As a board-certified dermatologist with over 20 years of experience, Heather Woolery-Lloyd, MD knows just how important it is to keep your skin moisturized. And because the skin on her body is always dry, she has first-hand knowledge to support this understanding. But she has a secret—she hates putting on body lotion.
“If you really have dry skin and you’re busy like me and always running around, it’s hard to stop and put on a moisturizer,” says Dr. Woolery-Lloyd, who lives in Miami. But instead of foregoing moisturization, she leans on in-shower moisturizers. “Those in-shower body lotions and oils—I love those.” Right now, her go-to is the Dove Body Love Moisture Boost Pre-Cleanse Shower Butter ($10).
The Dove Moisture Boost Shower Butter is filled with hyaluronic acid and moringa oil to soften and hydrate your skin. It has a dewy, floral fragrance with notes of white sage, vanilla, and bamboo to make using it a ritual to look forward to. Dr. Woolery-Lloyd wets her skin, applies this all over her body, rinses, and then only uses soap where needed. Remember, derms say you only need to use soap on your underarms, groin, feet, and anywhere else where you’re visibly dirty. So even after she’s lathered up, the oils from the Dove pre-cleanse butter are still on her skin.
Moisturizing ingredients perform best on wet skin, so using them in the shower gives your skin even more moisture. “They’ve done studies, they did it in eczema, and they found that putting a moisturizer when the skin was wet, so within a minute of showering, increased the hydration more than,” those who applied on dry skin,” says Dr. Woolery-Lloyd.
If you want to incorporate an in-shower moisturizer like Dove Moisture Boost Shower Butter into your routine, you’ll love the time it saves you and how it makes your skin feel. The only downside? “They can make your bathtub slippery,” says Dr. Woolery-Lloyd. “So should be careful when rinsing it off because there can be an oily residue and it can be dangerous.”
Get more shower tips from a dermatologist: