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Sometimes, a hand soap is so overly drying that it’s practically necessary to have a hand lotion ready for immediate recovery. That should never be the case. Yes, washing your hands will reduce the moisture in your hands—especially if you have hard water or wash with hot water—but the soap should never be the reason your hands feel dry after a wash. Still, you should have a hand lotion at the ready anyway, even if you have a nourishing hand soap, if only as a reinforcement measure. (Plus, you never know when you’ll need an extra dose of moisture; you’ll certainly want to lather one on before bed each night, and likely after each shower.)
For both types of products, prioritize ingredients that proactively boost hydration and reinforce the skin’s barrier functions. “Like hyaluronic acid and ceramides [respectively], as well as nourishing ingredients like plant oils or shea butter,” says NYC-based board-certified dermatologist Elizabeth Hale, M.D. As for what to avoid, Hale has this to add: “Try to avoid antibacterial hand soaps, as they can be harsh on the skin, are no safer than regular soap and water, and can actually be detrimental to your health by killing off the beneficial bacteria on your skin.”
To this note, Hale says that synthetic formulas can be a good alternative for people with sensitivities—specifically synthetic detergent bar soaps, also known as syndet bars. “When looking for a syndet formula, avoid those with artificial colorants or added fragrance, since they can be irritating to some,” she adds. You’ll probably see this on the ingredients label as “fragrance” or “parfum”, whereas naturally scented formulas are derived from essential oils like peppermint, lavender, citrus and so forth. Not everyone will have a reaction to artificial fragrance, but people with general sensitivities should be especially vigilant.
If bar soap is your preference here, then Dr. Hale has a storage tip to help prolong its life—and it will also help prolong any shower/body soaps you use, too. “Keep it out of the ‘splash zone’ [on the sink or in the shower] and make sure it drains and completely dries in between uses.” For this, find a soap dish that offers proper drainage and ventilation beneath the bar, so that the soap never rests in a pool of water. A properly ventilated bathroom will also help ensure expedient drying of the soap bar.
Read on for our picks for the best hand soaps—both bar soaps and liquid pumps—along with the best hand lotions that round out a perfect pairing.
All of the hand soap and lotion sets on this list will turn the quotidian task of keeping your hands clean into a sensory pleasure. But none do it with quite the same panache as Diptyque’s Softening and Comforting Hand Wash and Velvet Lotion. The wash is scented with a garden full of Provencal botanicals, including lavender, rosemary, and ylang yang, while the deeply moisturizing cream plays up almond, petitgrain, and Virginia cedar.
There are plenty of perfumers who turn their beloved fragrances into hand-care items, but among our favorites of this set is Maison Francis Kurkdjian. That’s not only because we enjoy the house’s 724 fragrance—scented with jasmine, orange, and sandalwood—but also because its soap and lotion set comes with a small vial of the fragrance itself.
There was a time when Nest made fragrances for basically every high-end fashion brand you can think of. But its products have gotten stronger and stronger since it started focusing on its own line. Case in point: Its Bamboo scent, which comes in a candle format, is also available as a delightfully light and fresh hand soap and lotion duo. In spring and summer, it’s exactly the kind of thing you want in your powder room or guest bathroom.
Homecourt, Courteney Cox’s line of non-toxic home cleaning products and candles, also offers its scents as hand cleanser and lotion. Our favorite is Neroli leaf, which features apple blossoms, basil, and jasmine alongside the titular note.
The ultimate IYKYK brand, Sangre de Fruta is a Canadian company whose products are made in British Columbia with formulas intended to celebrate nature. Its Head of Roses fragrance is among our favorites, and the hand cream’s velvety texture gets compliments from guests every time.
If you haven’t yet left behind the tired, outdated notion that roses aren’t for boys, fret not: Rose Noire, one of our favorite fragrances from the Portugal-based luxury home decor house L’Objet, has plenty of masculine ingredients to round out the titular floral ingredient. These include funky white pepper and fresh moss, which give the soap and lotion a well-rounded appeal you’ll want to return to again and again.
This California brand, whose body products won a Robb Report Grooming Award earlier this year, can’t stop making great stuff. A case in point is its Euphoria hand soap, which has a texture that doesn’t get too sudsy, and a fragrance like being in a rose garden on a warm summer evening. Coordinating hand soap offers a sharp and alluring kick of pepper (we’re smelling a theme here).
If you’re after good, plain, green freshness, don’t be fooled by the name of Frama’s Herbarium soap and lotion. While it definitely has an herbal presence, it also incorporates patchouli for spice and cedar for a woodsy appeal.
Speaking of woodsy—LAFCO’s Feu de Bois is among our favorite candles, so it stands to reason that its soap and lotion set would make this list, too. It’s among the purest distillations of that smoky, herby, fire-in-the-woods scent that’s so popular around the holidays. We’d order this now so it’s not sold out by the time you want to throw a festive gathering later in the year.
This company, which turns out highly effective and luxurious cleaning products, also makes the smartest soap-and-lotion set we’ve seen. That’s because instead of offering the hand cream in a bottle exactly the same size as the soap, the lotion here is smaller—because you’ll naturally use less of it. And then there’s the engaging fresh linen scent with notes of ylang ylang and lavender.
Portuguese legacy brand Claus Porto formulates some of the most long-lasting bar soaps in the biz, and they’re extremely nourishing on your mitts. While they are artificially scented, these bars are chock full of glycerin, shea oil, and sweet almond oil to keep hands nourished. The hand cream adds aloe, avocado oil, beeswax, and vegetable oil to the mix, too. This herbaceous, leafy-green Alface scent is the brand’s latest addition to an olfactively brilliant assortment, and those scents are matched by beautiful, art deco-style packaging.
You how that feeling when you meet someone and the chemistry is perfect, effortless, and reminds you that relationships really can be this easy? That’s how it feels once you start using Nécessaire. The brand really nails the recipe in its skin formulas: A ceramide-rich, gentle exfoliating soap cushions the skin as it smooths and cleans; grab one each for the kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and shower. Chase it with the vitamin- and peptide-dense hand cream to keep skin hydrated and fortified against future water loss. Everything is formulated for the most sensitive skin types.
This body serum from the legendary Dr. Barbara Sturm is one of the year’s most exciting launches. Dr. Sturm’s anti-aging formulas are among the most effective you can use for your face, and now here is one that replicates their success for the rest of your body. As you’d guess, this hyaluronic acid-rich serum seeps further into the skin than any moisturizer, to proactively influence the renewal process of skin cells, while keeping things soft and firm all the while. Meanwhile, the hand soap combines aloe vera, extracts of purslane, and panthenol to nourish skin while amino acid-powered cleansers bolster the skin’s moisture-retention functions.
Buttah is one of the few brands that can convert first-time users to lifetime loyalists just like that. Seriously, one application of their glorious whip-like body butter is enough to question every lotion and cream purchase you’ve ever made (we dare you to try their beloved facial butter, for that same reason). This trio gives you the body butter along with Buttah’s body wash as well as this charcoal-powered exfoliating bar soap, which we like to use on our mitts. Stock them wherever you so choose—sink ledge, shower caddy, dopp kit—but know that you’ve got a talking point on your hands. Anyone who uses these products is going to ask you about them. Again, few brands have that power, and Dorian Renaud’s Buttah leads the list.
This set features an exfoliating soap that you may find especially helpful—frequent hand washing can skin on your hands look and feel drier, and sloughing off dead skin can help mitigate that. Both the soap and the lotion have a pleasant mandarin scent.
Molton Brown has earned fans all over the world for creating a beloved range of home scents, but the one that sticks out as a consistent favorite is its rich take on Oud wood. If its rousing aroma doesn’t lift your spirits, maybe the 23.5-carat gold flakes in the hand soap will.
Grown Alchemist’s hand-care duo look nearly identical at first glance. But they do differ slightly: The soap boasts scents of cedar, sage and orange, while the lotion features both orange and vanilla.
Byredo’s suede soaps and lotions smell so good we wish the company would bottle them as proper fragrances. Until then, you can wrap your hands in the alluring scent of bergamot, musk violet and crisp amber with this handcare set, which may have your dinner guests spending more than their fair share of time in the powder room.
If you’ve ever examined the carefully stocked shelves of a L’Occitane boutique, you’ll know that there’s almost nothing the French brand hasn’t figured out how to shea butter in. The signature ingredient is included in both its verbena-scented soap and lotion; it both helps keep your skin from drying out and preserves the pleasing fragrance of the herbacious flower.
Le Labo isn’t necessarily responsible for the world’s obsession with hinoki. The distinctly alluring Japanese cypress wood smells so good it’s been turned into candles, body washes and even chipped into sachets that can soak with you in a bathtub. But the French fragrance brand does do a good job of distilling the scent into a variety of products, including this excellent hand soap and moisturizer.
