We’ve all read a thousand articles and blog posts about how to care for your winter-ravaged face, but what about your lips and (finger) tips?
I find that most moisturisers will help keep your skin from being totally destroyed by the cold, but a lot of hand/lip products can actually exacerbate any issues you’re having, instead of making them better. Be warned, the products I’m recommending in this post are for using right before bed only, and are much too greasy for me to use when I want to use a pen, or wear makeup, or do anything, really.
Trust me, if you shoved one of these in your handbag you’d probably hate them, but at bedtime when they have a bit of time to sink in they are SPOT ON.
Cowshed cuticle oil
I cannot stress the importance of cuticle care if you want to have nice nails. If you think you have gnarly looking nails, it’s probably just that you’ve got extremely dry/peely cuticles and you’d benefit so much from a bit of deep moisturisation.
Now, I’ve tried cheap cuticle oils before and they do nothing for me (avoid Poundland’s, it is NOT a bargain), also I get through the little nail polish sized bottles super quick. My boyfriend bought me this whopping 30ml bottle of Cowshed Apricot Nourishing Cuticle Oil for my birthday (aww, he actually pays attention to my nail obsession and knows what cuticle oil is), and it’s perfect. All good cuticle oils are a mixture of 100% natural oils and feel pretty greasy on your fingers, but that means it’s working!
I can’t find this massive size in stock anywhere online, but you can get a little bottle of it as part of the Cow Slip manicure set for £14.63 on Beauty Expert (saving £4.87). I also love CND’s Solar Oil (£6.95) for a more easy to find/affordable option.
L’Occitane hand cream
This is often lauded as the best hand cream in the world, and it pretty much is. It’s really moisturising, great for sensitive skin, and a single tube lasts me an ENTIRE YEAR. I literally ask for it for Christmas every December and run out on Christmas eve (well no, but almost).
This is unscented, and leaves your hands quite greasy, but it does eventually soak in and when you wake up in the morning you’ll have super soft mitts.
You can get a 150ml tube for £19 from Marks and Spencer, which is pretty pricey, but honestly it lasts a year because you don’t need much, so it works out as 36p a week, which I’ll pay for pretty hands.
Nuxe Reve de Miel lip balm
I’ve tried a lot of lip balms. Vaseline style petroleum jelly concoctions, even the really expensive ones (*COUGH* 8 Hour Cream) only make chapped lips worse by encouraging you to rub your lips together and I find it’s the same with The Body Shop style shea butter/coconut oil salves. There is only one lip balm for me, and it is thick, matte and yellow.
Nuxe Reve de Miel is a beeswax lip balm that is waxy and vaguely grainy, it has an extremely slight lemony scent, and I haven’t had chapped lips since I bought my first pot in March 2015. Seriously. I went to New York in January during the snowstorm, and my lips came back unscathed. It’s holy grail stuff, I’m working through my fourth pot at the moment (the coloured lid pictured was a limited edition that you can’t buy any more).
Side note: make sure you get the pot, NOT the stick. The stick is fine, it’s cheaper, and it’s very similar to Burt’s Bees lip balms, but it is not the same as the pot at all, different ingredients, feels different on the lips, wears off in five minutes.
At £9.50 it’s a bit more than your average Chapstick, but it’s on 3 for 2 at Beauty Expert at the moment, so around £6 a pot if you take the plunge and get three.
Hey! I’m Bronni and I’m a financial journalist and deals hunter in my mid 20s. I’m really into cats, pop music, the internet and barely substantiated celebrity gossip.
