ANTI-AGING BODY SKIN CARE
Dermatologist’s recommendations for the best anti-aging body skin care.
Many of the skin changes you think are part of aging can be easily treated with the right skin care. (Scroll to the bottom of the page to see my skin at 62!) Aging skin can become thin, crepey, scaly, dry and covered with brown age spots. This can all be improved with your at home skin care!
What are the best body moisturizer to help aging skin on the body, arms, legs and hands?
CLEANSE, CORRECT and HYDRATE yourself into younger looking skin with the Ultra-Fast Body Smoothing Triple Action Kit. This high strength glycolic acid routine gets the job done.
Body skin is uniquely tough and the other age fighting ingredients such as retinoids, antioxidants and vitamin C can’t really penetrate enough to help. That leaves us with glycolic acid, which works beautifully! - Dr. Bailey
Glycolic acid is a work-horse to reverse ageing concerns on body skin including thinning, crepey skin changes, wrinkles and roughness. I've put together my favorite glycolic acid products for the body to create my Ultra-Fast Triple Action Kit. I love having soft and dewy body skin and I use this to keep my own 60+ year old skin healthy and youthful.
Know that to make meaningful progress fighting skin aging on your skin you need to also protect it from UV rays by wearing sunscreen or clothing on all exposed skin. It's easy when you love your SPF and my patients and I rely on Sheer Strength Pure Physical Spray SPF 50+ Sunscreen.
My Ultra-Fast Triple Action Body Smoothing Kit and Sheer Strength Sunscreen are the easiest way to reverse aging body skin changes. But are you curious about what happens to body, arm and leg skin to make it look older? This is a great topic!
Dermatologist Answers Frequently Asked Questions about Skin Aging on the Body, Arms, Legs and Hands
How much does the sun age your skin?
Sun exposure is the biggest cause of skin aging and wrinkling. When patients are skeptical about how much of their skin aging is due to their years of sun exposure, I ask them to explore the facts for themselves. It's easy.
Look closely at your skin and compare the areas that are sun protected to those that are not. For example, your sun protected buttocks and tummy skin looks different from your sun exposed outer forearms, back of your hands, the sides of your neck or the V of your chest.
- These sun-protected parts of your skin have fewer wrinkles, crinkles and age spots than the sun exposed skin.
- Doesn't the skin look thicker too? When you pinch the skin together the sun protected skin has fewer fine wrinkles and folds.
What you are seeing is that the wrinkles, crinkles, crepey lines, thinning and age spots are due to years of sun. Almost all of the structural and physiologic damage that leads to skin aging starts with exposure to a UV ray. Keep the UV rays off of your skin!
By using a good glycolic acid body skin care routine and a good zinc oxide sunscreen you can have healthy, attractive and youthful skin for your entire life. It really is that simple. That said, you also need to fight skin dryness as your skin ages.
What are the best body moisturizer to help hydrate aging skin on the body, arms, legs and hands?
Body skin becomes dry with age. Especially skin on your arms, legs, hands and feet. Use moisturizers that are rich. If you have hairy skin, use hydrating moisturizers that spread nicely through body hair. Always moisturizer your arms, legs and hands after every shower. Apply your moisturizer within the magic 3 minutes after toweling dry to trap water your skin soaked up while you bathed.
Use hypoallergenic moisturizers because the expanse of your body’s skin is huge. Fragrance and some preservatives can cause lifelong skin allergies – so avoid them. All my moisturizers are hypoallergenic by dermatologist’s standards. They are also deeply hydrating.
My Natural Face, Hand and Body Lotion is easy to use and even rubs into hairy skin well. It’s my husband’s favorite.
My Natural Body Butter Cream is slightly thicker and richer, but both work well. Both are made with organic botanical oils rich in vitamins, antioxidants and deeply hydrating ingredients.
What are the top 3 steps for an at-home skin care routine to make your arm and leg skin look younger?
- Exfoliate your arm, leg and hand skin in the shower at least twice a week. Get everything you need in my Ultra-Fast Body Smoothing Kit. The first step is to use an exfoliating shower cloth (which comes in the kit), sponge or mitt with an exfoliating body wash that has ingredients such as glycolic acid (an AHA) and salicylic acid (a BHA) as in the kit's Triple Action Exfoliating Cleanser. The other days of the week use a hypoallergenic soap. You can use the exfoliating shower cloth, sponge or mitt with this too.
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The second step is to apply the kit's professional, high-concentration glycolic acid lotion such as my Glycolic Acid Body Lotion at least twice a week after the bath or shower. This comes in my Ultra-Fast Body Smoothing Kit. On days you don't exfoliate, apply a rich, hypoallergenic moisturizer like my Natural Face, Body and Hand Lotion after your shower.
- Sun protect your exposed skin every day. Use clothing and broad spectrum SPF 30+ sunscreen (water resistant if you sweat or wash your hands often) to keep UV rays off your skin.
What are the top reasons why your hands look old?
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Crepey skin
- Age spots,
- Scaly skin,
- Thin skin
- Yellow, ridged and chipped nails
No matter how many of these changes your skin already has, it's never too late to reverse them - nope, never! You can always help your skin to look smoother, less spotty, less crepey, dewier and feel softer. It's true, trust me on this.
How to make your hands look younger?
Dry and flaky hand skin looks much older than it is.
Prevent it by using only a mild hand soap for routine hand washing and always apply a deeply hydrating hand cream.
- Get exactly the key products to prevent hand dry skin in my Survival Kit for Busy Hands. Be sure to rinse it all off completely because retained soap residue will pull out precious hand skin lipids necessary for young looking skin. My hypoallergenic and gentle natural bar soap is ideal and rinses off easily.
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Apply a rich hand cream after washing your hands to prevent scaly rough skin and to help the skin stay supple. My Dry Skin Hand Cream is ideal, non-greasy and convenient. Get both the gentle Naturally Best Bar Soap and my popular Dry Skin Hand Cream in my Survival Kit for Busy Hands.
- Gently exfoliate your hand skin twice a week in the shower and use a glycolic acid moisturizer after exfoliating. My Ultra-Fast Body Smoothing Triple Action Kit is ideal.
Sun exposure causes leathering of your skin and that makes hands look older.
Always apply a water-resistant broad spectrum sunscreen to the back of your hands and fingers first thing in the morning. Reapply it mid-day and after washing your hands or doing wet work. Try not to wash sunscreen off of the back of your hands if possible.
I wear my Sheer Strength Pure Physical Spray SPF 50+ Sunscreen on the back of my hands every day.
Exposure to harsh chemicals causes skin irritation that makes your hands look older.
Wear gloves when outside in the sun, when doing harsh house work or working with skin-drying chemicals.
Yellow, chipped and split nails make your hands look older.
Brown spots on your hands make them look old.
Tips to get rid of stubborn age spots on your hands.
Stubborn brown liver spots may respond to additional ingredients such as hydroquinone and retinol. Use hydroquinone, a powerful pigment lightening medicine, twice daily with my Pigment Fading Pads.
At night, apply my Retinol Anti-Wrinkle Cream .
If you have tolerant skin, you can alternate this with Glycolic Acid Lotion or even apply the Glycolic Lotion on top of the Retinol (watch for irritation and go slowly). Be sure to apply sunscreen during the day.
Why do the bottoms of your feet get rough and thick with age?
What is the best skin lotion or cream for crepey skin on arms and legs?
It’s glycolic acid cream. This alpha hydroxy acid will stimulate your arm skin’s production of hyaluronic acid to help create a suppler appearance and feel to your skin. It also brightens and smooths skin, lightens age spots and can even stimulate collagen renewal. Wear sunscreen or clothing during the day to prevent UV ray skin thinning. My Ultra-Fast Body Smoothing Triple Action Kit plus one of my sunscreens is a highly effective combination for treating wrinkled arm skin.
Dr. Bailey's Complete Skin Care Routine™ to Fight Aging and Crepey Skin on the Arms, Legs, Hands and Body
Remember, Complete Skin Care gets the best results for fighting the signs of aging on your body skin. Dr. Bailey Complete Skin Care includes the 4 essential steps,
- CLEANSE
- CORRECT
- HYDRATE
- PROTECT
CLEANSE Skin using only hypoallergenic, gentle soaps and cleansers, such as my Naturally Best Bar Soap. For crusty age spots and excessive roughness or scale, exfoliate and add Triple Action Exfoliating Cleanser with a Salux Cloth. For hands, also use my hypoallergenic Natural Bar Soap.
CORRECT skin problems like crepey skin and age spots with my Glycolic Acid Body Lotion. I’ve put my all-time favorite skin routine products for aging body skin into my Ultra-Fast Triple Action Body Smoothing Kit. This is the kit I have personally used for years to care for my aging body skin.
HYDRATE all areas prone to dryness and crepey skin with a moisturizer every day after your shower. Use the Glycolic Acid Lotion from my Ultra-Fast Body Smoothing Kit twice a week and the Natural Face and Body Lotion on the other days. Apply the Dry Skin Hand Cream after washing your hands.
PROTECT your precious skin using a broad spectrum mineral zinc sunscreens 365 days a year, applying it to all exposed skin. Sun causes thinning and fragility that always get worse with further UV exposure. Prevent it for the healthiest arm, leg, hand and body skin as you age. Don’t forget the scalp when it comes to sun protection. My Sheer Strength Pure Mineral Spray SPF 50+ Sunscreen is ideal for hairy areas of skin such as the part line or a balding scalp.
Get amazing results with a complete skin care routine built from only the best ingredients, proven effective by thousands of my patients – and on my own aging skin, too. The good news is that although we are getting older, we can effectively treat and pamper our skin with a little TLC! - Dr. Bailey
What happens to arm, leg, chest, neck and hand skin that makes it look old?
This picture is taken of me at age 62 after fighting the changes of ageing body skin with the tips and products above. The image is untouched and revealing. Know that I have had years of sun damage in my childhood, teens, 20s and even 30s. I got real about skin care in my mid to late 30s as these types of products became commercially available. It's never too late, trust me on this.
Understand the structural and physiologic changes in skin aging and how these products target your unique challenges:
The key issues with skin aging are:
- Wrinkles and skin thinning due to a loss of collagen and elastin. This happens in the second layer of your skin called the dermis. Daily sun exposure is the most common cause.
- Fragile, crepey skin due mostly to a thinning of your top living skin cell layer called the epidermis, and to scaling in the dead cell layer called the stratum corneum. This happens from both sun exposure and intrinsic aging (the passing of years).
- Age spots due to focal areas of increased pigment in the top epidermal cell layer. Some age spots also have excessive epidermal cells and dead stratum corneum cells. Both sun and age play a role in causing age spots.
- Skin becomes more prone to dryness with age. Flaky dry skin looks crepey and older than well hydrated skin.
Correct and prevent these structural problems by taking good care of your skin. I've given you a lot of ideas. Pick what is right for you!
The bottom line with skin aging on your body, chest, legs and arms:
- Glycolic acid at professional levels is the workhorse to slow and reverse skin aging. Use it in cleansers and lotions and add an exfoliation cloth to brighten and smooth skin instantly.
- High quality mineral zinc oxide sunscreen is a must. Sun damaged skin looks - and is - old, period.
- Never let your skin get dry and flaky because it will look crusty and old.
Click here for the Ultra-Fast Triple Action Body Smoothing Kit and see how dewy and soft your body skin can feel.
References:
DiNardo Joseph, et. al., Clinical and Histological Effects of Glycolic Acid at Different Concentrations and pH Levels, Dermatolol Surg, 1996;22:421-424
Babilas Philipp, et. al., Cosmetic and dermatologic use of alpha hydroxy acids, Journal of the German Society of Dermatology, 2012 (10): 488-491
Beasley Donathan G, et. al. Characterization of the UVA Protection Provided by Avobenzone, Zinc Oxide, and Titanium Dioxide in Broad-Spectrum Sunscreen Products, Am J Clin Dermatol 2010; 11 (6): 413-421
Maier T., Korting H.C., Sunscreens – Which and What for? Skin Pharmacol Physiol 2005; 18:253-268
Farris Patricia K, Topical Vitamin C: A Useful Agent for Treating Photoaging and Other Dermatologic Conditions, Dermatol Surg 2005:31:814-818
Varani James et. al., Vitamin A Antagonizes Decreased Cell Growth and Elevated Collagen-Degrading Matrix Metalloproteinases and Stimulates Collagen Accumulation in Naturally Aged Human Skin, J Invest Dermatol 114:480-486, 2000
Katiyar Santosh K et. al., Green Tea Polyphenol Treatment to Human Skin Prevents Formation of Ultraviolet Light B-induced Pyrimidine Dimers in DNA, Clin Cancer Res 2000,6: 3864-3869
Tsukahara Kazue, et. al., The Effect of Sunscreen on Skin Elastase Activity Induced by Ultraviolet-A Irradiation, Biol Pharm. Bull 28(12) 2302-2307 (2005)