Buying good gloves for a skiing or snowboarding adventure is just like buying a good ski jacket – as a bottom line, they need to be warm and snow resistant.

The main decision when shopping for winter-ready gloves is whether to choose gloves or mittens. The jury is out on which is better – we preferred mittens on test, as we found them warmer, but gloves with separate fingers offer better grip when you’re dealing with fiddly things like a lift pass or a phone.

If you go for a mitt, we recommend picking one with built-in gloves inside it, or wearing it with separate thin liner gloves inside – if you’re opting for the latter, make sure your ski gloves have plenty of room when you purchase them, and try them on with your liner gloves before you head to the pistes.

We look for gloves packed with insulation or down, for warmth, and a tight-fitting cuff, to keep that warmth trapped around your hands and stop snow getting in. Look for a water-resistant or waterproof outer material to ensure your new gloves can shrug off a snowstorm, and pick a pair with grippy rubber pads on the fingers and palm so that you can hold onto your ski poles even when your gloves are wet.

Gloves that can be clipped together are useful for keeping them in a pair when they’re off your hands.

We tested all of our top picks for this winter season in rain and snow, and found excellent options for all budgets. Increasingly, ski clothing brands have a bit of fun with gloves, with bright colours and patterns in the mix as well as traditional black gloves. Whatever you pick, we recommend going for darker colours, as gloves can look grubby fast!

You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

If you suffer from chilblains, numb fingers or just love the idea of luxuriously warm hands on a freezing cold day in the mountains, you need these. They're great gloves in their own right, and are fully waterproof, highly breathable and well-suited to hard-charging skiers and snowboarders who are out in any conditions. Feeling the chill? Simply pop a rechargeable heating element into zipped pockets in the gloves and switch it on and off for instant warm hands, even in a blizzard. These mitts are well worth the investment if you work outdoors in winter or regularly ski the backcountry – for a casual snow holiday, you can pick something cheaper and less techy.

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If you don’t splash out on the heftily-priced 30Seven mitt, our top recommendation for this season’s snow gloves is Picture’s excellent deltana. This warm mitt-style glove ticked all our boxes on test, keeping fingers cosy in the cold with built-in inner gloves and plenty of Thinsulate insulation. Long, slim-fitting cuffs and thick adjustable straps keep snow and wind out, and the outer material is fully waterproof to 10,000mm, withstanding heavy snow. There’s even a zipped outer pocket you can pop your lift pass into. Top marks.

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Our favourite cheap and cheerful contender this winter at under £12, Mountain Warehouse’s ski glove is simple but efficient. Complete with decent insulation, they have a fleecy inner lining that feels lovely against the skin, a water-repellent outer that can withstand snowfall and thick rubber pads on the palms offering good grip. Available in three bright shades as well as black and white, these would make a great first pair of ski gloves for a beginner or a good spare pair of gloves to pop in your backpack.

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We love the quirky retro looks of this great mitt – if you like to have fun with your ski wear, this is the glove for you. The fleetwood is roomy, and there’s no inner glove, so we’d recommend going down a size from your usual when you order. Despite the glove’s bigger size, a stretchy cuff keeps warmth in and heat out very well. The smart leather outer is water-resistant, and PrimaLoft insulation and a wool lining make the mitts very warm – too warm for sunny days, in fact, so these are best kept for use in bitter winter conditions.

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This super-luxurious mitt will make you feel like you’re wearing your favourite down jacket on your hands. KJUS’ mitt 2.0 is big and bulky as so much duck down has been packed into it, but it’s still very lightweight and offers amazing instant warmth when you slip it on. The soft outer material is surprisingly tough and is water resistant, and the fancy goatskin leather palm and rubber finger pads on the inside of the mitts give fantastic grip, even when wet. Available in various colourways.

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Another glove punching well above its price point, Protest’s bowden performed highly on test, and also wins the award for the most comfortable glove we tried (and perhaps have ever tried). These slim mittens are delightfully soft to wear, with thermal fleece-lined inner gloves that are warming but breathable. There’s a waterproof membrane built into the outer fabric to stave off snow, and the faux leather palms, while these aren't the grippiest on test, they aren’t bad. These gloves are available in various cheerful prints.

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We always recommend Decathlon’s wedze ski collection for functional snowsports clothing at affordable prices, and this season’s gloves are excellent value for money. They look smart – you wouldn’t guess these faux-leather beauties weren’t from a fancier ski brand – and perform well too, with great grip, deliciously soft fleecy insides and a tough softshell outer material. We like that you can adjust the Velcro cuffs for the perfect fit. Multiple colours available if you prefer your ski gear to be matchy-matchy.

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If you’re just setting out in the world of snowsports, you’re likely to take more than a tumble or two as you learn how to master skis or a snowboard. The perfect glove for your first lessons? The Volcom handplant, which is designed with a close-fitting neoprene cuff like a wetsuit’s to keep nary a flake of snow from getting into your gloves, no matter how many times you end up in the white stuff. The handplants also offer fantastic grip all over the palms thanks to plentiful silicone rubber patches, and we love the eye-catching tie-dye purple print – Volcom prides itself on combining fashion and function in its ski collections, and these psychedelic mitts are no exception.

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If you can afford to splash out, we recommend 30Seven’s heated gloves, ideal for the toughest conditions. Picture Organic Clothing’s deltana and Protest’s bowden are our pick of the mitten pack.