The products to polish up your leg act, no fake tan needed. Also, you don’t have to shell out a fortune to afford them. Get ready to reach leg heaven.
Much of extricating ourselves from our opaque tights seems focused on hair removal and self-tanning , but a speedy skincare routine for your lower half can make as much difference to your legs as any bronzing mousse or wax appointment. As is the case with your face, effective exfoliation and a plumping, quenching moisturiser can transform legs from sandpaper to supple, and a healthy skin regime needn’t take too long or cost a literal arm and a leg either. We’ve been using these three leg smoothers in-shower, pre-work and at weekends, so check out the results below, noting that they’re happily currently ‘3 for 2’ at Boots until 5th June 2018. That gives you nigh on three weeks to leg it to the bodycare aisle.
The daily cleanse
Shower gel isn’t usually that sexy a beauty product, but this one leaves your skin so soft, we’re declaring it so. Soap & Glory Clean On Me™ Creamy Clarifying Shower Gel, £6.50, does exactly what you’d hope a body cleanser would (so fresh and so clean), with the added benefit of a built-in body lotion so that you step out of the bathroom with moisturised limbs before you even go near a body lotion. You could even go without if time is tight. Salicylic acid provides a nice and light exfoliation to smooth away dead skin cells and leave skin luminous, while a rose, bergamot and jasmine infused fragrance mingles with natural mandarin peel extract to create a warm, summery scent that lingers but doesn’t overpower. Lovely stuff.
The weekly buff and polish
For more intensive skin sloughing, a grainy scrub suspended in nourishing plant oil is the answer to glossy limbs. Flake Away™ Body Polish, £8, combines sugar and salt for effective physical exfoliation , with finer peach seed powder for a nice sheeny finish (akin to polishing your nails with a buffer). Moisture wise, you’ve got a lot of emollient oils going on to keep your skin plump and healthy- a cocktail of grapeseed oil and sweet almond oil protect the skin barrier while rich shea butter softens. If you’re wondering what it smells like, it’s a floral earl grey (that’ll be the rose and bergamot). Take a generous scoop, massage it into damp skin and pretend you’re in some kind of Moroccan hammam rather than your poky Blighty bathroom.
The silky secret
Your legs will now no longer be elephant-hide like- now to seal the deal with a cooling, balmy moisturer. The Righteous Butter™, £10, is unlike any other body butter I’ve tried. Normally I find that butters are thick in texture and take a while to sink in, which is no bad thing during the depths of winter, but for the summer months you need something that delivers on nourishment but feels lightweight and doesn’t take an entire evening to absorb. The Righteous Butter™ is just that. Whether you’re post shave, post scrub or just post shower, it leaves legs gleamy thanks to an aloe vera, shea butter, coconut and rosehip oil based formula, rubbing in quickly and leaving you trailing a scent of mandarin, bergamot and fresh, leafy greens behind you. From a skin-health P.O.V, you can tick off omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids and antioxidant vitamin E. Top with fake tan or a body luminizer if you so please, but I felt my legs looked sleek enough without either, despite my pasty Celtic hue.
You can nab the cheapest of these for free- Soap & Glory products are currently ‘3 for 2’ at Boots until 5th June 2018.
This article was written in partnership with Soap & Glory