Crème Jars Worth Keeping: Classic Face Creams, Body Butters And Hand Creams

In 1930, Elizabeth Arden made a cream in New York and, the story goes, used it on the legs of her racehorses before she used it on clients. She had opened her Red Door salon on Fifth Avenue in 1910. The name, the brand says, came from a loyal client whose child's skinned knee looked better eight hours after it was dressed. That is Eight Hour Cream, and it is still sold.

I love that origin because it is unglamorous. A crème, at its best, is not a miracle. It is a formula you trust to do one plain thing, and the jars on this page have mostly earned that by lasting. Weleda says Skin Food launched in 1926. Nivea's blue tin, according to a list of the oldest beauty products, goes back to 1911. The brand says Eight Hour is a cream makeup artists use on brows, cheeks and cuticles.

The trick is to choose a jar by the job and not by the story. Elizabeth Arden's Eight Hour Cream Skin Protectant is the multitasker. Weleda's Skin Food Original Ultra-Rich Cream is the one for elbows and cracked knuckles, though the brand's own ingredient list includes lanolin and fragrance allergens, so read it if your skin is reactive. NIVEA Creme Tin is the thing to tuck in a bag. Clinique's Dramatically Different Moisturizing Face Cream with Hyaluronic Acid and Kiehl's Ultra Facial Refillable Moisturizing Cream with Squalane are the everyday faces, and POND'S Dry Skin Cream is the plainest.

Then there are the two grand jars. Crème de la Mer has its own legend, which the brand tells as the story of a physicist burned in a lab accident who spent twelve years on a fermented sea kelp broth. Guerlain's Abeille Royale Honey Treatment Day Cream is the other, with honey in the name.

Decide if you want a rich face cream in the morning under makeup or at night on bare skin, and buy for that one moment. A cream that is heavy at 8 a.m. will pill. A cream that is light at 10 p.m. will feel like nothing.

The big names are here for a reason. Lancôme's Absolue Rich Cream Moisturizer and Estée Lauder's Revitalizing Supreme+ Youth Power Cream Moisturizer are the department-store classics, each from a brand that has made rich jars for decades. Dior's Capture Rich and Sisley Paris's Black Rose Skin Infusion Cream sit in the same grand tradition. Augustinus Bader's The Rich Cream with TFC8 is the newer, clinical-looking one, and I would pick it for someone who likes the science story.

Caudalie's Premier Cru is refillable, which is a nice habit to build into a jar you will use for months. Flamingo Estate's Manuka Rich Cream is the most earthy of the group, and Sofie Pavitt Face's Omega Rich Moisturizer is what I would suggest to someone who finds the grander jars too fussy.

A pairing I like: a rich cream at night, a thin, water-based layer first, and a tiny bit of Eight Hour on the brows or dry patches. Sounds odd, works well.

What I would skip: a thick cream over a full routine of exfoliating acids in the same evening. Give your skin one night off and let the jar do the repair.

Three minutes after the shower is the window for body cream, while skin is still slightly damp. The cream sits on top and seals water in, so a modest jar used at the right moment beats a rich one on dry skin. That is habit, not product.

Augustinus Bader's The Geranium Rose Body Cream is the luxurious end of the shelf, and Dr. Barbara Sturm's Anti-Aging Body Cream is the skincare-brand one. Caudalie's Resveratrol-Lift Firming Cashmere Body Cream is the softer, everyday one. CYKLAR's Bergamot Bond has niacinamide and is the nutrient-rich pick for the morning.

For dry, rough skin, L'Occitane's Soothing Karité Confort Shea Butter Ultra Rich Body Cream and NIVEA's Cocoa Butter Body Cream for Dry Skin are the two I would check first, one built on shea and the other on cocoa butter. Skinfix's Resurface+ AHA Renewing Body Cream is the exfoliating one, and I would use it on alternate nights. Costa Brazil's body cream is the one I would leave on a bedside shelf.

A shea cream on legs and arms in winter and a lighter cashmere cream on summer evenings make a sensible split. Two jars, two seasons, one routine.

What I would skip: an AHA body cream the day you shave or spend hours in the sun. Keep actives for calmer days.

A hand cream only works if it is within reach when your hands are dry, so keep a tube by the sink, one by the bed and one in your bag, and stop relying on memory.

L'Occitane's Nourishing and Protective Shea Butter Hand Cream is the classic, and Drunk Elephant's Therabu Buttered Reparative Hand Cream is the richer, buttered one. Nécessaire's The Hand Cream, sold as a barrier treatment, is the plain and practical one. Chanel's La Crème Main is the elegant bag companion, and I would give it to a friend who has everything.

Claus Porto's Banho Citron Verbena Hand Cream is the one for a kitchen counter, with citrus and verbena in the name. Moroccanoil's Hand Cream is the salon-brand choice, Corpus's Hand Cream Amalgam 5 is the most unusual name in the set, and Sol de Janeiro's Brazilian Touch is the small one to keep in a coat pocket.

Use a hand cream at night, then cotton gloves over the top for twenty minutes while you read. It is a spa treatment without the appointment.

What I would skip: a thick, fragranced hand cream right before you handle food or a keyboard. Use a lighter one at work and save the rich jar for night.

The best jar is the one you reach for without being reminded. Eight Hour got there by being useful to a skinned knee and a racehorse, and nearly a century later it is still doing so.

So I would buy one classic tin from the first grid, one rich cream for your hardest season and one hand cream for each room. Skip the rest until you know what you actually use, and the shelf will stay honest. Give the first jar a full month before you judge it, because dry skin changes slowly. Arden had her stable. You have a bathroom shelf. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Element Brooklyn Hand Soap, Creams And Candles and Tanning Lotion Without the Sun.