L'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream, 1 oz

Teacher hands take a beating: sanitizer between every class, dry-erase markers, a hundred papers' worth of paper cuts. This is the famous French fix, a 1 ounce tube of L'Occitane's cult hand cream made with 20 percent organic, fair-trade shea butter. That concentration is the whole story. Drugstore lotions are mostly water and feel like it; this is a dense, rich cream that nourishes, softens, and protects skin from dryness, and it still absorbs fast enough to pick up a pen right afterward.

As a gift it hits the sweet spot: a genuine luxury item, small enough to feel thoughtful instead of extravagant, and the 1 ounce tube slips into a desk drawer or coat pocket. Most teachers know this brand and would never spend the money on themselves, which is exactly what you want in a gift. It soothes skin immediately on contact, so it earns its desk-drawer spot through the worst of winter term. Pair it with a card and you are done.