Cake Beauty Holiday Handful Hand Creme Trio - Limited Edition Holiday 2010

I finally got my hands on the Handful after that wacky Sephora disappearing act. Man, I'm so glad I got these. They rock.

My first experience with Cake Beauty products was the Milk Made hand creme / Cake Walk foot creme duo that I reviewed recently. The scent of Milk Made did not work for me at all, so I was still slightly concerned that I may not like these. The lure of vanilla scented hand lotion overpowered my wariness. Had to have it.

This set comes with three full-sized (3.4 oz) hand cremes in a really pretty shiny metallic box. It's so pretty. Would make an excellent gift. Actually, since this comes with three very pretty tubes of lotion, you could even split it up into three gifts. Who doesn't love hand creme in the wintertime?

Anyway, the scents included in this set are Vanilla Snow, which is exclusive to this set, Desserted Island (coconut vanilla) and It's A Slice (orange vanilla).

Vanilla Snow is the richest smelling of the three. It reminds me a bit of one of my other favorites- Jaqua Buttercream Frosting. Cake's Vanilla Snow is a more realistic vanilla scent, though. All the vanillas in this set remind me more of an actual vanilla bean than an artificial vanilla. Vanilla Snow is sweet but not excessively so. I was somewhat worried that this might be a bitter vanilla like L'Occitane vanilla shea hand creme or Bath and Body Works Vanilla Noir, but it's not the least bit bitter, dry or harsh. It's buttery and smooth. I must point out, in case you can't tell by the little picture up there, that the tube for Vanilla Snow has the most adorable pink snowflakes being carried off in a swirling pink breeze and it looks really nice against the soft blue text on the tube. I adore the design of the tube. I'm a sucker for nice packages. That last sentence is not intended to sound dirty. XD

Desserted Island (get it, desserted? Ha.) has the same smooth vanilla base as Vanilla Snow but it has overtones of beachy coconut. It's not a particularly sweet smell. Some coconut scents are very sweet and candy-like - think Bath and Body Works Coco Cabana- but Desserted Island is more of an unsweetened coconut, closer to Lavanila Vanilla Coconut. Very pleasant and cozy.

It's A Slice is supposed to be an orange creamsicle scent. I'm not much of a creamsicle fan so I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this scent. Same vanilla base as the others but with a hint of orange to make the scent a little brighter. It has a distinct baked goods smell to me, like orange creme cake, or better yet, my mom's Knots (the cookie- also known as biscotti d'annodare). For a while I was really into "Orange Fluff Cake"-type etailer perfumes and this would layer really well with those. The orange scent in this isn't super fresh or sour/acidic, it's a soft candy orange.

All of these have that lovely light, velvety, quick-absorbing non-greasy formula that the Milk Made hand creme has. I really like the formula of Cake's hand cremes. It sinks right in without leaving your hands oily or sticky or slippery. It makes my hands so smooth and silky feeling. It's not the most deeply hydrating creme; if your hands are extremely dry you may need to apply twice in a row. However, I think this formula is pretty close to perfect, even if it isn't super heavy duty.

My one and only complaint with this set is the price. At $32 for three hand lotions, it's really not that good of a deal. They do retail for $16 individually, so it is like you're getting one free, but still. $16 for a 3.4oz hand creme is highway robbery. You can get an entire 8 ounce tube of Bath and Body Works Triple Moisture Body Creme for only $12, and those are always buy two get one free. The only hand creme I have that's more expensive than Cake is Lippmann Rich Girl (which rocks) at $23 for 3oz, but at least that has SPF 25. Then again, no one expects Lippmann to be reasonably priced. The formula is great and I like the scent, but I still think $16 per tube is too steep. That said, I would still buy the set again if I had the choice because it smells like cupcakes.

I'm really happy with these. I would totally recommend them to anyone. Great packaging, great vanilla scents, great formula. Just all around great. And no funky sharp chemical fake raspberry headache scent to be found! Thank goodness.

I got mine from Sephora.com- apparently the Cake Beauty line is online only. Pity, because I'd love to smell the rest of the scents in person sometime. Now that I know I like these I think I want to try one of their bath and body products next. That "baked lemon sugar" I keep reading about in the descriptions is calling my name.