Beauty Product of the Month - June

Everybody loves body butters don't they? I remember years ago, the first body butter I got was a mango one from The Body Shop, and it smelt divine. I haven’t stopped using them since. I believe The Body made the original ones, although now a lot of brands have their own versions. I love all the scents of all the different versions, always so fresh and fruity smelling! So while credit should be given to The Body Shop for this wonderful idea, I think that the Boots Mediterranean version is up there with them with the added bonus of costing only half the price. I finished my almond and milk body butter, and have moved on to the grape, avocado and lemon butter which I’ve been using the past few weeks. They’re so great because they last a very long time, a little goes a long way, you can use just a small 50p size amount to cover your legs to make them silky smooth. What I didn’t know was that they made such a great alternative to aftersun lotion. So this weekend was another hot one, and Sunday my boyfriend and I decided to soak up some sun at a place called Pontoon Dock (which is a great little hidden gem). I used factor 15, and have not tanned in the slightest, which I suppose is a good thing, it’s healthier for my skin...My boyfriend used factor 25 and at the end of the afternoon looked like this:

There is the caring, loving side of me that was really concerned because this looks painful. But when faced with this and "Is my back a bit burned?" then the humour takes over and I have to laugh because this is pretty funny. It’s not the sunburn itself, just the shape of it. A hand outline on your back whether it’s a tan or sunburn has some comedy value!
Without after-sun lotion, I was thinking what moisturiser I could use to help with the burn. Body butter is always my preferred choice of moisturisers, so I decided to give this a go. It works well because of the way it sinks into the skin, and a few minutes after applying the product, the skin looked like this:

I know the lighting is different, but you can see the contrast between the normal skin and the affected area is a lot less. He said it felt more relieved and the next day it looked even better. Now I managed to burn my shoulder a couple of weekends ago and used no product to help it recover, so for me it took a few days before I entered the peeling stage. I wish I’d have known about this because I would have lathered it on! Obviously I know letting your skin burn is a very bad thing, and prevention is always better than cure, but sometimes it happens. I know that everyone reading this will know to ask someone to help them with those hard to reach areas, but men aren’t as clever, or just too stubborn sometimes, (or is that just mine), but if you do get burned, I’d recommend this over after-sun, because not only does it relieve and cool, but it speeds up the healing process even more than after-sun.