How to Build a Simple Body Care Routine

Body care gets far less attention than face care, which is odd given it covers considerably more of you. The good news is that a body routine that works is genuinely simple — three steps, most of them things you already do.

Step one: wash without stripping

The goal of cleansing is removing dirt and sweat, not removing every trace of oil from your skin. Skin that squeaks has been stripped, and the tightness you feel afterward is the barrier telling you so.

What helps: warm rather than hot water, shorter showers, and a soap that isn't a harsh detergent. A tallow bar like Midnight Tide cleans while leaving more of your own oils in place, and Noble liquid soap does the same job if you prefer a pump.

If your skin is reactive, start with something unscented like the Pur bar and add scent back later once you know what you tolerate.

Step two: moisturize on damp skin

This is the step people either skip or get slightly wrong, and it's where most of the benefit lives.

Pat dry rather than rubbing. Leave your skin slightly damp. Apply moisturizer within about three minutes of getting out. Moisturizer works partly by trapping water that's already on your skin, so applying it to bone-dry skin half an hour later gives it much less to hold onto.

Use less product than you think. A rich tallow lotion like Amber Musk goes considerably further than a water-based drugstore lotion, and over-applying is the most common reason people find it heavy.

Step three: layer only if you need it

For most people, two steps is the routine. But if your skin is very dry, or it's winter, a light oil over your lotion adds a second barrier and slows water loss further.

The order matters: water-containing lotion first, oil on top. Oil under lotion just blocks the lotion from reaching your skin. A dry oil spray is the easiest way to do this without ending up greasy.

Where to concentrate

Not all of you needs the same attention. Hands, elbows, knees, heels, and shins have fewer oil glands and take the most abuse. They need more product, more often.

Hands specifically need reapplying after washing, which means keeping something where you'll actually reach for it rather than in the bathroom cabinet.

What to skip

Daily exfoliation, for most people. Physical scrubs used often can damage the barrier you're trying to protect. Once a week is plenty, and plenty of people don't need it at all.

Also skip the urge to add products. A routine with three things you use consistently beats one with seven you use sporadically, every time.

Give it two weeks

Skin turns over slowly. A new routine needs a couple of weeks before you can judge it, and changing three things at once means you won't know which one worked.

Start with the washing and the damp-skin timing. Those two cost nothing and do most of the work. Browse the soaps and lotions if you want to build it from ours.