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Body skincare is having a moment, and it should be! A lot of us are so careful with summer self-tan or strapless dress shimmer. But we’re slacking when it comes to keeping our body skin healthy, moisturized, and glowing. In this blog post I’m going to show you a routine that will have your body skin always ready for an event, a beach trip, or a vacation.

This topic is actually pretty personal to me — I have keratosis pilaris on my upper arms and thighs, plus seriously dry skin everywhere else. As a teenager in the 2000s, I had no idea what keratosis pilaris was and just thought I had the worst body acne in the world! I would scratch it, scrub it, put acne products on it. All that was the exact opposite of what my sensitive skin needed. As a result, I was constantly bumpy, red, scabbed, and prone to incredibly painful sunburns on those areas.

I didn’t learn how to fix it until my mid-20s, when I stumbled across a description of what sounded like my skin on reddit. Another poster responded with a link similar to the one I posted above, defining KP, and it was like a light! I had always assumed that somehow I was not clean enough or not taking care of myself properly. It felt great to know that it wasn’t my fault. The product the poster recommended (Gold Bond Rough and Bumpy) didn’t turn out to be the perfect fix. I’m not even going to link it because there are better options. But it started me on the path!

(Before we get started…If you are struggling with keratosis pilaris now, especially if you are younger: it never impacted my life! I hated it, and I’m glad I was able to get it under control, and once, some jerk in my eleventh grade chemistry class made me cry about it. I was convinced at the time that no one could ever find me attractive because of it. But as I grew, having keratosis pilaris never interfered with my ability to get a job, get a date, get married, have friends, have kids. Use the tips in this article, and I hope they help you. But, also, know that you don’t have to be perfect in every way to deserve to have a happy life.)

So with all that said: this is a routine I have been refining for years. It is…a lot. But it’s relatively affordable (because I’m cheap, but we’re going to be cute and we’re going to smell nice) and once you’re in the hang of it, it’s relatively quick. For me, this really has been the best body skincare routine yet, and I hope it helps you too!

Daily AM* Body Skincare Routine

* assuming a morning body shower. If you like to shower at night, flip this routine

Optional: dry brush before your shower.

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Use a soft bristle dry brush — they are inexpensive and last a long time–on your completely dry skin before you get into the shower. This can be a great idea if your skin has some buildup, or if you’re beginning to look dry or ashy. I found that it irritated my KP more than it helped it, so I tended to avoid those areas.

If you don’t love a dry brush, I wrote in 10 Affordable Self-Care Tools about italy towels and a few other options.

1. Take your shower

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and ensure that you’re using a gentle soap that will not be drying. I typically use a Dove Green Tea bar first, soaping myself more vigorously, and then whatever body wash I’m using at that moment. (Since I’m a teacher, I tend to get body was sets as gifts and rarely buy my own! I don’t have a particular favorite and just use the gifted ones that I like.) If you experience body acne in addition to your dryness or KP, you might consider a body wash with salicylic acid.

2. After you turn off the water, before you towel off, apply a hyaluronic acid serum to your skin.

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Hyaluronic acid replaces the water that might have been lost from your skin. Dry skin typically needs to have both water and oil/creaminess added back into it — this product or one like it will add back the water. Put it all over your skin. If you’ve washed your hair, this will nourish your hair as well.

When you’re using hyaluronic acid serum all over your body, it goes quickly. It’s great for your face and hair too! So, if you stick with this routine you might want to start making it yourself. I bought a package of hyaluronic acid powder and every six weeks or so I drop a scoop into distilled water and add a preservative. (You can do it without the preservative; you just need to make a smaller amount and keep it in the fridge, but I’m lazy.) Full directions for DIY hyaluronic acid serum are here.

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If you can, try to air dry after you apply your hyaluronic acid. (I usually do this in the summer but wimp out in the winter!)

3. If you have keratosis pilaris, or if dry skin has built up on your skin, use an exfoliating lotion on those places.

I am devoted to Amlactin Intensive Healing — I think it’s a terrific value and addresses my KP really effectively. Truthfully, I think the First Aid Beauty KP Smoothing Body Lotion may be better overall and more soothing, but it costs more money for less than half as much lotion. (And don’t buy the First Aid Beauty scrub by mistake, because it’s the same as any other scrub and too harsh for most people with KP!) So, to me, the AmLactin Intensive Healing is the best value and does what I need it to do. This goes on like a regular lotion. Put it wherever you have KP or visibly dry/ashy skin.

If you have KP, you’ll want to use this every day. If you just have dry skin, start with every third day and then use it more or less based on how your skin reacts. Either way — if you’re going to be in the sun, skip this product for a couple days beforehand. It’s still an exfoliant!

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4. Use a simple, heavy, workhorse lotion or oil.

You have options here!! My go-to is the Palmer’s Raw Shea Nourish — it is rich and heavy and gives my skin back the butteriness that it just doesn’t have naturally. I like the Palmer’s line in general, except for the coconut oil products, which don’t agree with my skin. (Straight coconut oil doesn’t agree with my skin either, so I don’t think it’s a problem with the product.) This is probably the best product for my skin, but it does need to sit for a while before you can dress, so I often skip it in the mornings before work and opt for either the Nivea Intense Healing or sesame oil, which actually dries down really quickly.

This step seals in your first two products and keeps the moisture from your shower locked in. I never find that a scented moisturizer has the weight to do this, so it needs to be layered. Added benefit: having a base moisturizer will keep your scent around longer!

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5. Apply your scented moisturizer if you choose.

Again, I have no loyalty here and I’m usually using student gifts. (I sort the scents by season because it makes me feel organized and then use whatever’s in the seasons I made up.) Whatever makes you feel great. This step certainly isn’t mandatory, but if you are someone who reapplies perfume throughout the day, you might consider putting on matching lotion and perfume in the morning, then reapplying that lotion to refresh your scent.

This after-shower body skincare routine is going to keep your skin plump, hydrated, and soft all day.

Daily PM* Body Skincare Routine

*or not!

I personally don’t think it’s a great idea to shower twice a day! So at the end of your day, instead of showering and doing the above all over again, lotion up with your simple lotion again. Be thorough and get the bottoms of your feet, your ankles and elbows, the backs of your hands, and your chest and neck. Let it dry down a little, and then put on your pajamas. The evening is easy! Don’t forget your face skincare routine.

(I’m including this picture because I secretly believe that a lot of bloggers recommend things they don’t own. Here’s my setup, minus the AmLactin lotion that I ran out of last week. My current scented lotion is from Beauty Pie, and it’s lovely.)

Wait, I need more help!

What if this doesn’t get rid of it all the way?

This is going to help most people who struggle with dry skin and KP! If you’re still experiencing dryness or bumps after two weeks on this routine, or if you have a big event where you want to have everything look perfect, I would suggest trying a glycolic acid peel. The one I linked is mild enough to be safe to use at home. It won’t hurt much because your arm skin isn’t as sensitive as your face. Lactic acid peels are also a great, mild choice for KP and dry skin.

I sometimes use a peel like this before an event when I need to feel confident that my skin is going to look perfect, or for the first month or so of nice weather. (For people with KP, our skin generally looks okay in the summer when we have a slight tan, and no one really knows why!) So for the first months where my arms are out but it my KP hasn’t improved for the summer yet, I sometimes use that peel as part of my body skincare routine, and it does help. But it’s a lot of work to keep up, and you are basically sun-sensitive constantly. So, to me it isn’t worth it.

But maybe you feel differently! If so, start with using it every two weeks. If you start to see the redness reappear, you may want to increase your frequency. Most people will be able to use it less frequently from there.

When do I shave in this body skincare routine?

You can still shave if you choose! I do, as part of my Sunday everything shower routine. It is perfectly fine to shave during your shower before you use the AM part of this routine. The AmLactin ideally wouldn’t go on any fresh cuts or scrapes, if that comes up.

If you liked this post, you might also like:

• Is Salicylic Acid Good for Rosacea? Best Peel Options
• Can I Get Botox Right After Microneedling?
• 10 Best Tips for Self-Care When You’re Struggling

Want to come back to this post when your AmLactin arrives in the mail? Pin the image below!