Take a Dip

Have you heard that you should treat your body as nicely as your face? This serum is very nice indeed, with AHAs, hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, and retinoic acid in a formula that glides like a dream. It leaves behind the scent of freshly cut grass.

We like our body oils from faraway sources, and this has ingredients from the Amazon rainforest to scratch that itch. It’s pumped with omega-3, 6, and 9 fatty acids, vitamins, and an intoxicating tropical scent. Francisco Costa, the former designer for Calvin Klein, created the line with his minimalist Brazilian style.

Made with classically soothing ingredients—aloe vera, natural oils (olive, jojoba, and sea buckthorn)—this lotion comes in a bottle that an interior designer would love. The scent is green and slightly peppery.

We all know about retinol for the face. Now the body wants in on the action and Nécessaire delivers with this retinol and AHA lotion designed to repair skin and reduce crepiness. It stings a bit on freshly shaved legs but with just 0.1% retinol, it’s about as gentle as a retinol gets.

Imagine Lydia Tár scrubbing her body with punishing thoroughness before slipping into a bespoke Charvet robe. Makes sense, because Cate Blanchett happens to be a client of the facialist, Joanna Czech. You can launder and reuse these pads, too, even though Tár would never dream of such a thing.

This liquid self-tanner lets you customize your shade. Mix two to four drops into your body cream for a little glow, add six to eight for a tanned look, and ten to twelve if you want to one-up George Hamilton.

A thorough once-over with a dry brush is an excellent way to remove any memory of winter. This one is made of relatively soft cactus sisal bristles. If you’re that person, dry brush your body with long strokes before a cold shower to feel invigorated, slightly miserable, and simultaneously virtuous.

A doula blended this creamy scrub in her kitchen, and it feels appropriately comforting. It’s a mix of coconut, jojoba, and sweet

almond oils along with AHAs and leaves a layer of moisture and the scent of vanilla in its wake.

This is the beauty equivalent of a summer at Club 55: sexy, burnished, and glamorous. Wear it to lunch with a black bikini and a pile of gold jewelry or to dinner with bare legs and a flowy dress. It coats the skin with bergamot, cardamom, and tuberose deliciousness.

Bastien Gonzalez gives medical pedicures to royals, actors, models, and me once, by the pitch-dark pool at the Hotel Costes in Paris (and I’d like to apologize to the person swimming laps). He employs an electric drill with a diamond-dust file and no water or polish. His foot mask relies on urea to exfoliate even chalky heels efficiently, and you can slather it on by your own swimming pool.

My friends at the Fat Mascara podcast turned me on to this treatment that transforms sad winter legs into happy summer legs. It’s a moisturizing, blurring, body bronzing gel that doesn’t rub off on white clothes or couches (hello, Below Deck!). One shade works on all skin tones.

Imagine Faye Dunaway getting a leg and foot rub with this invigorating tonic, which smells of rosemary and other aromatic herbs and is absorbed quickly into skin. It’s a lovely elixir for sore muscles or general world-weariness.

This takes shaving cream up a notch with anti-inflammatories that help minimize razor irritation. It also contains a variety of oils (plum almond, apricot kernel) to allow a smooth, frictionless slide. It works equally well on her legs and his beard, soothing skin as it goes.

This at-home tool is FDA-approved to zap face and body hair with intense pulsed light. It takes 10 minutes a day for 12 weeks to experience what the company calls “permanent hair reduction.” This new model also has a sensor that calibrates the light to suit various skin and hair colors. Warning: It doesn’t work on pale blond or gray hair.

Supergoop has been on a mission to make sunscreen a daily pleasure rather than a boring task. Their SPF 50 sunscreen, aptly called Play, has antioxidant vitamin C for additional protection against free-radical damage. This set includes the lotion and non aerosol mist formulas: One for the beach bag, one for the medicine cabinet, and one for the car.

This cream claims to be “gravity-defying,” something Isaac Newton might find arguable. It also asserts that it will “firm and contour upper arms,” which we’d like to believe but don’t. Nevertheless, it’s an attractive lotion with retinol and probiotics that cools the skin and makes it feel, if not look, a bit tighter.