Legs, legs, legs - prep for summer

3 min read

It’s officially summer, so that means NO MORE THICK BLACK TIGHTS! Time to put the opaques back in the drawer and get the legs out. And that means facing what the winter, and our cold spring, months have done to our legs.

No-one is saying you have to do anything, but who really doesn’t want to look after the skin on their body as well as their face? There’s no point treating your face with loads of products and leaving your legs as cracked as the bottom of a dried up river, is it? And if you use fake than, then you know that for the best applicaiton, your legs need the best preparation. So, where to start.


Hair Removal.

Maybe you let your hair grow a bit over the winter months, maybe you don’t. We think trips to the salon are the best for hair removal, and there are plenty of salons on 5pm Spa & Beauty website to choose from.


Exfoliate

All that dry skin has to come off. My legs are a mess in the winter, and, I admit, I am completely neglectful of them most of the time. But there is absilutely no reason for this. Every week, at least once, you should use a body exfoliator in the shower. Here’s a few to try:

Legs prep body scrubs

Clinique’s Sparkle Skin Body Exfoliator (£19, clinique.co.uk) is one of my favourite products, and my husband loves it too. It does have a smell, unlike most Clinique products, and it is gentle.

I included the Argan Oil + Skin Renewal Body Scrub in a list of my favourite body exfoliators a couple of years ago, and I still think it’s brilliant. It has ablend of five oils – Argan, Baobab, Kukui, Moringa and Sacha Inci. It’s £7.99 at Waitrose, but go now and it’s on offer at £5.32.

SenSpa Detox Body Scrub (£6.95, Waitrose) smells delicious, thanks to essential oils of sweet orange, lime and rosemary. It also contains organic seaweed, dead sea salts and pumice. Lovely.

 


Moisturise

Body moisturising is, I have come to the conclusion, one of the most annoying beauty rituals. So many of my friends and colleagues agree. It seems that making time for moisturising after our shower is something we need to learn to do more of. Moisturising throughout the winter helps a lot, but it is easier in the summer, when the bathroom isn’t so cold, and we aren’t in such a rush to get dressed! It also helps with prolonging tans -real and fake – and it makes our legs look much, much better.

Sort those legs for summer

Also, if you want, you can introduce a Cellulite treatment at this stage. Do they work? It’s impossible to say. But the Cloud 9 Body Makeover Cellulite Treatment (£35, spacenk.com) is worth a go if you are bothered by the dreaded orange-peel like skin. It’s a fast-absorbing gel, and the key ingredinet is Ivy. Apparently it has thermogenic properties which boost blood and lymph flow. You can feel it work – you get  tingling, warming sensation on the skin. It also, of course, contains Caffeine, the killer ingredient in cellulite products.

Body moisturisers – where do you start. Here are two that I like, from opposite ends of the price spectrum. First up, Dirty Works Bye Bye Dry Bdy Butter Light (£2.75, Sainsbury’s). It is easy to use, with a pump, it is cheap as chips, and it smells lovely. It also does actually do a decent job of moisturising for a bargain beauty buy.It conains Cocoa and Shea butters, and vitamin E.

Clarins Moisture Rich Body Lotion (£30, clarins.co.uk) has a whole heap of fab ingredients that make it smoothing, firming, hydrating, and just lovely to use. An enzyme called Keratolin and controlled fruit acids gently refine the surface of the skin. Abyssinian Pea Extract, Peach Extract, Shea Butter, Oat Extract and Vegetal Perhydrosqualene (extracted from olive oil) intensively moisturise, revitalise and soothe skin. Candlenut Oil and Orange Blossom Wax increaseskin firmness and suppleness.

Clarins Moisture Rich Body Lotion is brilliant

 

 


Feet

Once legs are prepped and ready for shorts and skirts, get yourself back on 5pm Spa & Beauty and book in for a pedicure and polish to complete the overhaul!