Review: Alpha-H Age Delay Hand and Cuticle Cream

Years of working in public contact jobs has made me something of a germophobe, and though I'm not compulsive about it, I do wash my hands a lot more often than most people. More often than most people I know anyway, but maybe I just know a lot of grotty people. I also use that antiseptic hand gel stuff a lot, and though the upside of that is that I don't get very many colds, the downside is red, flaky, dry hands that are completely trashed.


I've tried loads of hand creams, both cheap supermarket ones and expensive department store ones. Some are complete rubbish, and some are very good - like Clarins Hand and Nail Treatment Cream. However, along comes problem number two - as well as washing my hands a lot, I have a bit of a thing about feeling sticky, and most every hand cream I've tried - cheap and expensive alike - leave some kind of film on my hands that I am acutely aware of, and I feel uncomfortable and twitchy about it until I can stand it no longer and go and wash my hands yet again.

Oh, and problem number three - I don't like heavily scented creams. Because I wear perfume all the time, I don't want some mega rose or lemon scent clashing with my fragrance of the day. After wandering around David Jones one afternoon recently desperately searching for a rich-but-not-sticky hand cream that doesn't smell like a funeral parlour, I came home empty-handed, and eventually decided to have a look online. After looking around, I settled on Alpha-H because I really like their Liquid Gold. I haven't tried any of their other products (though I do have some), but from everything I've read, they're pretty much an all-round good quality brand.

First of all, this stuff stinks. It's like a mix of oranges and Dettol, and when I first opened it and tried it, I thought I would probably never use this again and I'd just wasted $35 plus postage. However, it fades quite quickly, so I can live with it. The best thing about it is that it sinks in straight away and isn't the least bit greasy or sticky. I can put it on my hands and not sit there for the next hour fighting the urge to get up and wash it off. FINALLY.

I've been using it for about two weeks now, only once or twice a day, and not only do my hands feel soft and smooth, they look soft and smooth. I can't remember the last time they looked and felt this nice. It's supposedly a cuticle cream as well, but I haven't been specifically rubbing it into my cuticles so I can't speak for its efficacy there.

I am so happy with this hand cream - it's everything I have been looking for for years. It's expensive, but no more so than any other good quality hand cream, and for me it's worth every cent. I will definitely buy it again. And again, and again, and again...