A new range of hand cream bars in fancy reusable tins that we think will make perfect stocking fillers! Reverse the damage that cold dry winter weather is doing to your hands with these handy bars of hand cream. There is a bar for everyone here, with a tailored gardener's hand balm, a baby balm, and three other hand cream bars each with their own delightful scent to choose from. These bars will leave you with beautifully soft, nourished hands.
Each hand cream balm is a bar of concentrated moisturising power packed into a lightweight tin. These bars are non-messy, convenient to use and easy to carry with you, offering a quick fix for your dry hands wherever you go. With lovely scents and a non-sticky formula, the bars contain only 100% natural ingredients, with no artificial colourings, fragrances or preservatives and are not tested on animals.
50g bar in a snazzy reusable tin.
Choose from:
The Queen Bee – Citrusy fresh with orange, lime and lemongrass.
Luxury No 1 – The spa experience in a tin, the sweet smell of luxury included. With lavender, rose geranium, sweet orange, lime, frankincense, clove, myrrh.
Golden Rosewood – Floral sumptuousness with rosewood, rosemary, mandarin, lavender, frankincense, geranium, basil, jasmine.
Gardener’s Hand Balm – Botanical healing for hardworking hands. With lavender, bergamot and ylang-ylang.
Baby I Love You Balm – Fragrance-free, just pure gentle nourishing goodness for your little one. Non-messy, easy to apply and carry with you in a lightweight tin, helps to make soothing your baby’s skin simple.
How to use: Gently rub the bar in between your palms. The heat of your hands should melt the bar enough to turn it into a cream you can easily spread to cover your hands. Put the bar back in the tin and apply the lotion left on your skin to all areas of your hands, applying more as needed to particularly dry spots and areas of problem skin. Massage in and let your skin soak up some much-needed nourishment.
Please note - These bars are wrapped in an industrially compostable bioplastic (PLA) film to protect them in transit. My sample bar, which was given to me as a gift by a friend, did not have the bioplastic film to protect the bar, so I was oblivious to this when I decided to stock them and it was a bit annoying to find this out after it was too late. I’m not entirely convinced this protective film is necessary, so I’m going to ask my supplier not to supply these hand cream bars without the film in future. See the materials ratings section for more info on this PLA film.
Solid Hand Cream Bars
Tubs or squeeze bottles of plastic hand cream that have lots of ingredients …which aren’t necessarily kind to your skin. Many contain alcohol, which stops your skin from feeling greasy when plying on these thick creams; but doesn’t help your skin hydrate properly, so you have to use more of it.
Hand creams come in plastic bottles and tubs of all shapes and sizes, many of which aren’t at all recyclable, or only recyclable in part after you’ve dismantled it into different pieces. This is putting all the onus on the consumer to work out how to dispose of the packaging, so it often just ends up in landfill.
A solid solution to dry, cracked, or sore hands. Restore your poor, overworked hands to their former glorious stress-free softness with these hyper-hydrating hand cream bars. With daily usage, your hands will be supple, soft and everyone will want to hold your hand as soon as we are allowed within two meters of each other again...
All of these bars contain:
- Beeswax – acts as a protective barrier to help lock in the moisture and reduce dryness.
- Cocoa butter – has loads of essential fatty acids that your skin loves and which help to nourish the skin of your hands.
- Coconut oil – this oil sinks into the layers of your skin for effective, and longlasting moisturisation.
The hand cream is in a solid bar form, this means it is concentrated, so there is no bulking out of the ingredients with added water, fillers, or liquid carriers needed here. (These are commonly added ingredients in liquid hand creams.) It’s a powerful moisturiser packed down into an easily handled and in an easy to apply form.
Many of the essential oils in these bars have been used for their anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties, others are used for their ability to add that little extra moisturising goodness, or for their ability to help balance your skins oil production and promote skin elasticity.
There is a tin for everyone here, no matter your age, gender or hobby. The Queen Bee bar is my boyfriend's favourite product, as it's an excellent moisturiser for dry hands after we’ve been climbing and is handy to carry round. These hand cream bars have widespread appeal.
Easy to transport as there is no danger of leaking containers, unlike tubes of hand cream which might leak all over your bag without warning if you forget to put the lid on properly. Use your human dexterity to apply the exact amount of this lotion you want, rather than relying on the packaging to release an even amount of hand cream. This is another product you can remove from your ‘100ml only clear plastic liquids bag’ when travelling abroad – one day you won’t even need that bag, and you’ll be able to swan through security smugly with all of your solid bathroom and cosmetic products packed away safely.
You can also use this solid hand cream bar until there is absolutely nothing left of it, rather than uselessly trying to get the last bit of liquid out of the jar or bottle of hand cream. No spills, no mess. Convenient then. One might even say… handy.
…And they come in a pretty reusable tin. This lovely presentation makes them an ideal present!
This bar lasts and lasts because you don’t need to use very much to sufficiently moisturise your hands. Just a quick rub in between your palms and you’ve instantly got enough of the melted lotion to work into both hands. If the coating seems a bit thick and won’t sink in, you’ve possibly used too much at once. Worth bearing in mind. 😊
The bars contain beeswax, which repels water to some extent, so your hands should continue to benefit from the moisturising effect of this bar even after washing your hands. Which means you shouldn’t have to apply it as often, so your solid hand cream bar will last for longer too.
Included in the price, you get a lovely looking tin, which of course, can be used long after you’ve used up all of your solid hand cream bar. It’s the perfect size to be used a travel soap tin, but small tins of this size are always handy for keeping small items together.
What are they made from?
Packaging: Tin = Aluminium + Protective Film = Nativa, a bio-based certified compostable film (PLA).
The Queen Bee – Cera Alba, Theobroma Cacao, Cocos Nucifera, Citrus Sinensis, Cymbopogon Schoenanthus, Citrus Aurantifolia, *Citronellol, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool
Luxury No 1 – Cera Alba, Theobroma Cacao, Cocos Nucifera, Lavandula Augustifolia, Pelargonium Graveolens, Citrus Sinensis, Citrus Aurantifolia, Boswellia Carterii, Commiphora Myrrah, Eugenia Caryophllata, *Citronellol, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool
Golden Rosewood – Cera Alba, Cocos Nucifera, Theobroma Cacao, Argania Spinosa, Aniba Rosadora, Rosemarinus Officinalis, Citrus Nobilus, Lavandula Augustifolia, Boswellia Carterii, Pelargonium Graveolens, Ocimum Basillicum, Jasminum Officinale, Benzoin Styrax, Benzyl Cinnamate, Benzyl Benzoate, *Eugenol, Farnesol, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool
Gardener’s Hand Balm - Cera Alba, Theobroma Cacao, Cocos Nucifera, Lavandula Augustifolia, Citrus Bergamia, Cananga Odorata, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool
Baby I Love You – Cera Alba, Theobroma Cacao, Cocos Nucifera, Cannabis Sativa Oil
*Naturally occurring in essential oils
Where do they come from?
Handmade in Scotland, UK.
Are they sustainable?
…There are lots of ingredients going on here. I’ll just highlight a few for now, as I am thinking of creating an A-Z database of ingredients/materials, so that on the product page you can click on the ingredient/material to learn more, rather than having reems of text on each product page like I do now!
Nativa film – a brand of PLA (polylactic acid) biodegradable film made from renewable resources. It acts like plastic, but is made from sources of starch or sugar, for this brand, they seem to be using corn. It is similar to cellophane, the loud crinkly noise it makes gives it away as a bioplastic rather than a petrochemical-plastic. This film has been accredited to be industrially compostable to the EU standard EN 13432 and has the seedling logo. This film can be composted in facilities that compost food waste on an industrial scale. If you have a food waste collection bin you may be able to put this film in that bin, check your council website to see if they will accept this. Similar films (such as the bio-film the dental lace refills packet we sell is housed in) can be home composted. As this packaging is quite small, I’ll experiment and see what happens when attempting the home compost this film, as you may well be able to with such a small amount.
Beeswax – is one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable waxes. It is a wax produced by honey bees – not vegan though, as it is an animal by-product. A natural ‘plastic’ beeswax has been used throughout history and has widespread applications as a polish, for making candles, waterproofing method for clothes etc. Beeswax has similar properties to ‘barrier creams’ like petroleum jelly, so can be used as a natural alternative. Beeswax never goes off, so if you find some beeswax in a container at an archaeological dig site, it’ll still be good to go, but if left lying around, no fear, beeswax is also completely biodegradable.
Beeswax is made by worker bees to plug up honey for storage and larval cells in the honeycomb. Beeswax is extracted at the same time as honey by beekeepers, as the beeswax often needs to be scraped off for them to get to the honey. Harvesting honey and beeswax does not harm the bees. Bees like to make a fresh honeycomb to start laying eggs again, so in human-made beehives, harvesting the old honeycomb for beeswax and honey allows the bees to start again for a new season. Bees do their own thing, so can’t be considered domesticated in the same way as other farmed animals. (Although a few bad beekeepers might do their best for this to be otherwise.) Bees might travel to 10km away from their hive, so the use of pesticides on crops is a big welfare issue for bees, and one that the beekeeper himself can’t necessarily control. Lack of flowers in the landscape is also causing a big problem for bees. If the local environment is sound, bees will thrive, but our human changed landscape is not impacting well on bees. Bees are our best pollinator, and the welfare of humans and bees is very interconnected as if bee populations decline, our food chains will take a big hit. Protect our bees!
Benefits of beeswax as an ingredient in these hand creams –
- Creates a barrier around your skin to help protect it.
- Moisture is locked into your skin by this barrier, yet still allows your skin to breathe.
- Beeswax is full of good antis – it is antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergenic, making it full of soothing properties your skin will soak up happily. It has been used in skincare for centuries!
Coconut Oil – Comes from the coconut, that hairy brown fruit (or drupe to get technical) with three holes that looks like a skull. …You don’t think it does? Well, the coco bit means skull in Spanish and Portuguese, and they named it for those in the western world so… skullnut it is apparently.
Coconut trees have many useful properties and are especially useful if you are marooned on a desert island. If you get your pick, choose one with plenty of coconut trees. Humans use all parts of the tree, e.g. the trunk and leaves are useful for building materials etc. and we aren’t picky picking coconuts, as we put to use every part of the coconut fruit/drupe too. Coconut oil itself is edible and is pressed out of the kernel/’flesh’ (the white bit) of a full-grown fruit.
Coconut oil is extracted either using dry or wet processing methods. Dry means using the fleshy bit as is and the oil is pressed out or dissolved in a solvent, and wet uses the coconut milk to extract the oil, by separating the oil and water emulsion. Wet processing is more energy-intensive, and produces less yield than dry processing, so the energy-efficient dry method is usually the preferred method of extraction. As with any oils, you need a lot of coconuts to produce a good amount of coconut oil. You need 1000 coconuts for approximately 70 litres of coconut oil.
Coconut oil has a lot of fatty acids in its make-up, so is often used in beauty and cosmetic products for its moisturising ability. Coconut trees happily grow by themselves generally without the need for pesticides or herbicides and are harvested by hand. Monoculture plantations of coconuts are becoming more common as demand for this product increases, and as we all know, monocultures don’t tend to do the soil a lot of good. However, coconut trees can grow in sand and have a high tolerance to salinity, (makes sense growing up by the sea). This is generally land which is unable to grow any other farmable produce, and which doesn’t have many other species that grow on this niche land. This means it avoids a lot of the deforestation problems that other oils such as palm* and soy does, although coconut tree plantations can encroach on important habitats such as mangroves.
Coconut trees grow in tropical climates, which means there is a bigger carbon footprint using this oil as opposed to locally grown oils like rapeseed oil. There are also potential animal rights problems with coconut harvesting, as in Thailand, monkeys have been traditionally trained to pick coconuts instead of using human harvesters, which has led to some ‘slave monkey’ concerns. Monkeys are much better at picking coconuts than humans as you could guess, and they don’t need to be paid unlike humans and are far less likely to fall out of the tree and injure themselves, so you can see why this practice began. After a lot of outrage recently concerning this issue over the welfare of these monkeys, including boycotts of monkey-picked products in many western countries, officials in Thailand are attempting to create a traceability system so that consumers can be sure that their coconuts are picked properly. Outrage is bad for business, so steps are being taken to stop coconut producers from monkeying around.
*Yes, coconut trees are referred to as palm trees, but they are a different type of palm than the palm that palm oil comes from. I’m not palming you off, honest. *facepalm*.
Cocoa Butter - Cocoa butter comes from the cacao plant. With the rising demand for chocolate and products such as cocoa butter as an ingredient, yields of this crop will not increase enough to keep up. So, stop eating chocolate. (Or just cut back, no need for things to get drastic.)
Hemp oil – (This ingredient is in the baby balm) A much-maligned and misunderstood oil; hemp comes from the family of plants known as Cannabis. *gasp* A drug! What are you doing to my baby? *wail*. …hang on, hang on, before you go off on one, let’s do what we do best here and have a look at what hemp oil is, where it comes from and why it is useful. First off, hemp oil will not make you high or produce any sort of psychoactive effect. If a product is called ‘hemp’ this means it won’t get you high. Hemp seed oil is not the same as CBD oil either, that’s another thing. The hemp plant is one of the earliest known cultivated plants, mainly to make fibre out of, (think clothes and ropes). It is only recently that a stigma has been attached to this plant due to its unfortunate association with that anti-social juvenile delinquent member of the family* containing high amounts of THC, the psychoactive substance that cannabis, the recreational drug, gets its kicks from. Hemp production went down due to the war on drugs and the emergence of new artificial fibres (aka plastic!), which is a shame really, and what enthusiasm was left for this productive plant was adopted by hippy sub-culture. The rest of society is slowly regaining its good opinion of hemp, due to its eco-friendly credentials. It is very fast-growing, uses less land per yield than similar crops, it does not need herbicides and few pesticides are used. China is the biggest producer, followed by France. (Ooh la la!) The UK is also able to grow hemp industrially, and farming here starting again in earnest in the ’90s, but there is still lots of small-scale organic hemp farms, (a legacy of the hippy bent). You get hemp oil from pressing hemp seeds, and hemp oil is often used in beauty and cosmetic products because it is packed full of essential fatty acids making it a good moisturiser. It also has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, so is good for sensitive skin.
*who only really wants to be understood, it’s different and confused, and just needs to be listened to, maybe there is hope for it yet.
How about ethical?
Handmade in the UK, so all workers standards should be assured.
Extra good stuff:
Edinburgh Skincare Co makes 100% natural products suitable for everyone and all skin types, and never use petrochemicals, phthalates, parabens or SLS’s in their products. They hand-make their products in their Scottish studio near Edinburgh. Their products are cruelty-free, contain no artificial ingredients and they use eco-friendly packaging. They aren’t a vegan company, as they use beeswax in their products, but they very much care about bees, so make sure that their suppliers of beeswax are verified producers who look after their bees properly.
Conclusion –
Handy for your hands. A solid choice for a hand cream which will moisturise your hands without drying out the planet. Bar none.
Sadly, not currently an option. My supplier says they invested money into creating eco-packaging for their hand cream bars without the tins as a ‘naked’ zero waste option, but apparently not enough people wanted this option. I reassured them that if they were to ever make this an option again, I would be up for buying some ‘naked’ hand cream bars from them, and if they still had packaging leftover from their previous attempt, I’d be up for giving it a go…. They weren’t convinced. Yet.
