Retro Chick Reviews: Burt's Bees Beeswax & Banana Hand Cream

I love trying new beauty products, but it can be so expensive to try new products without knowing if they’ll work, or suit you.

With this in mind I was delighted when I was approached by Plume Lifestyle to pick something from their site to review. They actually sent me a gorgeous little goodie box that also contained a cute nautical necklace and some yummy bath goodies, but nestling amongst the pink tissue paper was this:

Burt’s Bees is a brand I love. It not only has the cutest packaging, old school without being self consciously retro, but it’s also a really ethical brand that’s good to its customers, employees and the environment.

I’d had my eye on this hand cream in my local John Lewis for a while, I’d tried it out, but it’s hard to tell from one application whether a hand cream is worth me forking out nearly 10 of our earth pounds for.

My first impression of the hand cream is that it smells EXACTLY like those foam sweetie bananas you get in pick’n’mix. You know, these ones….

This is both a good thing and a bad thing. I love the smell, and at first it made me want sweets, but, just like sweets, too much can be a bad thing and sometimes I find the scent a little cloying and synthetic. It’s odd, but it really depends on my mood!

The cream itself is very thick and rich, but doesn’t leave a greasy sheen on your hands. I found it a little hard to apply as it didn’t seem to spread very well, then I noticed the instructions on the side of the pot

“Smooth a small dollop of cream onto freshly washed hands. Use after every handwashing”

With slightly damp, just washed hands the cream spreads far easier and leaves them silky soft. So, a life lesson here, always read the instructions.

Other positives are that the cream comes in a chunky glass jar with a tin lid, that cute old school packaging again, no plastic here.

On the down side, the cream comes in a chunky glass jar with a tin lid. This means that while it looks great next to your sink or on your desk for application after hand washing it’s hardly portable. If you travel a lot, or get dry hands on the go this isn’t a handy handbag friendly product.

So, is it worth parting with a tenner for? Well, that depends. This is a cream that’s going to last ages. You won’t have to buy a new pot every month, not unless you get drunk and eat it because it smells like sweets. It’s gorgeously packaged, wonderfully ethical and if you like the smell I’d say go for it. If, however, you’re down to your last tenner in the world and simply must buy hand cream with it, I would probably suggest a supermarket own brand, in a handbag friendly container and then spend the rest on food.

Does that clear things up? What’s YOUR favourite hand cream?

Burt's Bees Beeswax & Banana Hand Cream is available from Plume Lifestyle (among other places!) for £9.95
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