Okay. So I have all these cosmetic samples I got at Vivaness squeaking at me impatiently from their bag, nagging me to try them already. And what do I do instead?

Yep. I review a hand cream I bought only yesterday. [deadpan voice] Go me. Oh the sheer brilliance of it all. [/deadpan voice]

But I just wanted to tell you that sometimes even a 1000 HUF hand cream can do wonders with one's weatherbeaten hands. By the way, buying this hand cream was totally not my stroke of genius: it was Ladybird's, so my hands and I hereby thank her for it. :-)

Onto the product itself then.




I must admit I haven't paid much attention to the brand Aldo Vandini before, but that is definitely going to change. Aldo Vandini is a German brand selling natural beauty products, and in Hungary they're available in Drogerie Markt stores. They have several lines, each with a different fragrance. The Sensitiv line smells pretty tolerable to me: this hand cream, for example, has a sort of clean but powdery fragrance that even I, the gourmet scent lover, can stand.




The product comes in a 100 ml (3.4 FL.OZ) plastic tube that has a flip-top cap and a really nice design on its label. It's a bit too heavy to carry with me in my bag*, but I might just take it with me to my workplace one day and put it in one of my desk drawers to always have it at hand. :-D

* Want to know how much hand cream I'm willing to carry in my bag? Well, I only bought Silk Naturals' Eyelash Conditioning Gel because I figured that it'll have to run out eventually, and then I'll have the perfect 4,5 ml pump bottle to fill with my fave hand-lotion and put in my handbag. My previous job and lifestyle have made me abhor excess weight...

The cream itself is white and has an extremely good formula: it moisturizes really well and is also perfectly capable of sealing that moisture in. Also, a big plus is that even though it doesn't contain any silicone, it makes my hands just as soft as they would be if it did.




When I bought this product, I knew that Ladybird and her hands had not seen eye-to-eye on some issues in the past (e.g.: "To crack or not to crack?"), but I also knew that she has a pretty high opinion of this cream, and knowing that made me give the product a try.

Let me tell you I have not regretted it for a second. It beats all my expensive and hyped-up creams, such as LUSH's Smitten, The Body Shop's body butters, Bioderma's Atoderm hand cream and Atoderm body lotion (my fave), or even my second favorite dermo body lotion LRP's Lipikar. It sinks in fast, leaves my hands super-moisturized for the longest time ever, and makes my skin smooth and silky and also pleasantly fragrant. What more could a girl want from her hand-cream? Oh yeah: it's also relatively cheap. ;-)


Rating: a solid 5 out of 5
Price: 1049 HUF
Where to buy in Europe: in Drogerie Markt stores
Aldo Vandini's American website
Ingredients:
AQUA * GLYCOL STEARATE SE * GLYCERIN * OENOTHERA BIENNIS (EVENING PRIMROSE) OIL * GLYCERYL STEARATE SE * CETEARYL ALCOHOL * DICAPRYL ETHER * PARFUM * PANTHENOL * BISABOLOL *AVENA SATIVA (OAT) KERNEL EXTRACT * LACTIS LIPIDA (MILK LIPIDS) * SODIUM POLYACRYLATE * CITRIC ACID * PHENOXYETHANOL * BENZYL ALCOHOL * METHYLPARABEN * ETHYLPARABEN * PROPYLPARABEN * ISOBUTYLPARABEN * BUTYLPARABEN