Dr Alexis Granite is about as close as you can get to joy in human form. Smiling and giggling warmly, a stack of colourful, beaded and smiley-faced charm bracelets spirals up her right arm. She’s endlessly forthcoming with hints and tips, enthusing about how much she loves beauty and the little things that give her joy in a day.

So committed is she to nostalgia and joy that each of the products in her Joonbyrd collection has its own joyful world and personality. All of the fragrances have been designed to elicit a specific joy factor, whether that’s playful, thoughtful, optimistic, cosy or comforting.

Her most important tip for improving skin health is to reduce stress. “It’s easy to say, but stress is a huge one,” she says. “You have to identify what that stress is and what you can do about it.”

She is shocked at how few of us moisturise our hands and bodies. “Around 96% of your skin is not on your face, and that’s often totally neglected,” she says. “I do a lot of skin exams for moles, and especially in the winter, people take off their clothes and there’s skin everywhere. I’m like, ‘You need some moisturiser!’ I feel naked without moisturiser.”

After seeing many patients come into her dermatology clinic with concerns regarding their skin below the chin that mirrored what they saw on their faces, she decided to create a collection of products that filled this gap in the market. 

“Often with bodycare, you have to choose either fragrance-led or clinical. With Joonbyrd, you have both. It’s marrying what I love about what I do with the clinical side – the clinical ingredients and results, married to the joy and nostalgia I feel around beauty. Everything is centred around fragrance, colour, the sensorial aspect of using the products – that’s the joy – and then the more clinical elements. But, equally, you get joy from the clinical stuff, too, once you see that your skin looks and feels better.”

The category is trending, too. There’s a wave of brands launching smart bodycare products with skincare-grade ingredients, from Q+A’s brand new AHA Body Lotion, an active packed two-in-one exfoliator and moisturiser powered by glycolic, lactic and fruit acids to Necessaire’s daily treatment cleanse with gentle exfoliating acids and resveratrol to soften skin and Byoma’s Brightening body lotion with niacinamide.

Joonbyrd’s new smoothing body serum, Kaleidoscope, launched this week and uses ingredients usually associated with performance facial skincare, including azelaic acid to gently yet effectively exfoliate and target the appearance of keratosis pilaris (those dry, rough patches and tiny bumps often on the upper arms).

Dr Granite adds: “This is really exploring a new fragrance, all of the Joonbyrd fragrances are gourmand, but this is very fruity and floral. It’s inspired by all my patients with those bumps on the back of their arms, which people can feel very insecure about. It’s very smoothing and brightening. It’s also great for your elbows.”

The Joonbyrd hand and body collection uses four key types of ingredients to combat stress, repair the skin barrier, support the skin’s microbiome and improve the texture and appearance of the skin. Everything is formulated to focus on four different pillars, many of which would typically be associated with performance skincare for our faces.

Dr Granite adds: “The hero ingredient in Kaleidoscope is shikimic acid. It’s sort of like a stronger cousin to the alpha hydroxy acid that you know and love like glycolics. Then it’s got polybutamic acid, it’s got blueberry seed and blueberry seed oil which is all about protecting against blue light and environmental aggressors. Then it’s got incredible botanicals like carrot extract, papaya and tomato as well as lactose bacteria in there which is great for pigmentation, so it’s really loaded.”

Whether you are after a lotion or serum for specific concerns like keratosis pilaris or a bodywash that will effectively exfoliate, moisturise and protect your skin this summer, there’s plenty to choose from and an abundance of delicious scents.

Images: Joonbyrd; courtesy of brands