This $3 Hand Soap Never Dries Out My Hands and Smells Amazing

published Dec 19, 2023
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A pale green bathroom with lots of plants

There’s a lot of advice out there around washing your hands. Some say to scrub them for as long as it takes to sing the “happy birthday” song twice; others remind you to sanitize your hand towels often (especially in the germy winter months). That’s all great, but I have one more piece of hand-washing wisdom to add to the canon: Use Jergens Extra Moisturizing Hand Wash

If you’re online, most people will tell you to get the $41 Aesop hand soap if you really want to upgrade your sink vanity, and I agree that is a luxurious choice. I’m all for upgrading everyday items around your home, but it just so happens that my favorite soap costs only $3. How do I love thee, Jergens hand wash? Let me count the ways. 

For one, there is the perfectly balanced cherry-almond aroma, which is sweet but not overpowering. I’m not highly sensitive to scents, so I know the artificial smell might not suit everyone’s olfactory senses, but I don’t find it to be overwhelming at all. When I lather up my hands, a lovely marzipan-like scent floats up to my nose, and afterwards only a faint cherry trace lingers on my hands. 

What does stick around, though, is the moisturized feeling the soap’s name indicates. According to the item description, Jergens Extra Moisturizing Hand Wash provides “a soft lather that removes dirt and germs without drying your skin,” which is exactly right. It doesn’t yield the basin of bubbles that a foaming hand wash might, but it creates lather enough to get your two rounds of “happy birthday” in. And when you rinse it off, you’re left with hands that feel soft and supple, rather than stripped and in need of hand lotion. Especially in the winter, when I’m washing my hands every chance I get, I relish coming home to this hand soap. 

And then there’s the price, which is an excellent deal for a little luxury. You can find it at Walgreens, Target, Amazon, Instacart (where it’s under $2), or likely wherever else you shop — I’ve even spotted it at the Dollar Tree before. I can’t vouch for the new red-capped packaging, as I’m loyal to the simple white bottle of the older branding. But when, one winter day soon, I run out of my last bottle of the retired packaging, I will not stop buying my beloved cherry-almond hand soap. I think I’ll just buy a refill size of the new version and decant it into a pretty amber glass bottle.

Buy: Jergens Extra Moisturizing Hand Wash, $2.99