Hand Care: Why Your Hands Need a Routine, Not Just a Hand Cream | Mavala UK

The skin on the back of your hands has far fewer sebaceous glands than your face, and those are the glands that produce the oil that keeps skin supple. Less oil means less of the natural film that slows water loss, so hands dry out faster and stay dry longer.

Then add what hands actually do. They are washed many times a day, they meet detergents and cleaning products, they go in and out of hot water, and they are one of the few areas of skin exposed to daylight all year round rather than only in summer. Faces get sunscreen and a drawer of products. Hands usually get whatever is by the sink.

You do not need five products. You need to cover three jobs, and one cream can often do two of them.

• Daytime, little and often. A light cream you will genuinely reapply after washing beats a rich one that stays in a drawer because it feels greasy.

• Overnight, when your hands are left alone. Nothing is competing for your hands at night, so a richer texture has hours to work and nothing to rub off on.

• Targeted, if you have a specific concern. Pigmentation and very damaged skin need something built for that job rather than a general moisturiser.

Collagen Hand Cream is the everyday one. Lightweight and non-sticky, it absorbs quickly and leaves an invisible protective film, which is exactly what you want from a cream you reapply through the day and then go straight back to a keyboard.

Prebiotic Hand Cream is the one for hands that are washed constantly. It is built to strengthen the skin barrier while preserving its natural balance, which is the right target if your problem is frequent washing, cleaning products and tightness rather than one-off dryness.

Mava-Plus Hand Cream is the rescue option. Mavala positions it as the SOS solution for very dry, damaged hands after cold, dryness or repeated temperature changes, so it earns its place in winter or after a spell of outdoor work rather than as an everyday cream.

Repairing Night Cream for Hands is the overnight step, made for hands damaged by daily stress. If you only add one thing to what you already do, make it this, because it works in the hours when nothing else is asking anything of your hands.

Anti-Spot Cream for Hands is the targeted one, with Alpine plant extracts and vitamin C, for reducing the appearance of pigmentation spots and evening skin tone. Worth being clear about what this is: it works on how spots look, and it does not replace sun protection, which is what stops new ones showing up in the first place.

If you care about how the backs of your hands look over years rather than weeks, this matters more than any cream. Hands are on the steering wheel, on the pushchair, out of the coat sleeve. The NHS advice on sunscreen and sun safety is to use at least SPF 30 with at least 4-star UVA protection, apply it generously and reapply often. Mavala does not make a sunscreen, so this is not a product recommendation. It is simply the thing that makes the rest of the routine worth doing.

Hand cream tends to stop at the knuckles. The nail contour is the part that actually shows when you hand someone a card or hold a glass, and it is drier than the rest because it is thin skin taking the same washing and detergent. A Cuticle Oil with sunflower, sweet almond and olive oils takes seconds and helps prevent the dryness that leads to torn cuticles. Our cuticle care guide has the full routine.

Being straight about the limits. If the skin on your hands is not just dry but itchy, cracked, blistered, weeping or genuinely sore, that is not something a hand cream fixes. The NHS has guidance on contact dermatitis, which is common in people whose hands meet water and cleaning products all day, and on atopic eczema. A pharmacist is a good first stop, and a GP if it does not settle. Cosmetic hand care can keep comfortable skin comfortable. It does not treat a skin condition, and it is not meant to.

The skin on the back of the hands has far fewer sebaceous glands than facial skin, so there is less natural oil holding water in. Add frequent washing, detergents and year-round daylight exposure and hands lose moisture faster than almost anywhere else.

After washing, as a habit, and again before bed. Reapplying after handwashing matters more than the number of times, because washing is what strips the skin in the first place. A light cream you will actually use is better than a rich one you avoid.

Not strictly, but it is the step that earns its keep. Overnight is the only stretch when your hands are not being washed, typed on or in and out of gloves, so a richer texture has uninterrupted hours to work.

A targeted cream works on the appearance of pigmentation, helping to reduce how visible spots are and to even skin tone. It does not remove them, and it does not stop new ones forming. Sun protection is the part that addresses the cause.

The Mavala hand range, in the order this guide covers them: everyday, barrier support, rescue, overnight, and targeted.

Written and fact-checked against UK health guidance by the Mavala UK e-commerce team. NHS, Sunscreen and sun safety (SPF and UVA advice). NHS, Contact dermatitis and Atopic eczema (when dry hands need medical rather than cosmetic care). Product formulations and usage advice verified against Mavala's live UK product information, July 2026.

Mavala is a Swiss, family-owned care and beauty house, Swiss-made since 1959. Its hand care range is built around the idea that hands need a routine of their own rather than whatever is left over from the rest of your skincare. This guide is grounded in Mavala's own product information and the UK health sources listed above.