Our 13 Favorite Hand Sanitizers Are Moisturizing, Effective, and Easy-to-Use
Find sprays, gels, eco-friendly picks, and more.
Finding the best beauty products has never been easier thanks to Pia’s Picks, our weekly curated list. As the senior beauty editor at HelloGiggles, I test and examine the latest skincare, makeup, hair, and nail products so I can confidently recommend the best ones to you.
Let’s face it—hand sanitizers are a much-needed product. Considering how many people and things we touch every day, it’s important to stay safe by keeping your hands clean of the thousands of germs that transfer onto us throughout the day (PSA: A study found that elevator buttons have 18% more germs on them than public toilet seats—eek!). And yes, while the best option is to actually wash your hands with lukewarm water and soap, a hand sanitizer is the perfect on-the-go product for ridding yourself of icky bacteria.
If we’ve learned anything in the last year, it’s that hand sanitizer is an important item to carry to stay as healthy as possible—it’s why we tested so many for our 2021 Beauty Crush Awards. We found that the many were either too fragrant, too globby, too bulky, or too drying—which TBH sounds a lot like every hand sanitizer we used growing up. Thankfully though, we’ve found many that do the job without offending our senses or depleting our hands of moisture. Here are the best hand sanitizers to keep at home, in your purse, at your desk, and more.
1. Best drugstore hand sanitizer:
This award-winning product is fragrance-free, quickly absorbs into the skin, has a convenient pump that makes it perfect to keep at our desks and the entrance of our homes. But what we really love is that the brand has donated over a million units globally.
2. Best luxury hand sanitizer:
This hand sanitizing gel won a 2021 Beauty Crush Award for its impressive formula that uses 69% ethyl alcohol to kill germs and has both aloe and safflower oil to nourish skin. Plus, the bottle is made from recycled plastic, making it good for your skin and the planet.
3. Best drugstore hand sanitizer spray:
Stop to smell the roses, and sanitize your hands while you’re at it, too. This quick-drying formula uses soothing tea tree, nourishing aloe, and calming rose extract to keep hands healthy while also killing up to 99.99% of germs.
4. Best luxe hand sanitizer spray:
Old school hand sanitizers got a much-needed upgrade thanks to this innovative packaging, which allows you to spritz the product onto your hands instead of squeezing it out in large, messy globs. These mists are hydrating, absorb quickly, aren’t sticky, and come in eight scents: unscented (pictured here), aloe vera, mint, citrus, watermelon, vanilla cinnamon, forest berry, and lavender. We like how chic the packaging is, and because it comes in a fine mist, it doesn’t run out quickly.
5. Best drugstore moisturizing hand sanitizer:
Dove, in part, is known for its many moisturizing body washes that leave skin feeling clean and nourished—so it used the same technology for its new hand sanitizers. Unlike with other ones on the market, you don’t feel like you need to use a hand cream after applying this as your skin will feel baby soft. Plus, it’s 99.99% effective against many common germs and bacteria.
6. Best luxe moisturizing hand sanitizer:
Leave it to Megababe founder Katie Sturino to create a viral hand sanitizer. With notes of orange and bergamot, it smells divine, but what we love so much is how it makes our hands feel. The formula includes almond and marula oils that nourish and hydrate the skin, so even though your hands will be squeaky clean, they won’t be stripped of moisture.
7. Best drugstore clean hand sanitizer:
When Jessica Alba founded The Honest Company in 2011, she had a very clear vision of what she wanted to create: clean, safe products. This budget-friendly hand sanitizer is just a reflection of that. It has 62% ethanol to kill nasty germs while also being hypoallergenic, dermatologist-approved, and plant-based. Oh, and it smells nice, too.
8. Best luxe clean hand sanitizer:
“Not just for hands,” is an accurate description of this multipurpose hand sanitizer. It’s a full body disinfectant with 65% ethanol that comes with a convenient pump for easy application. According to Credo, you can also use this hand sanitizer as an aroma booster (it smells of eucalyptus, lavender, tea tree oil, geranium, and sage), aftershave, zit zapper, face toner, body splash, and underarm refresher.
9. Best eco-friendly hand sanitizer:
If you’re all about eco-friendly beauty and living a more sustainable lifestyle, this is the hand sanitizer for you. Apart from having an impressive formula with 65% ethanol, it comes in a refillable aluminum bottle so you don’t have to waste packaging.
10. Best hand sanitizer for sensitive skin:
Pipette was founded as a clean skincare brand for babies, so this fragrance-free hand sanitizer is safe for even the most sensitive skin types. It has 65% ethanol to kill germs and mixes in hydrating squalane to keep your hands clean and moisturized.
11. Best organic hand sanitizer:
Looking for a hand sanitizer that’s gentle on the skin, smells like a dream, is formulated with organic ingredients, and travel-friendly? Look no further. This Dr. Bronner’s pick only has four ingredients (organic glycerin, organic ethyl alcohol, water, and organic lavender oil) and they’re all fair trade, so you can feel really good about supporting this brand.
12. Best single-use hand sanitizer wipes:
If you don’t want to carry around a bulky hand sanitizer and are looking for something good for on-the-go moments, these single-use wipes will be your savior. Each box comes with 125 individually wrapped hand sanitizing wipes that you can easily shove in the pockets of your jeans.
13. Best fragrant hand sanitizer:
We all love Bath & Body Works’s three-wick candles, and many of its signature scents are available in mini hand sanitizers, too. Apart from having an array of uplifting scents made from essential oils, they’re each formulated with nourishing vitamin E and moisturizing shea extract. Plus, you can buy fun (and convenient) keychain holders for them to fit in, such as this spaceship one that lights up and this dinosaur-shaped one that roars.
