Etude House Missing U Hand Cream Review

Hello! Please be our new mummy!

You know when you don't realise how much you need a certain thing until you become aware of it?

I was quite content going about my life without requiring an adorable pot of hand cream. Then I saw Etude House's Missing U Hand Creams and suddenly it dawned on me that owning some would seriously enhance my life in some way.*

Cosmetics companies in the UK don't really do 'cute' very well. Perhaps this is why it took me so long to discover my latent desire for a hand cream that makes me squee whenever I look at it.

Thankfully, Korea is rather more advanced in the field of adorable cosmetics (and if you like cute things and have never come across their Etude House brand before, you're in for a treat).

~The Pots~

Image from Etude House: http://www.etudehouse.com/index.php/missing-u-hand-cream.html

Animal Characters

Let's be honest, the pots are the reason I bought these. Aren't they just adorable?

They come in four different animal forms: a fairy penguin, a harp seal, a panda and a... what the fuck is that weird pink thing with the lips?!

According to Etude House, it's a pink dolphin. No, I don't see it either.

Each animal contains a cream of a different scent, as indicated by the image below each of their adorable faces.

Fairy Penguin: Baby Powder

Harp Seal: Green Tea

Panda: Peach

Weird pink thing with the lips Pink Dolphin: Rose

I decided to purchase the Panda, which is quite clearly the cutest. Then I realised I probably needed two, so I bought the pink dolphin as well.

...Just kidding! That thing would give me nightmares. I bought the harp seal.

Size/Contents

The pots are just shy of 3 inches tall and hold 30ml/68g of hand cream. So yeah, they are rather dainty but I don't think they're intended to be slathered on frequently.

The top section is a screw lid and the cream sits inside the bottom section. Some people may consider dipping fingers into pots of cream to be unhygienic (vs squeezing from a tube). Personally, I reckon my immune system can handle it.

~The Boxes~

*Round of applause*

These hand creams come in AWARD WINNING PACKAGING! Apparently they won some kind of packaging award in 2011 and they're made from 100% recycled paper and printed with soy ink.

Also applicable to arms!

They feature a poignant (and is it just me or... slightly clingy?) message from the animal about how they are endangered and they miss you.

Following that is a kind of dating ad-style summary about themselves and what they like to do with their time.

Just above the ingredients list is a little summary of the hand cream contents and how to use it (“Also applicable to arms”! I love that.)

And then comes a pretty standard caution note about not eating it/putting it in your eyes etc. (Side note: the Etude House website currently directs you to “Apply cream to all areas of the face.” Yeah. Don't do that. It's for your hands.)

~The Cream~

Oh yeah, the cream.

Scent

The cream itself has a decent amount of scent but is certainly far from overpowering. Personally, I prefer the peach scent of the panda as I'm just particularly fond of soft, fruity scents.

Panda (Peach): Soft peachy scent with a sweet powderiness to it, a little bit like those tablet-esque sweets (Lovehearts, Fizzies, Refreshers). It's a pretty pleasant scent that I keep going back to sniff.

Harp Seal (Green Tea): Clean, fresh, leafy, herbal scent. Also something about it reminds me a little bit of aftershave. I didn't like this one as much as the peach but it wasn't offensive.

Consistency

Both have a thin, non-greasy, lotion-like consistency that sinks in quickly.

As with some other hand creams, there's a moment of slight stickiness/tackiness when first applied, but this quickly settles to a lovely smooth, soft finish as your skin absorbs the cream.

I was very pleased with how lovely and soft my hands felt. However, for those with very dry skin, I'm not sure that this would be an effective moisturiser on its own as it's probably not rich enough.

~Summary~

Pros

üSo adorable! I get a lot of compliments about how cute they are. My mum has her eyes on the harp seal.
üThey'd be really easy to refill with more cream or use as containers for something else.
üThe hand cream softens skin well and is non-greasy.

Cons

ûNot a massive amount of cream for what you pay for (but come on, you're totally buying it for the cute pot, right?)
ûProbably not suitable for very dry skin, due to the light formulation.

Bottom Line

If you're looking for a really effective, good value hand cream, keep looking. If you want to be that person who casually whips out the cutest hand cream from their handbag and makes everyone coo in admiration, this is the stuff.

*My life has been slightly enhanced.