Editor and occult enthusiast Jade Taylor walks you through beauty and the beyond in her new series with L'Officiel.

For my inaugural Beauty Witch article&mdash;in which I attempt to the bridge the gap between the beauty world and the metaphysical world&mdash;I consciously chose to begin with Hand Creams and Palmistry for a few reasons. The first is a simple reflection of how most of us use our hands in present day situations: We&rsquo;re constantly on our phones and computers&mdash;swiping, clicking, touching, tapping&mdash;and when we&rsquo;re not logged in, we&rsquo;re likely fidgeting, picking at our face, biting our nails, or scratching at something we shouldn&rsquo;t be. We are a restless generation.&nbsp;

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The second reason is because we mostly think of our hands as tools&mdash;and yes, duh, they are&mdash;but they should never be looked at as just that. Hands are sacred, sensitive, and special instruments that should be praised, taken care of, and gazed at with gratitude. Think of everything your hands do, and how powerful they really are. When was the last time, if ever, you really looked at your hands? For me, it wasn&rsquo;t until I started learning about palmistry that I began to really see my hands.&nbsp;

Now, I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;re asking yourself, what in the hell does palmistry have to do with hand creams? To someone who doesn&rsquo;t speak fluently in the beauty or metaphysical industries, there may not seem to be an obvious correlation between the two&mdash;but, as someone who does speak both languages, I&rsquo;m here to tell you there&rsquo;s actually quite a lot of overlap. And if you don&rsquo;t know anything about palmistry, consider this a simple way to learn some of the basics.&nbsp;

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Let&rsquo;s start with one of the three major lines in your hand&mdash;the Life Line&mdash;which you can find between your thumbs and index finger, usually flowing down towards your wrist. But before we dive into the hand creams, let&rsquo;s debunk the first myth: No, a short life line doesn&rsquo;t mean you&rsquo;re going to have a short lifespan, nor does a long life line mean you&rsquo;re going to have a long one. The life line actually just exemplifies one&rsquo;s general personality&mdash;think of it as an overarching umbrella that covers everything from your health and success, to your capability and strength. Or, as RuPaul so eloquently says, &ldquo;your charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent&rdquo;. However, we shouldn&rsquo;t get caught up thinking about death when looking at our life line&mdash;just like we shouldn&rsquo;t get caught up with anti-aging, a difficult task for a species obsessed with the idea that younger equals better.

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It&rsquo;s common knowledge that women who opt for facial fillers and plastic surgery can appear much younger than they really are, until you look at their hands&mdash;a difficult area to keep preserved by way of a needle. (Side note, if you think I&rsquo;m here to age-shame anyone, think again: There is absolutely nothing wrong with fillers or buying beauty products that delay aging&mdash;just like there&rsquo;s nothing wrong with women who never get fillers or choose not to slather themselves in age-preventative products. This seems obvious, but important to reiterate.) Recently, there has been an influx of age-preventing hand creams that have emerged onto the beauty scene&mdash;some even containing retinoids in them, like <a href="https://www.sephora.com/product/hand-serum-P414718">Verso Skincare&rsquo;s Hand Serum</a> and <a href="https://chantecaille.com/products/retinol-hand">Chantecaille&rsquo;s Retinol Hand Cream</a>. The former is an age-preventative hand cream that diminishes the signs of fine lines and pigment spots, but is still gentle enough to use daily and keep skin soft; while the latter blends encapsulated retinol and Chilean tree bark extract to resurface skin texture thanks to a boost of powerful antioxidants&mdash;and it even has aromatherapeutic qualities since it&rsquo;s scented with rose.&nbsp;

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If you&rsquo;re looking for a natural age-preventative hand cream solution, try the <a href="https://www.grownalchemist.com/us/body-care/hands/age-repair-hand-cream.html">Grown Alchemist Age-Repair Hand Cream</a>, formulated with phyto-peptides (to increase collagen), sweet almond oil (to keep hands hydrated and radiant), and sage, also for aromatherapeutic benefits, to purify and de-stress. No matter what age you&rsquo;re currently at in life, it&rsquo;s never a bad idea to develop a habit of keeping your hands hydrated, healthy, and happy.

Next up is the Heart Line, which you can locate towards the top of the palm, right under the fingers. This indent typically represents feelings, emotions, love, attraction, and passion in all areas of your life, platonic or otherwise. I like to compare this line to hand creams you keep on the nightstand by your bed&mdash;the ones we proudly showcase (meaning: they&rsquo;re not hidden away in a random drawer in your bathroom), and more importantly, they&rsquo;re the products we deem worthy enough to slather on during our beauty rituals, AM or PM. A beauty ritual can also be seen as a self-care ritual&mdash;something you do, even if it&rsquo;s just as simple as moisturizing, to help care for your physical well being. No shade to drugstore hand creams (which have come a long way as far as ingredients and formulas go), but I personally like to keep the most luxurious hand creams I own on my nightstand&mdash;and no, that doesn&rsquo;t make me a monster to admit.&nbsp;

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One that&rsquo;s currently in rotation for me is the <a href="https://www.net-a-porter.com/us/en/product/1027054/le_labo/hand-pomade--55ml">Le Labo Hand Pomade</a>, which is a vegan, cruelty-free, plant-based fragrance and formula scented with tranquilizing Hinoki&mdash;extracted from the trees surrounding the Buddhist temples of Mount Koya in Japan&mdash;and infused with shea butter, sweet almond, and peony root, which moisturize hands sans leaving any greasy, sticky, or melty consistency behind. I personally prefer hand creams with scent, so if you&rsquo;re like me, I can&rsquo;t help but shout out two of my all-time favorites: the <a href="https://byredo.com/rose-hand-cream-100-ml">Byredo Rose Hand Cream</a>, which is blended with rose petals, pink pepper, raspberry, patchouli, and white musk, and the <a href="https://www.rodinoliolusso.com/product/19152/48221/products/jasmine-neroli-crema">Rodin Jasmine &amp; Neroli Crema</a>, which, as the name applies, is blended with fragrant notes of jasmine and neroli, but also jojoba oil, shea butter, macadamia oil, aloe leaf extract, and argan oil to leave your hands feeling like velvet. If you&rsquo;re looking for a hand cream that&rsquo;s not so heavy in the scent department, then I recommend checking out <a href="https://www.susannekaufmann.com/product-details-383/product/handcreme.html">Susanne Kaufmann&rsquo;s Hand Cream</a> since it contains soothing active ingredients like mallow, witch hazel, broccoli oil, walnut leaf extract, and vitamin E, so your hands (and heart) will feel at ease.

Last but certainly not least, we end at the Head Line, which typically begins at the edge of the palm under the index finger, flowing across the palm&mdash;above the life line, and usually below the end of the heart line. The head line is all about communication, intellect, knowledge, wisdom, learning, teaching, and creativity. While we are a generation that is more connected to one another than ever, we are also quickly developing patterns of disconnect as far as in-person communication goes. Social anxiety is common amongst young people, and it&rsquo;s easy for us (no matter what age) to fall deeper and harder into a more comfortable vortex, which is usually the one that allows us to hide behind a screen. I&rsquo;m not trying to get all, like, Black Mirror on you or anything, but it is something we should be aware of. Sometimes the easiest way to reconnect with ourselves is by touching and acknowledging our human body. It&rsquo;s interesting how we can forget that we&rsquo;re there sometimes.&nbsp;

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The next time you&rsquo;re on-the-go&mdash;in a car, on the subway, on a plane, or waiting in line&mdash;and you&rsquo;re maybe feeling stressed out and disconnected, take a moment for yourself and pull out a travel-sized hand cream. Dab a little bit out onto your palms, close your eyes, meditate for a moment, and then gently rub the cream into your hands&mdash;connect. Little intention-setting moments like this, even if they&rsquo;re small, are essential for our mental health&mdash;which, yes, directly relates to our head line. How can we be strong, powerful, and confident beings if we&rsquo;re not carving out time for ourselves to relax, recharge, and renew? I always keep a mini-sized hand cream in my bag at all times for this reason alone. For the scent-obsessed, don&rsquo;t sleep on the <a href="https://clausporto.com/us/deco-creme-m-os">Claus Porto Deco Hand Cream</a>, which is composed of notes like eucalyptus, pine, cypress needle, cedar, and juniper wood alongside a moisturizing band of ingredients like jojoba seed oil, shea butter, macadamia nut seed oil, argan oil, and aloe leaf water for ultimate hydration. If you like greener scents, check out the <a href="https://www.fresh.com/US/all-moisturizers/citron-de-vigne-moisturizing-hand-cream/H00004372.html">Fresh Citron de Vigne Moisturizing Hand Cream</a>, which boasts a crisp, citrusy aroma while made with a trio of butters (cupua&ccedil;u, sal seed, and shea) and vitamin E to protect hands. If you&rsquo;re not into strong aromas, pick up the <a href="https://us.caudalie.com/care-body/product/hand-and-foot-care/hand-and-nail-cream.html">Caudalie Hand and Nail Cream</a>, made with orange pulp, almond powder, and a tiny amount of rosewater&mdash;or the Malin + Goetz Vitamin b5 Hand Treatment, which combines provitamin b5 and almond extract for insanely nourished skin.

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If you&rsquo;re interested in learning more about the art of palmistry, utilize your head line (see what I did there? I promise palmistry is easy to understand!) and expand your research on the subject. Investigate the major mounts&mdash;Jupiter, Saturn, Apollo, Mercury, Venus, and Luna&mdash;which are the fleshy pads beneath your fingers and along the palm, each hinting at distinctive character features. You can also study even more lines (since I just went over the basic three), like the fate line, success line, stress line(s), and the Girdle of Venus. You can even dig further into your study by examining your hand and finger shape&mdash;and discover if you have a fire, earth, air, or water hand. If this all sounds like gibberish to you, I&rsquo;m sorry!&nbsp;

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Palmistry is a complex practice. If you compare it to astrology, think of the life, heart, and head lines like your Sun, Moon, and rising signs&mdash;and just like astrology, which breaks down into personal planets, houses, transits, and degrees&mdash;palmistry is just as methodical. Either way, you shouldn&rsquo;t rely on a palm reader (or an astrologer) to provide you with all the answers to life&mdash;rather, try viewing these sacred, ancient practices as ways to reconnect with yourself. And listen, it really is as simple as starting with a hand cream. I encourage you to spend one minute&mdash;a full 60 seconds!&mdash;of your day today to take out a hand cream, meditate, massage your hands, and connect with yourself. It may sound dumb (and maybe weird), but just try it. Our bodies, although temporary, should be treated like the divine vessel&#39;s they are&mdash;and because I&rsquo;ve already made like, two RuPaul&rsquo;s Drag Race references while writing this so far (I&rsquo;m...sorry?), I&rsquo;ll leave you with the biggest piece of applicable advice I&rsquo;ve learned from watching the show: &ldquo;If you can&rsquo;t love yourself, how in the hell are you going to love someone else?&rdquo;

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Beauty Witch: Hand Creams and Palmistry

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