I have never had serious weight issues. There was that one time when I was 16 years old, lived in Denmark and briefly weighed 64 kilograms – right after some very intensive Christmas eating – and was convinced I was fat. In hindsight, this belief qualifies as a different problem all together.

So, when the summer draws closer and short skirts and even bikinis become an option, it’s not my flesh I’m self-conscious about, it’s my skin. The thing is pale and uneven and dry and has a severe case of keratosis pillaris. It’s not something I constantly worry about, but if I’m honest, would I like it to be smoother and more supple? Of course I would. And my first instinct is to go and buy an expensive cream that would fix it.

Because I like my solutions to come in a pretty tin. Oh, yes, it could also be a bottle or a tube, but generally speaking, I’m tempted to buy something glamorous that would just miraculously make the problems go away. While a limited amount of things in life work that way, most don’t. Almost always, there’s something mundane you should be doing, instead of looking for that potion on the Internet.

Dry brushing is a perfect example of this. There is nothing as effective for making your skin smoother than taking a brush and brushing yourself, starting from extremities and moving towards your heart. Nothing. And I say this as a person who has bought a body oil that costs 100 euros (it is actually good, but it’s much better when used with brushing). The problem with the aforementioned solution is of course that there is no way to make it exciting or photogenic. I mean: “take a brush and brush”? And did you see the cover photo of the post?

I tried and bought a brush that’s marginally more interesting than your average body brush, but it doesn’t help much. It’s still pretty boring. But in the end of the day, if there is one thing I like as much as pretty tins, it’s results. So brushing it is.