We’ve been cheating on our favorite hand cream and it’s been kind of… FUN.

Our feelings remain un-wavered in that no product out there beats our beloved L’Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream, however—due to our infidelity—we’ve found a few products that are at least worthy of a close second.

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream Intensive Moisturizing Hand Treatment

This gel-cream is fast absorbing and leaves our hands moisturized for hours. The creamy texture and rich formula more than make up for the so-so scent.

Vaseline Intensive Rescue Healing Hand Cream

This is hypo-allergenic and fragrance-free (no, really—there’s no scent) and protects from moisture loss while keeping hands silky soft. We also love the chubby little tube—it’s small, yet holds a nice amount of product.

CLINIQUE Stop Signs Hand Repair

Not only is this super moisturizing, but it contains botanical extracts to help fade the appearance of age spots. Gotta love the two for ones.

While we really are committed to the hand cream of our dreams, there is plenty of room in our life (and on our desk, in the car, on the kitchen counter, in our bag…) for other options.  A girl needs some variety in her life, after all.

Just FIVE days to go until Nordstrom kicks off their annual Anniversary Sale. Have you placed your order yet?

We took this rare opportunity to stock up on some of our old favorites:

MD Skincare Glow Team Glow ($185 value) is a set of our favorite Alpha Beta Daily Face Peel along with a o.5 oz Lift & Lighten Eye Cream for only $125.

L’Occitane Slip Into Shea has all our favorite shea butter products, including our can’t-live-without hand cream, in one easy set.

Nothing comforts us more than the scent of Philosophy Amazing Grace Shower Gel– this nourishes our skin and doubles as shampoo in a pinch.

We also added a few new items into our order because we’re a glutton for beauty products (also, our husband wasn’t looking):

These Novel Twist Makeup Brush sets are perfect for on-the-go. In both 5 Basic Brushes (blue) and 5 Pro Brushes (pink), these also would make a great birthday gift for someone special.

Finally, we could not resist this Lancôme Color Design Cool Eye & Face Palette. Six cool eyeshadow hues along with two blushes contained in a chic leopard print palette– perfect for our fall Makeup Bag.

All the pre-ordered Beauty Exclusives will ship out on July 20th, which means it won’t be long before our order arrives. Yay!

Today is Halloween and you know what this means, right? (No, not an all access pass to mini boxes of Milk Duds.)

This means that tomorrow when you go to the department store or drug store or even the grocery store, the HALLS! THEY WILL BE DECKED!

And if you think we’re joking about this, just try us. Some stores around here already have their holiday stuff on the shelves and a neighbor on our street even has a lighted Christmas tree sitting on her porch! (She is a little crazy, but STILL.)

So, to honor the fact that we are officially in full-swing-holiday-mode, we are offering our very first gift idea for the season.

Yay! Celebrate!

It is no secret that we are addicted to L’Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream. We buy the mini tubes by the armload and keep them in our purse, in the car and in our desk at work. This perfect hand cream keeps our hands nicely moisturized without being greasy, and it smells divine.

We also like the Lavender Hand Cream and the Verbena Hand Cream and think that this limited edition L’Occitane Mini Hand Cream Trio would make the perfect gift this holiday season (set includes 1 oz tubes of each hand cream.)

L’Occitane Mini Hand Cream Trio, $24