Is it permitted to apply hand cream on Shabbat?

Shalom rav,

If this is a cream that healthy people, who do not have dry hands, do not normally use, it is forbidden to use it on Shabbat, due to the prohibition of medicine on Shabbat.

And if healthy people also use it, it is permitted to apply it on the condition that the entire ointment is absorbed well into the skin, because otherwise there is also the prohibition of smoothing on Shabbat.

Sources: regarding the prohibition of medicine, see Shulchan Aruch and Rama (siman 327, סעיף 1) and the Mishnah Berurah there.

And regarding the prohibition of smoothing, see Mishnah Berurah (siman 316, se'if katan 49), Shmirat Shabbat Kehilchatah, part 1 (chapter 33, note 64) בשם HaGaon Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt"l, and Chazon Ovadia, Shabbat, part 3 (page 384).

With blessings,

Hillel Meirs