The Body Part You Need To Love More!

by BR Kellie

It's funny the learnings you retain from your time at primary school. To this day I know my timestables backwards and forwards, I know chitons have eight separate plates on their backs (still waiting for that question to come up on a quiz night), and I know that if you don't want to get saggy baggy elbows you have to look after them and not rub them all the time. That last gem was courtesy of my Year 3 (or Primer 3, as it was called back in the day) teacher, who ruefully touched her own elbows as she imparted this piece of knowledge.

You have to feel sorry for elbows. I mean, they're so easy to forget when there are other, more obvious parts of our body that we want to take care of, such as our face, our arms, decolletage and legs. Heck, the only thing I can think of them being good for is to elbow people out of the way during a really good makeup sale (jokes), or for providing a helpful hinge in order to make my arms bend. 

So, how can we care for these helpful hinges?

The thing about elbows is that they're always being used, which means the skin is often being stretched. This, along with the general wear and tear of rubbing against fabric and being set upon hard surfaces, can lead to the saggy look that my teacher wasn't fond of. Clearly leaning into a Barbie stiff-arm pose isn't an option in order to keep our elbows in tiptop condition, however we can adopt a relatively simple beauty routine to show our nobbly funny bone bits some love...

While you're in the shower, take a few extra seconds to exfoliate your elbows with a mitt, loofah or even a cleanser that contains a glycolic or salicylic acid. This will help remove old skin cells and keep your elbows looking fresh.

Once you're out of the shower, popping a little serum on your elbows while you're doing your facial skincare routine won't go astray. While this sounds extra, the added hydration will be welcomed, and it's not much more effort to go to either - simply add another pump of product onto your fingertips, apply to your face as you usually would, then take the extra and pat it onto your elbows.

Finally, the most obvious but helpful thing you can do is to moisturise your elbows. In fact, if you can only be bothered doing one thing, make it this, and do it after you shower so that the product penetrates more deeply. While your face moisturiser would do the trick, you're better to go in with a thicker, more nourishing formula in order to really get that lush hit of hydration.

And there you have it... Consider yourself schooled on the art of elbow care. My Primer 3 teacher would be proud.

So, do you take care of your elbows? Will you now be paying them more attention? Or do you elbow your, er, elbows aside, preferring to take care of other parts of your body? Chat below!