Hands are the part of you that comes closest to other people — shaking hands, passing things, gesturing while talking. Which makes scented hand cream a slightly different proposition from scented body cream.

Your nose is not a guide

Within about ten minutes of applying anything scented, your own nose stops registering it. This is olfactory adaptation, it happens to everyone, and it is why people reapply scented products far more often than they need to.

The practical consequence: decide the amount when you apply it, not later when you can no longer smell it.

How much

For hands, a normal cream-sized amount is fine — perfumed creams are far lighter than fragrance and are not intended to project.

Where it accumulates is repeated application through the day. Applying a scented cream after every hand wash, six times, builds up in a way one application does not. If you use cream that often — and you should — consider an unscented one for the daytime reapplications and the scented one in the evening.

Where scent needs care

  • Restaurants and kitchens, where hands are near food
  • Shared offices
  • Around anyone with asthma or migraine, for whom fragrance is a genuine trigger
  • Handling anything that absorbs smell — paper, fabric, food

If you wear perfume

A scented cream and a different fragrance produce a third smell, usually worse than either. Options: keep both from the same line, use an unscented cream under the fragrance, or wear the cream alone.

The scent itself is described in the catalogue by the people who composed it, and as with any fragrance it develops differently on different skin.

Applying it

On damp skin within a minute of washing. Backs of the hands first, then between fingers, then nails and cuticles.

On the body: shins, forearms, elbows and knees.

One caution

Fragrance is the most common cosmetic irritant. Patch test if your skin is reactive, and use an unfragranced cream while hands are cracked or recovering.

The full composition is in the Faberlic catalogue. For fragrance etiquette generally, see the perfume section.