Skincare routine for body

[CarterBeatsTheDevil]

I have a fairly elaborate facial skincare routine (am and pm cleanse, tone, serum, eye cream, moisturiser plus a couple of more intensive masks/treatments once or twice a week). What's the body equivalent? At the moment I just slap on whatever cream I have knocking around when I come out of the shower but I would love something that smoothed and firmed a bit!

I asked myself the same question last year and here’s what I ended up with:

Start with dry brushing, I do five minutes over my whole body before shower. Absolute must IMO.

Proper shower gel with skincare ingredients according to your skin type. I had bad post pregnancy KP on upper arms, thighs and bum, so I used Salycilic and Glycolic acid. Highly recommend Naturium. Also a nice excoriating glove to apply!

I then layer oil and body cream after shower: use oil first, and really massage it in with a roller, then leave it to sit while I brush teeth etc. After that, apply body cream on top: the layering effect worked really well for me. Again, use whatever product you need to target skin issues: I focused on firming for body cream as my post pregnancy skin was wobbly AF.

I’ve had great results and my skin is much better than it was (although admittedly I’m less committed when it’s cold that I was in the summer!)

Mine is

Bar soap under arms, for feet and any sweaty bits - I use this with an exfoliating glove to get any deo and dead skin off
Shower gel or oil all over including a back brush
Body scrub twice a week
Mix oil and body lotion and apply, I use a KP specific one for my upper arms
Every night CCS foot cream and hand cream before bed and a foot file as needed

I'm really precious about my feet as it's so painful if you get something wrong with them, the podiatrist said she couldn't find a single bit of hard skin to remove and was asking what I used

Thank you! Any recommendations for lotion to follow the Naturium, @CarrotShake ? And do you use it everywhere or only where you had the KP?

I do quick dry brushing before shower. Body oil right after I get out while the skin is still moist.

I hate shaving and always had little bumps on my legs. I had laser hair removal and now my skin is always smooth and nice.

What body oil do you use?

Very jealous of the laser hair removal - I'm too fair for it.

I have verrrrry dry akin, and some KP.... I mostly got rid of both by doing the following.

I use the ordinary aha/bha peel about once a month
Then salacilic acid body wash in the shower
Soap for bits and pits.

If I have a bath I use a bath oil, as I love baths but being in water too long Dries out my skin.

About 3 days a week I use a body oil and the other 4 I use Ameliorate cream (keep looking on cult beauty and amazon for this as its £18 a bottle but I never pay more than £8 usually £6 as there are often deal on and I stock up)

If its very cold, or I'm very lazy I do nothing. I have a bottle of bioderma shower oil and I'll use that)

I make my own body oil and bath oils to save money too, just with the amounts I use I'd be bankrupt. Mix of castor, sweet almond, hazelnut and vit e with a few drops of whichever essential oil I'm feeling at the moment.

At the moment I am using caudelie, but I also used just cold pressed jojoba oil before. They both do a similar job, but caudelie smells really nice.

I was originally using the Sol de janeiro firming oil, but I was going through it so fast and it’s so pricey so I switched to the Nivea Q10 firming oil. I use that all over, then use a combo of the two Sol de janeiro creams- the AHA/BHA one on my KP areas and the OG firming one on my tummy and rest of my body. Have had great results with it- also used a soap and glory AHA one instead of the Sol de janeiro for a while but they discontinued it!

I do rate the SdJ cream for firming, haven’t found anything else as good and it lasts if applied sparingly after oil. The oil though as I say I think is too pricey for how long it lasts- I was going through a bottle a month.

Thank you! This is all very helpful. My only resolution for 2025 is to take care of my skin so I am hoping that's manageable enough to stick ...