Must Have / The Body Shop Body Brush

The heatwave. Hmm. All sorts of thoughts ran through my head on donning my first dress of the summer. Most of them weren’t terribly kind. But on one front I could not let self-loathing run free – that of skin tone. While my skin may be white, a little stubbly (though I still have the Tria working away on that front) and prone to the odd spot, it is almost wholly uniform and smooth. I attribute this entirely to my devotion to body brushing.

An almost daily habit I started in my early teens, I’ve come to revere the body brush. Two minutes of vigorous brushing towards the heart boosts circulation, tones, exfoliates and does more for diminishing cellulite than any cream or gel I’ve ever tried. All that for £8 from the Body Shop quarterly (change when bristles start to sit at odd angles).

That’s the upside. The downside? It hurts. I’m inured, though newbies tell me the sensation is at times unbearable. Bear it. It also, like anything that’s got a shot in hell of working on the beauty/health front, has to be done often. If you body brush weekly, you may notice you’re a little more silken of skin. Do it thrice weekly, and you’ll notice that you look more toned and trim, that cellulite isn’t as pronounced and that your skin is marvellously soft. Start now, and you’ll reap the rewards by the time the sun starts to poke its head out of the clouds again.