People will spend two hundred dollars on a face serum and then use whatever soap is in the shower on everything below the jaw.
It is an odd split, because the skin does not observe the boundary. The neck, the chest, the forearms and the backs of the hands take a comparable amount of sun to the face, and get almost none of the care.
Why body skin behaves differently
Two things matter.
Fewer oil glands. Shins, forearms and the backs of the hands have far fewer than the face. That is why those areas get tight and flaky first, and why a face moisturiser is both overkill and the wrong texture for them.
Thinner skin in specific places. The neck and chest are thinner than the cheek and move constantly. They show sun damage sooner and more visibly than the face does, which is why a well-maintained face above a weathered chest is such a recognisable look.
The driver's arm
Here is the Australian version of the problem. Windscreen glass filters most UVB but a good deal of UVA passes straight through side windows. Anyone who drives a lot — which in Far North Queensland is most people — accumulates noticeably more damage on the right forearm and the right side of the face.
It is well documented, it is easy to see once you look for it, and it is entirely preventable with a long sleeve. This is the sort of thing that makes cumulative UV the dominant factor in how skin looks over decades, well ahead of anything in a bottle.
What a body product is actually for
Honestly: comfort, barrier, and consistency.
A body balm is not a face cream and does not need to pretend to be. Its job is to reduce water loss on skin that has fewer oil glands to do it naturally, and to be pleasant enough that you actually use it. A product that works beautifully and lives unopened in a cupboard has done nothing.
What it is not doing is undoing thirty years of sun. Nothing topical is. Being clear about that is more useful than the alternative, which is borrowed language that means nothing.
The short version of what helps
- Apply to damp skin. Straight out of the shower, before you have fully dried. It makes a genuine difference to how much water stays in.
- Shorter, cooler showers. Long hot ones strip body skin exactly as they strip the face.
- Include the neck, chest and hands in whatever you do for your face. Sunscreen especially — it costs nothing extra to keep going past the jawline.
- A long sleeve in the car. Unglamorous, free, and more effective than anything sold for the purpose.
The part worth sitting with
Almost everything sold as anti-ageing is competing for the last few per cent. The first ninety were decided by sun exposure, and a lot of that exposure happened on parts of the body nobody is selling a serum for.
Related reading
- Why sunlight ages skin faster than time does
- Skincare for an Australian summer: what actually changes
- Hyaluronic acid in a dry climate: the mistake that backfires
This article is general information, not personal advice. If you have a skin condition or take prescribed medication, talk to your GP or dermatologist.