🤲 Hand cream / moisturiser

The screener will identify it as a liquid over 100ml and remove it from your bag. You will not be able to retrieve it — it gets confiscated and disposed of at the checkpoint. Standard-size pharmacy tubes of hand cream are often 200ml or larger, so it is worth checking the label before you travel.

No — hand cream and moisturiser are classified as liquids universally, and the 100ml carry-on limit applies in every region we cover. There are no exemptions for medical skin conditions unless a product is prescribed and you can provide documentation; even then, acceptance is at the officer's discretion. Solid moisturiser bars are the one format that avoids the liquid rule entirely.

In the US, TSA requires all liquids including hand cream to be in a single quart-sized (approximately one-litre) clear plastic bag and presented separately at the checkpoint. Leaving a 50ml tube loose in your bag can cause the bag to be pulled for a secondary check, which slows down the line. Getting into the habit of putting all your liquids in the clear bag before you reach security makes the process much faster.

Yes — a solid moisturiser bar is classified as a solid, not a liquid, and does not need to go in your liquids bag or comply with the 100ml rule. This means you can carry a large solid bar without any restriction, making it genuinely useful for longer trips where a 100ml liquid tube runs out too quickly. The trade-off is that solid bars can soften or melt in warm climates, so store them in a sealed tin.