Eater Staff
Turn your sink into a spa with Flamingo Estate’s heirloom tomato hand wash, Loewe’s ode to oregano, or a $20 dupe for Santal 33
When did hand soaps get so sophisticated? Perhaps it was inevitable due to the increasingly competitive [tips Monopoly Man top hat] skincare market; it was only a matter of time until I started collecting unique, fragrant, well-packaged hand soaps like Pokémon. But as someone who loves to cook, using a high-quality soap with a nice scent and making sure my hands feel fresh, hydrated, and free of eau de minced garlic or balsamic vinegar feels especially important.
Washing your hands, while necessary for practical reasons, should feel less like a chore and more like a spa experience. Yes, as far as the finer soaps go, of course we must show reverence (no pun intended) for Aesop’s epicly popular hand wash, but it’s not the only one out there. I am a proud devotee of tomato-scented suds, self-proclaimed herbaceous formulas, and the latest hand soap iteration of the smoky, Icelandic sitka spruce fragrance from the perfumerie of Sigur Ros’ frontman. What you will find below: a curation of hand soaps that lean into an herb garden-forward olfactory experience; hand soaps that feel like they could have been handed down to you from The Giving Tree, or else crafted with a mortar and pestle in a lush Mediterranean estate. What you won’t find below is a smorgasbord of saccharine, overpowering, or flowery hand washes and soaps. (Sorry, Pink Sugar loyalists.)
The way we smell matters, both to ourselves and those in our orbit. Compared to most of the perfumes I pine after, some of the best fancy hand soaps below are also much less expensive, but still succeed in their common goal of making you smell nice, look worldly, and feel, well, fancy. If you love to cook and want a little TLC for your hands, I have rounded up my marquee selection of the best fancy hand soaps for every budget.
The best fancy hand soaps under $30
This Le Labo Santal 33 dupe (is quite possibly my favorite)
An extra-hydrating vetiver scent
Soap on a rope? So European
This French classic that you can now buy on Amazon…
…And a new French classic
This Aesop dupe that’s perfect for a refillable dispenser
The best fancy hand soaps under $50
Let Aesop, king of herbaceous scents, lead the way
The winner of the tomato-scented hand soaps is: Flamingo Estate
If you want warmth (but not sweetness), opt for cardamom and cinnamon
The best very fancy hand soaps
Diptyque’s regal soap is extra-softening for hands
Loewe’s Oregano is the perfect blend of peppery and woody
Byredo’s musky, pear-kissed scent
Baccarat Rouge 540… in hand wash form
Happy washing.
