By 1916, according to Vaseline's own history, a tin of the jelly had become a staple for American soldiers in the trenches of Europe, used on sore feet and so sought after that young men wrote home asking their families to send more. It is the brand telling its own story, so I take it with a grain of salt, but I believe the picture. A small, plain tin that does one job in the worst conditions imaginable is exactly how this brand earned its place.

The job is simple, and it has not changed in 150 years. Robert Chesebrough founded his company in 1859 and, by the brand's account, opened a Brooklyn factory in 1870 and toured New York State by horse-drawn carriage to sell his Wonder Jelly. Unilever owns it now. Vaseline lotion is that same idea made wearable: the brand says its Intensive Care lotions launched in the US in 1968 and are built with what it calls Ultra-Hydrating Lipids, with 48 to 72 hours of hydration as its claim.

The trick is to match the bottle to the skin, not to the scent. Advanced Repair Unscented is the plainest, and the brand describes it as made with Vaseline Jelly and non-greasy, so it is where I would send anyone with fragrance worries. Cocoa Radiant is the warm, brown bottle with pure cocoa butter and, the brand says, vitamin B3. Soothing Hydration is the green one and Nourishing Moisture is the cream-coloured one, both everyday workhorses. Calm Healing in Lavender and Comfort in Vanilla are for the evening, and the Pro VitaB3 Serum Burst in Luminous Glow is the one the brand says bursts into water droplets on the skin.

Squeeze out a coin of any lotion onto your forearm and check it after ten minutes. If the skin still feels tight, it is not enough for you, and if it feels slick, it is too much.

CeraVe's Intensive Moisturizing Lotion is made for dry to very dry skin, and it is the one I would hand to someone who has tried everything and gotten nowhere. The SA Body Lotion is fragrance free and made for rough and bumpy skin, which makes it a targeted thing, not a daily all-over. Aveeno's Sheer Hydration is the lighter of its two entries here, and the Daily Moisturizing Lotion is the classic you find in a thousand medicine cabinets.

NIVEA's Cocoa Butter Body Lotion is for dry skin, and the Skin Firming Hydration with Q10 and Shea Butter is the scented one. Jergens' Ultra Healing is a hand and body lotion, handy to keep by the kitchen sink. AESTURA's ATOBARRIER365 Moisturizing Body Lotion is the ceramide one for dry, sensitive skin, and I like a lotion that plain when you need it at seven in the morning.

A pairing I like: a fragrance-free lotion all over after the shower, then a scented one only on the places you actually want to smell, like the shoulders.

What I would skip: a rich lotion right before a long day in tight clothes. Give it ten minutes to settle first.

Body lotion is the one product where the fragrance matters as much as the formula, since you wear it on your whole body. Smell it in the shop, then put it on in the bath, not on a day you are running late.

Salt & Stone's Black Rose & Oud Hydrating Body Lotion comes with niacinamide and a deep, dark scent. Nécessaire's Eucalyptus is the fresh, green-smelling bottle, and Kiehl's Ultra Body Mega Moisture Squalane Cream is a cream in a tub, for the driest legs. Summer Fridays' Summer Silk is the softer, everyday one, and Byredo's Bal d'Afrique is the bottle for people who want a perfume house's name on their whole body. Soft Services' Carea Cream is moisturizing and softening, a good choice if you like a slightly thicker body cream.

Then the two body serums. Sidia's Braless: Body Serum and Agent Nateur's holi (body) ageless body serum are the more unusual shelf items, and I see them as a finishing touch, not a replacement for the lotion underneath.

Layer any of these over a basic bottle from the first grid on the driest days, and let the plain one do the work while the fancy one does the scent.

What I would skip: a strongly scented body lotion with a strongly scented perfume. Pick one to be the star.

Hands wear out before the rest of you, and they show it first. Keep a tube where you wash them, not in a drawer you forget. I keep mine on the edge of the basin, and it is the only reason I use it.

Nonfiction's Santal Cream and Gentle Night hand creams are the quiet ones, and the Night one is for bedtime. Commune's Seymour is a fuller-size tube, 75 ml, and Retrouvé's Dermal Defense Hand Cream lives at my desk at the office. Claus Porto's Voga Acacia Tuberose comes in a blue and red patterned tube and is the prettiest thing on this page, in my opinion. Bienaimé's La Vie En Fleurs is the floral one.

Aesop's Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm is the one I think of as the benchmark. It is the brown pump bottle you see by sinks in good bathrooms, and it makes washing your hands feel like a small ritual, even on a Tuesday. Dr. Barbara Sturm's Super Anti-Aging Hand Cream is the one for people who want a skincare routine's seriousness on their hands, and I would wear it at night under cotton gloves.

What I would skip: a scented hand cream right before handling food. Save it for when the kitchen is closed.

For me the answer is the boring one: a bottle of Advanced Repair by the shower and a hand cream by the sink. Everything else in this edit is a pleasure, not a requirement, and it is a good day when you can tell which is which.

Start with the plain lotion and add one nice thing you actually enjoy, whether that is Cocoa Radiant for the warm scent or a Salt & Stone bottle for the ritual. Soldiers in 1916 asked for a tin from home. You can ask for a pump bottle and a few minutes after the shower. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together CeraVe Intensive Moisturizing Lotion and the Body Shelf Around It and AmLactin Lotion and the Acid Body Care That Followed.