Hand wash

Dettol Healthy Touch €15.99 for 250ml

This is a ridiculous product to which a ridiculous price has been attached. Only Howard Hughes could be convinced to buy this. Its unique selling point is that you don’t have to touch anything to get the soap out – you just waft your hand under the nozzle and the refillable dispenser pumps a dollop of hydrating cucumber cleanliness onto your hands. This, Dettol tells us, is a good thing because touching a “germy soap pump” is a bad thing. Someone needs to tell Dettol that if you touch a germy soap pump and then wash your hands with soap and hot water, the ill-affects (if any) of touching said pump are washed away and takes this product’s raison d’être with it. It does lather up nicely, has a pleasant scent and leaves hands feeling clean. The pump is very sensitive and more than once it sprayed out too much soap.

VERDICTNo. Just no

STAR RATING*

Cussons Carex €1.82 for 250ml

This aloe vera handwash, we are told, kills 99.9 per cent of bacteria. That is a good thing, right? Hmmmm. Almost every other brand of hand wash has made the same boast, which diminishes the power of the claim somewhat. Cussons tells us that the bacteria is dead within seconds, suggesting that its boffins have developed some class of improved killing formula. We very much doubt they have. Leaving aside the guff, this is a good product and comes with added moisturisers which should soften some hands – we didn’t notice any affect on our gnarled mitts, however. We did notice the scent, which is fresh, and we were also impressed that it removed the smell of onions and garlic from our hands.

VERDICTNot soapless

STAR RATING***

Original Source Mint and Tea Tree €2.99 for 250ml

We have long had a soft spot for this brand and particularly like their shower gels. The packaging is crammed full of information and we learned that this wash is made with 4,896 tingling real mint leaves. That seems like a lot to us – and frankly we’d prefer those mint leaves in a mojito. This handwash has been approved by the Aromatherapy Trade Council – yes there is such a thing. The packaging is recyclable, and the wash is tested on people not animals, and so is vegan-friendly. The gel is lovely and cooling and delivers on its promise to make our fingers tingle. The tingling flirted with stinging for a bit, but we still liked it a lot.

VERDICTThe soap-er friendly option

STAR RATING****

Abbott & Broome €1.49 for 300ml

If you haven’t discovered this handwash from Aldi yet, then you need to take a long hard look at yourself. This product apes the upmarket brands such as Molton Brown and manages to do so at a fraction of the price. The quality is high, the fragrance lovely and long-lasting and – best of all – it is made in Ireland, with all manner of healthy-sounding ingredients including, notably, Carrageen moss. By any measure it is fantastic value for money and, while we wouldn’t go as far as to say you should make a detour to this shop just to buy handwash, if you find yourself traipsing Aldi’s aisles and are in need of something to wash your hands with, you won’t go wrong with this.

VERDICTImpossible to beat at this price

STAR RATING*****

Molton Brown €19 for 300ml

This is a very good handwash with a lovely fragrance which lingers long on the hands. It is almost certainly the best product we tried this week. There is, however, a “but”. And a pretty massive one too. The price of this product is absolutely outlandish – and even if we won the Lotto we’d find it hard to justify spending the guts of 20 quid on soap to wash our hands. It is 10 times dearer than the handwash from Aldi, and is nowhere close to being 10 times better. While it might make for a nice present – at least the person would know you spent a few bob on them – we’re not entirely sure we’d like to get handed one as a gift.

VERDICTLovely but too dear

STAR RATING**