This time last year, I had two phobias - snakes and revealing my upper arms. While I still shudder at the thought of reptiles (I don’t think there’s a cream that will help with that), my arms have been given the green light.
Having spoken to a lot of people (ok, women), it seems I’m not alone. The chat was always along the lines of, "I wish I could wear this, but I hate showing my arms," or on particularly low-morale days, "I can’t show my arms because they’re hideous; I’m sure you’ve noticed." I was bored of myself, not to mention sweaty under heavy t-shirts on sizzling days.
The thing is, I’ve never noticed anyone else’s arms, and all these whispery chats with my friends revealed that they - with their perfectly lovely, smooth arms - felt the same way I did. The whole thing is maddening. And so, sick of limiting myself to the sleeved sections of the shops, I armed myself with the best body moisturisers and set out on a mission to reveal my arms to the world. Scary? Yes. Liberating? Absolutely.
How our senior beauty editor gained confidence in showing her arms
It was, quite literally, exposure therapy when I rocked up at the office in a sleeveless t-shirt one sunny day. I intended to start slowly - a capped-sleeve tee here, a rolled-up sleeve there - but decided going all-in with both full arms on show was the best way to shock myself out of my funk.
I’m quite embarrassed to admit that it felt mildly terrifying. I felt like everyone knew that this was my arms’ first outing, but after a short while, I stopped thinking about them and simply carried on with my day.
I continued like this for the next few weeks, and the phases were always initial terror, acceptance, and then indifference. And that’s what I wanted - not to get on my body positivity soap box and feel the need to write a long Instagram caption or 500-word article about it (ahem). I wanted to simply not notice, care, or even think about pulling on that sleeveless knit.
A big part of this newfound arm bravery comes from a realisation that life’s too short - nobody cares, nobody notices, and summers are only getting warmer. It was an inner "come the f*ck on Bridget", moment, if you will.
But of course, as a senior beauty editor, this fear was also eased with the help of some skincare for the body. We can’t all be Monk-like with acceptance and inner peace - some of us need a little product-based hand-holding to feel like our most peaceful and zen selves. To me, it came in the form of two products.
RRP: £49
This is perfect for limbs that have been hidden away for a few months - or even years. It's an exfoliator without the slough, thanks to the AHA included in the formula. It melts away dead cells and scaly skin in seconds, with absolutely zero effort - it's better than even the best body scrubs, in my opinion. The result is super-smooth, touchably soft arms.
RRP: £12
What would the less-body-confident among us do without our best self tan? It doesn't bear thinking about. I prefer a gradual formula - it's easy to apply and provides a subtle glow immediately that you can deepen over the course of a few days. It generally requires zero prep, but the Gatineau exfoliator creates a perfectly smooth canvas for it to go on.
With or without some assistance from some skin-smoothing products, I hope that as the weather warms up you feel brave enough to show those arms. Life is too short to be sweating under long sleeves.
