and dry. (Always look on the bright side of life……..!)
Kyle says:
I have found Gloves In A Bottle to be a game changer this winter. It stays on even after washing.
Aleida says:
I’m 64 now and have been using Weleda Skin Food (formerly called skin creme) since I was 16, back in the day mostly for dry or irritated patches and now as a face-and-neck cream. It’s a bit greasy, I massage it in gently. I love it, so does my skin, but I’m low-maintenance as far as cosmetics are concerned (usually soap-and-water or just water – yeah I know). Over the years I have alternated with Weleda’s Cold Cream and sometimes other moisturisers, but my skin can become sensitive and always return to Skin Food. All this to say: just using it for hands really doesn’t do it justice.
Weleda lip balms are very good as well, and not overly flavoured.Hilary says:
I find Kiehl’s ultimate strength hand cream by far the best and always fall back to it when my hands become so dry nothing else works. I do hate its hard plastic tube though – by the time I’m only half way through I have to get the scissors out as it’s impossible to squeeze any cream out. I can’t imagine the plastic would ever bio-degrade so a tin or jar would be much nicer. (I’ve asked them).
Love the scarf too.
Following Adrienne’s suggestions I looked up Avene Cicalfate online at Boots. Today I bought the Restorative lip cream (Balme levres). Very pleased with this product. No flavour. Sealed small tube £7. I’m already a user of this brands Hydrance facial moisturiser and sun screen also. All highly recommended.
I invested in two further products of La Roche Posay Cicaplast range. Its Barrier Repairing Balm a small tube for £7. Will see which I prefer. Also their Hand Cream Barrier Repairing Cream. No perfume for sensitive skin. All on a loyalty Point promotion right now too.Daphne Hancock says:
I put Sudocrem on my lips every night which really helps. If it’s good enough for babies it good enough for me and very cheap. Also recommend Aldi luxury hand lotion in square bottles – made in the same factory as Jo Malone apparently
Jean says:
I have eczema on my hands, and with all the additional hand washing and sanitising my hands became very sore, red and swollen. I was using hand cream everyday but most only offered some initial relief, until I used O’Keefe’s Working Hands cream which was a game changer. Within a week of using it twice daily my hands were soft and no longer swollen. I’ve recommended it to several people since and they’re all amazed by it too. Highly recommended, and not expensive!
Philippa Morrison 
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I have horses and dogs so my hands take a real battering in the cold weather – I am already a huge fan of Nursem, after it was recommnded on here some time ago. and have just recently tried Weleda which also gets a big thumbs up – better still, both are cruelty free!