By BR Kellie
You know how all good beauty skincare advice says to keep water lukewarm when you’re rinsing your face or washing your bod? Well, I throw half that advice out the window once winter comes. The fact is I like a steaming hot shower caressing my body when the temperature is in the little digits. Yep, I’m naughty and will stand under a shower for a good twenty minutes letting it warm every inch of my cold bod, but to counteract the bad beauty behaviour while I’m in there I get busy. You see a shower is no longer just a get in, wash bod, then wash and condition hair situation, it’s a whole excuse to pamper your body, and we’ve tracked down a few must-have products that make that experience extra fabulous.
There’s nothing like grabbing a pouf, squeezing on some shower gel and giving yourself a good cleanse as the aromas of the gel fill the shower cubicle, and I have to admit I’m that woman who opens gels in the supermarket aisle in order to get a good sniff in before buying. We’re spoilt for choice too, but a product I can’t go past is the Original Source Shower Gel range, especially the Mint & Tea Tree scent. But my shower-fav at the moment is the Only Body Wash range. Those blends are just beautiful, and they fill your nose with aromatic joy as you wash away the grime. I’m all about Awaken right now, but Clarity is next on the list.
If imagining thousands of dead skin cells just laying about over your body sends you into a shiver then the shower is a great place to scrub them off. It’s easy enough to make your own scrub with a bit of olive oil, sugar and a few drops of essential oil, but the world is filled with scrubs lovingly made by someone else, so really, it’s our duty to buy them (and that’s how I justify my rampant consumerism). LUSH products even show you the names of the people who made their products, and their little faces beckon me to the likes of Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub or The Rough With The Smooth bar. For a sweet treat for your skin there’s also products like Burt’s Bees Cranberry & Pomegranate Sugar Scrub or the Soda & Co range. See? Spoilt for choice! How are we not all walking around with skin as smooth as a baby’s bum?
So you’ve cleansed and de-celled, now it’s time to add the moisturise back in – especially if you’re being naughty like me and the temperature is set to scalding.
Before joining the BR Crew I bought a Beauty Review Beauty Box and in it was a product that took my moisturising routine from lackadaisical at best to just shy of obsessive. Yes, it’s fair to say the Nivea In Shower Body Conditioner turned me from scaly to silky. This product is (in my opinion) a stroke of genius for lazy lasses like myself. I mean, you can stand in the shower daydreaming, while swiping it on, then wait a bit and daydream some more, then wash it off while daydreaming further, and boom, just like that you’re moisturised and you didn’t even have to sit in a towel on your bed freezing your bum off while you did it. Love it!
Another moisturising option is an oil that can be used in the shower. One product that works as a cleanser and a moisturiser is the L’Occitane Almond Shower Oil, and who doesn’t love a product that can do double duty? If you’re looking for an oil that will also act as a body treatment, Clarins Huile ‘Anti-Eau’ could be a treat for your skin as it claims to help eliminate toxins to streamline skin and prevent sponginess, leaving skin soft, toned and satiny. The only downside? You have to turn the shower off, and then rinse it off with cool water…. Hmmm, potentially a summer shower product then…
So do tell, are you a fan of showering? Do you spend minutes upon minutes wiling the time away pampering your body? If so, which are your favourite shower products? Or are you more of a wham bam I’m out of here Ma’am shower personality? Have any products featured tempted you to change that shower strategy? Chat away!
Oooh the Loccitane oil sounds amazing... not sure I can get on board with a cool rinse off though... I like hot showers (naughty I know).