10 Reasons Women Over 60 Down South Have Desert-Dry Shins (Blame the AC) and Switched to This Body Oil

1. Blame the AC: it pulls the water out of the air, then out of your skin

It surprises almost every new client who sits in my chair in Sarasota: they live in one of the most humid states in America, and their skin is dry. The reason is simple: they hardly ever breathe Florida air. It's house, car, grocery store, church, doctor's office, and the restaurant so cold you carry a cardigan in your purse in August. Every one of them runs the AC from April to November. In Arizona and West Texas, you get it twice: desert air outside, AC inside.

An air conditioner doesn't just cool the air. It wrings the water out of it. That's the water you see dripping from the little pipe outside your house, gallons of it on a humid July day. Then the vents blow that wrung-out air across your arms and legs all day, and it takes water back wherever it can find it: first from your lotion, which is mostly water in the first place, then from the top layer of your skin. That's the lotion that feels fine at breakfast and is gone by the time you park at the grocery store. ADIRA Botanical Body Oil is made without a drop of water, so the vents have nothing to dry out. Smoothed on damp skin after your shower, it holds the shower's water in, from the house to the car to the flight north.

2. A spritz of water or the little hotel lotion feels good for a minute. Then the AC takes it back

When skin feels tight, the reflex is to add water. A spritz from the little mist bottle in your purse. The tiny bottle of lotion by the hotel sink. It feels lovely for about a minute. Then the dry air takes that water back, and your skin can feel even tighter than before you sprayed. Hotel lotion is mostly water too, so it disappears just as fast. Adding water to skin in dry air is like watering the lawn at noon in July: much of it goes right back up into the air.

“But doesn't an oil just sit on the surface?” The surface is exactly where the AC does its damage. Think of the weatherstripping around your front door: without it, the cool air you pay for leaks out all day. Your skin has its own weatherstripping, a thin seal of natural fats in its top layer, and after 60 the body makes less of it. ADIRA helps put that seal back with plant fats your skin recognizes: squalane and jojoba, the nearest thing to the oil your skin makes itself; sunflower and rosehip, rich in linoleic acid, one of the building blocks of that seal; rice bran and argan, with plant sterols. A mist adds water that walks right out the door. Oil puts the weatherstripping back, so the water stays in.

3. Your shins look ready for capris and sandals again

Down here, your legs are on show twelve months a year: capris, shorts, sandals, the walk on the beach. And shins are where the AC shows first. The lower legs have very few oil glands, so in cool, dry air that skin goes tight, dull and ashy, with fine white lines that appear the minute you put on shorts.

While your legs are still damp from the shower, smooth one pump down each leg, knee to ankle. That tight feeling eases within the first few days, and the skin looks visibly softer and smoother in 3–4 weeks. No more reaching for long pants in 90-degree weather just to hide your shins.

“I live in shorts in Tampa, and my shins looked chalky by lunch. A few weeks of this after my shower and I stopped hiding them.” — Carol, 71, Tampa, Florida

4. The air on the plane is drier than most deserts. Seal your skin before you leave home

Then comes the trip to see the grandkids. Much of the air inside a plane comes in from outside at 35,000 feet, where the air holds almost no water, so up there the cabin is drier than most deserts. Three hours to Chicago or Columbus in that air, after a morning in the AC, and you land with tight shins, dry arms and hands that catch on your sweater. Keep drinking your water on the flight. It's just not the whole story, because the dry air pulls from the outside of your skin.

That's why the most important moment of travel day happens at home: the shower before you leave for the airport. Pat yourself half-dry, then 2–3 pumps on damp skin: legs, arms, the backs of your hands. It's absorbed in about a minute, so your travel slacks go right on, and your skin leaves home already sealed. When you arrive, do the same after your first shower at your daughter's house.

5. Your hands feel soft when the grandkids grab them at the airport

Hands take the worst of travel day. Airport soap, hand sanitizer, suitcase handles, the dry cabin air, and hours of AC before you even leave home. By the time the grandkids come running at the bottom of the escalator, the backs of your hands can look dull and crinkly, and your knuckles feel rough.

After your shower, work what's left on your palms into the backs of your hands and between your knuckles, then once more at bedtime in the guest room. It's absorbed in about a minute, so nothing ends up on the baby's blanket or the car-seat straps. Soft hands for the part of the trip that matters most.

“My grandson held my hand all the way to the car and said, ‘Grandma, your hands are so soft.’ That was the whole trip for me.” — Linda, 69, Scottsdale, Arizona

6. Your legs stop itching under the ceiling fan at night

In the South, the AC doesn't take the night off. Most of us set it at 72, turn the ceiling fan on high and pull the sheet up. That's eight more hours of cool, dry air moving straight across your legs and arms. The bedtime lotion rides that breeze away long before morning, and the dry skin on your shins and the backs of your arms starts to prickle just as you drift off.

An oil gives the fan nothing to carry off. Smoothed on after an evening shower, it's absorbed in about a minute and still there at sunrise, with bisabolol, the calming compound found in chamomile, to soothe that dry-skin itch. Your skin stays soft and comfortable, so the fan can stay on and you can stay asleep. Nothing greasy on your cotton sheets, just a soft hint of vanilla. Same routine in a hotel room where the wall unit rattles all night.

7. It sinks in within about a minute, even when it's 94 degrees outside

The first thing Southern women ask me: “Oil? In this heat?” I understand. Nobody wants to feel sticky crossing a parking lot in October. The secret is where and how much: in the bathroom, on damp skin, 2–3 pumps, not a handful.

On damp skin, ADIRA spreads thin and sinks in within about a minute. No shine, no film, nothing on your linen blouse or the car seat. That's why it pairs so well with sleeveless tops: arms look smooth and soft, not greasy. The whole routine takes about 40 seconds, so you're dressed and out the door before the sun gets high.

8. Start now, and your skin is ready before the Thanksgiving flight

Soft skin doesn't happen the morning of the flight. Your skin feels more comfortable within the first few days, and it looks visibly softer and smoother in 3–4 weeks. Count back from Thanksgiving, and that means starting now, before the airports get busy and the family starts calling about who sleeps where.

Keep one bottle by your shower and one that lives in your suitcase, so the routine doesn't stop when you're up north for a week. Same two pumps after every shower: at home, at the hotel, in the guest bath. If your big trip is at Christmas, you're already ahead. Flying sooner? Start tonight. Your skin still leaves home sealed.

9. It costs less than the lotions, mists and travel minis you keep buying

Count them up: the pump lotion by the sink, the hand cream in every purse, the water mist in the car, the travel-size lotions you grab at the drugstore before every trip, and the little hotel bottles you bring home. The pile adds up fast, and your shins are still tight by lunch, because most of it is water.

With today's Buy 2, Get 1 Free, ADIRA works out to $19.97 a bottle: three bottles for $59.90. One by your shower, one that lives in your suitcase, and one for the daughter you're flying to see, or for your sister in Phoenix who swears the desert is “a dry heat.”

10. You get 90 days, through both holiday trips, to see the difference

Ninety days is long enough to cover the holiday trips. That's a real test: the AC at home, the flights, the guest room, the hotel. Use it after every shower. If your skin doesn't look and feel better, you get a full refund within 90 days.

My guess? By the Christmas trip, you won't leave for the airport without those two pumps.