Ameliorate Transforming Body Lotion: Bye Bye Scrubs

I'm surprised to find that I haven't ever done a full and proper review on Ameliorate's cult body treatment, the lactic acid-loaded Transforming Body Lotion. I thought I had, but if I have then I can't see it! Which wouldn't be surprising, to be honest, because I can't see a thing without my glasses on, these days, and my glasses are currently at the opticians having bi-focal lenses put in. BI-FOCAL LENSES, people. It's the beginning of the end.

Anyway; there are very few dedicated, hard-working skincare products for the body that do more than just moisturise - you've got your brilliant soothers, like Cicaplast and Dermexa and CeraVe, and you've got your luxury oils and balms and whatnot, but when it comes to proper smoothing and brightening, the options are limited.

And in this relatively niche market of "performance" body treatments, Ameliorate make one of the most effective, non-hyped, nicely-formulated products I've ever tried. It exfoliates without being abrasive, it moisturises without leaving grease behind and it is bump-smoothing and surface-brightening without the need for any excess manual labour.

Because of course we have all done the crazy "body scrub dance" in the shower, haven't we? Assumed the semi-squat position so that we can more easily buff some overpriced sea salt into our buttocks. Lost all feeling in the palms of our hands (which is actually quite nice - tingly) because we've spent too long massaging our shins in a circular motion. Almost broken our necks slipping on the oily stuff that's left in the shower tray.

The problem is that many-to-most body scrubs are dire (the odd bit of apricot shell in an otherwise unremarkable, overly-runny shower gel) and the few that are serviceable (the gritty ones, like Clinique's Sparkle Skin) leave the bathroom looking as though you've had a fight in the kids' aisle of a craft shop. Glittery, sandy, gluey streaks and blobs all over the place. And don't even get me started on this craze for the ground coffee scrubs: no, no, no.

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So for those who wish to eschew manual scrubbing and a glitter-spattered bathroom, I have just the thing: Ameliorate Transforming Body Lotion. I'll say it one more time for those at the back, just in case they too want to find something effective and fast-working for their dry, rough skin or ingrown hairs or for their keratosis pilaris; you need Ameliorate. I actually get asked about keratosis pilaris a lot - it's often (very appetisingly) called "chicken skin", and comes in the form of tiny red bumps over the thighs, arms and/or back. I used to get it on my thighs when I was small - they looked quite like goosebumps, except that they were irritated, reddened goosebumps. I used to try to pick them off! The horror.

The best, most-proven remedy for KP seems to be gentle, non-abrasive exfoliation and the lactic acid in Ameliorate's body lotion provides just that. (I also know people who have had amazing results with Paula's Choice BHA Liquid, wiped on directly and left.) If you've ever used Good Genes from Sunday Riley, which is absolutely jam-packed with lactic (so much so that you can't actually buy that version now in the EU) then you'll know how immediate the exfoliating effects are.

And it's important to stress the difference between an acid exfoliant, like lactic acid or salicylic or glycolic, and a manual exfoliant like a scrub. If you do have bumps and itchiness, then quite often using a body scrub is counterproductive - maniacally scrubbing off the surface of your body in the shower is not only going to be quite irritating to your skin, but the problem (especially with keratosis pilaris) is deeper down anyway, so it's doubly pointless.

I'm always wary of raving about any kind of "miracle cure" for skin conditions, but the many online reviews of this body lotion speak for themselves. I've also farmed out a few tubes of this wonder treatment to friends with bumpy bits and the feedback has been - quite literally - glowing. It's not the most luxurious of body lotions - runny rather than creamy, slightly yoghurty in smell rather than anything particularly spa-like - but bloody hell, who cares? It's a worker, not a pamperer. If this cream was a holiday (random concept) then it would be one of those fitness boot camp retreats, not a ten day trip to the Maldives.

You can find Ameliorate at SpaceNK here* - £14.50 for 100ml - or at Amazon (authorised stockist) here*, £22.50 for 200ml.

Look; I won't judge you if you still want to scrub - I'm partial to a bit of a sandblasting session now and then, especially if it's in someone else's bathroom - but if you want to save yourself some energy and get fast, deep-down results rather than a superficial sort of skin smoothness, give this a try. There's also a brilliant bath milk I'm testing from Ameliorate, so I'll be back with a verdict on that shortly.