Today, I’m quickly featuring a current bag staple of mine, the Absinthe Purifying Hand Cream by The Body Shop. I’d been eyeing it in Japan, but I couldn’t really bring myself to buy it for whatever reason. Because The Body Shop has been on sale for what seems like forever, I took the plunge and bought myself the hand cream.

Product Description: “A pure sensation for hands. This ingenious everyday cream with absinthe extract moisturises hands and leaves them feeling soft and super-fresh.

— Moisturizes
— Leaves hands feeling fresh
— Heady Fragrance notes of bergamot, petit grain and neroli”

My favorite part about this is the smell. It’s a very crisp and clean smell—I don’t think it’s heady at all, though a lot of people have said that it’s masculine. I feel like it’s a very neutral smell, but that could just be me. I actually detect more of a verbena scent, which is what attracted me to it in the first place.

It’s supposed to get rid of yucky smells on your hand. I’m a bit of a freak when it comes to hand smells. I don’t like it when food scents or anything like that cling to your hands, so this is pretty freaking perfect for me.

I live in very humid weather so my hands are rarely dry and dehydrated, however, this hand cream leaves my hands very soft and smooth. I don’t have dry hands, although my cuticles are kind of suffering right now. I don’t know if it’s the work of this hand cream or of the nail polish I used, but the hand cream does little to alleviate the dry cuticles. Many other reviewers claim that this dried out their hands more, so this could be that.

I guess, at the end of the day, it’s really up to you if you want to give this product a shot. I personally love it because I use it as an odor concealer (i.e. if you chop onions, eat with your hands and the smell stays even after washing, etc) and not really as a hand moisturizer.

The Body Shop remains cruelty-free, even as it is owned by L’Oreal, a company that tests on animals.