“96% of Our Skin Is Below the Chin”: Joonbyrd’s Founder on Rethinking Body Care
Main image – Joonbyrd
As beauty addicts, we spend a remarkable amount of time thinking about the skin on our faces; investing in serums, acids, peptides and SPF, and scrutinising every new line or breakout in the bathroom mirror.
Yet according to dermatologist and Joonbyrd founder Dr Alexis Granite, we’re overlooking the vast majority of our skin. “Ninety-six per cent of our skin is below the chin,” she points out – a fact that’s strangely easy to forget in a beauty world where body care is still so often treated as an afterthought.
Yet, over almost two decades treating patients in both the UK and the US, Dr Alexis repeatedly saw body concerns like crepey skin, rough texture, and pigmentation that weren’t being properly addressed by the products available. Because while facial skincare raced ahead with increasingly sophisticated ingredients, body care remained largely focused on fragrance and texture rather than results.
Image – Joonbyrd
That disconnect ultimately led her to launch Joonbyrd, a brand built on the idea that body skin deserves the same scientific attention as our faces, without sacrificing the pleasure of using it.
Here, I speak to Dr Alexis about why body care is finally having its moment, the skincare habits she wishes more people adopted, and why science and sensory experience should never have been competing priorities in the first place.
Sensorial vs medicinal
“Patients would come to me frustrated by concerns like crepey skin, dryness, uneven tone, keratosis pilaris and loss of firmness,” Dr Alexis tells me, “ yet the products available were often purely sensorial and fragrance-led. The few performance body products available felt very medicinal.”
“I wanted to create a brand that treated body skin with the same scientific rigour we expect from facial skincare, while still making daily body rituals something people genuinely look forward to.”
Image – Joonbyrd
“Body skin responds to active ingredients just as facial skin does, yet most body products do not include active ingredients.”
Enter: Joonbyrd, a body care brand that combines bathroom-shelf appeal with ingredients you’d normally expect to find in facial skincare. (Think adaptogenic botanicals, biomimetic peptides, and hyperpigmentation busters like liquorice root).
Results don’t have to feel clinical
The kicker, though, is that while most of us want our body care to tackle the issues that actually bother us, we’re rarely willing to sacrifice the ‘fun’ part of the experience. That’s a dichotomy that Dr Alexis has tried to bridge.
“Efficacy is essential, but if a product doesn’t feel lovely and sensorial to use, especially on the body, many people simply won’t use it consistently enough to see results,” she says.
“The best skincare sits at the intersection of science and pleasure. Beautiful textures, thoughtful fragrance and a luxurious experience encourage consistency, and consistency is what ultimately delivers healthier skin.”
Image – Joonbyrd
And she’s convinced that the future of body care looks less fragrance-free, more fun-but-effective.
“The future isn’t science versus sensory – it’s science enhanced by sensorial experience,” she goes on. “When you combine clinically proven ingredients with textures and scents that genuinely improve your mood, skincare becomes something much more meaningful, and contributes to our overall well-being, with benefits that go way beyond just skin deep.”
Why your skin is doing more than you think
This isn’t simply about how our skin looks and feels though, Dr Alexis emphasises. Increasingly, dermatology is becoming part of a much wider discussion about longevity and whole-body health.
“Body care isn’t simply about appearance. It’s about supporting the skin barrier, protecting long-term skin health and creating daily rituals that contribute to overall well-being.”
“We now know skin is not just a window into our health, but actually an active participant… The more we think about longevity and overall wellness, the more body skin comes into the conversation.”
In fact, it’s an area that’s attracting huge amounts of research. Rather than simply asking how we can make skin look younger, scientists are increasingly exploring what healthy skin might tell us about healthy ageing more broadly. One concept in particular has caught Dr Alexis’ attention: inflammaging, the chronic, low-grade inflammation that comes with ageing.
WHAT IS INFLAMMAGING?
- Inflammaging is the chronic, low-grade inflammation that naturally builds up as we age.
- Scientists believe it plays a role in many visible signs of ageing, as well as age-related diseases.
- Researchers are now exploring how supporting skin health may help reduce markers of inflammaging.
“I’m also very interested in our growing understanding of the connection between skin health and overall health – and specifically the science of inflammaging.”
“Our Future Romance Longevity Body Glaze showed measurable reductions in key markers of inflammaging… meaning the formula isn’t just improving the appearance of the skin, it’s addressing some of the underlying biological processes that drive premature ageing.”
The category, she believes, is only just getting started. As research develops, body care is likely to become less about pampering alone and more about supporting skin as an active part of our long-term health.
Despite all the science though, she tells me that an ideal body care routine doesn’t have to look complicated in practice. “Keep it simple. Cleanse gently, apply a high-quality moisturiser while your skin is still slightly damp to help lock in hydration and don’t forget sunscreen on any exposed areas,” she tells me.
The key here, she explains, is keeping at it – advice which most experts will emphasise. “I do think people underestimate the importance of consistency… The skin on our bodies is thicker than that of the face and so visible results often take time, at least 4-6 weeks.”
Image – Joonbyrd
“People often think dermatologists have access to some kind of secret treatment, but I promise we don’t! The biggest difference for me has simply been moisturising my body every day. It’s something I’ve done consistently for years, since I was a teen, and I’ve seen first-hand how much it helps maintain healthy, resilient skin.”
The takeaway
One of the biggest surprises from speaking to Dr Alexis isn’t that body care has become more sophisticated – anyone who’s watched the steady rise of the beauty economy since the pandemic will probably have seen this inevitable next step coming. Rather, for me, it’s how much potential a decent body care routine has to impact our overall health.
With the conversation around pro-ageing , longevity and biohacking only getting hotter- and as somebody who has *most definitely* never been tempted by a 5am ice bath- I’m quietly delighted to learn that one of the easiest investments I can make in my future health might simply begin with remembering to moisturise below my chin.
Get Glowing!
