If you’re like most people, you pay more attention to skincare for your face than you do body skincare.
We show our faces to the world every day, so it’s natural to be more concerned about how our skin appears there.
Our body skin is often under wraps under our clothes. Out of sight, out of mind so to speak!
As the weather warms up and we choose more skin-baring fashions, we start to think about our body skin again. Here at CV Skinlabs, we recommend keeping the body’s skin in mind all year round. That’s because the skin is the largest body organ and if most of it is unhealthy, it’s going to affect your overall health.
This becomes more and more apparent with age. As we noted in last week’s post, aging skin can become problematic in our later years.
Let’s examine the reasons why body skincare is just as important (if not more so) as face skincare, and then we’ll give you a few tips to start taking better care of your body skin today.
Why Is Body Skincare Important?
The face is not the only area that is vulnerable to skin issues like cancer, age spots, acne, rosacea, eczema, dry patches, and more. All of these can develop on the body’s skin, too.
For this reason alone, it’s a good idea to regularly moisturize and care for the body’s skin. But it goes beyond that.
The skin is the body’s largest organ, and scientists are learning more every day about how the health of the body’s skin affects overall health. Certain skin diseases like psoriasis and eczema can put you at a higher risk for heart disease, for example.
If you have inflammation in the skin—a common condition—it not only accelerates skin aging but can also increase total body inflammation. Inflammation overload is linked to many of today’s most difficult diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.
Poor care of the body’s skin can cause problems down the road including dryness, itching, redness, and a breakdown of the outer skin barrier, which can lead to difficult and painful skin infections.
Preventing these sorts of issues as we age is a lot easier than trying to cure a skincare problem later on.
7 Tips for Better Body Skincare
Just as you may brush your teeth twice a day and eat a healthy diet, taking regular care of the skin all over your body contributes to better health habits in general.
1. Cleanse
Whether you shower or bathe, cleansing your skin is always the first step in body skincare. Depending on your skin type (oily or dry), choose a clarifying or moisturizing body wash and apply it with a loofah or washcloth. Gentle scrubbing can help exfoliate dead skin cells and allow younger ones to emerge from underneath.
Body Skincare Tip 2. Exfoliate
Though cleansing helps slough off some of the dead skin cells, it doesn’t get them all. You’ll notice smoother and more radiant skin if you exfoliate a couple of times a week. Use a skin brush before you step into the shower or bath, and/or choose a body scrub that will help renew your skin.
When choosing your body scrub, be sure to avoid those with harsh nuts and microbeads. These can cause microtears in the skin that increase your risk of inflammation, infections, and breakouts.
Choose a gentle body scrub that contains exfoliating ingredients along with moisturizers and always apply it to clean, wet skin.
3. Moisturize
This is the most important step in body skincare and one many people neglect. Your body’s skin needs moisture as much or more than the skin on your face. Particularly as you age, the skin on the body can begin to struggle to hold onto moisture and may need it more often throughout the day.
Choose a product with real, nourishing ingredients (like our CV Skinlabs Body Repair Lotion) and then apply directly after you emerge from the bath or shower. Your skin will still be a little moist, which will help it hold onto the lotion.
If your skin is looking/feeling dry, step up your moisturizer application to twice a day.
Body Skincare Tip 4. Shave with Care
If you’re shaving your skin, it’s important to do it the right way. Otherwise, you could end up with redness, inflammation, and irritation that’s not good for your skin.
Follow these tips for a healthy, skin-sparing shave:
- Shower first. The water will soften your skin.
- Apply shaving cream. Don’t skip this step or substitute soap. Shaving cream is formulated to properly protect your skin.
- Take it slow. Moving the razor too fast can result in cuts.
- Move the razor with the grain to reduce irritation.
- Apply our Rescue + Relief Spray afterward to help soothe the skin and reduce the risk of inflammation.
5. Protect Your Skin
Whenever you expose your skin to the elements, it’s important to protect it. In the winter, your clothes do the job, but as the weather warms up, don’t forget to apply sunscreen.
Critical areas include the tips of your ears, neck and decolletage, forearms, and hands. If your stomach, legs, or feet are exposed, protect them too. If you don’t easily burn, you can go for a few minutes in the sun to get your vitamin D, but keep your sunscreen with you to apply for those longer exposure times.
Have you incorporated body skincare into your daily routine?
Featured photo by Andrea Piacquadio.