Flabby tummy

Better posture takes five pounds off instantly and can help stop the dreaded 'bikini overhand'. So Joel Press, medical director of the Centre for Spine, Sports & Occupational Rehabilitation in Chicago, prescribes this simple posture-improvement exercise that can be done almost anywhere.

"Stand with you back against a wall, placing your heels a couple of inches away. With the chin tucked in, hold the buttocks, shoulder blades and the back of the head against the wall. Do this several times a day, holding it for 20 to 30 seconds."

Yoga and Alexander Technique (a one-pm-one posture-improvement programme) are longer term strategies which also strengthen the back and so make it easier to hold in your tummy.

Spot-targeted exercises firm up flab fast too. But if you have back or neck problems, you should consult an exercise expert before embarking on a tummy-tautening regime - stomach crunches and sit-ups can be bad news for bad backs.

To minimize the risk of injury, try this tummy tuck in the bath, the water (and the edge few the bath) supports you while you go through the motions. Lie back, grab a sponge or flannel between your feet, slowly raise legs as high as possible, pull in the stomach and hold to the count of three, then lower slowly. Repeat five times.

Although women's tummies don't ten d to accumulate 'orange-peel' flesh in the same way as our thighs and bottoms do, massaging in an anti-cellulite product tautens and smooths the skin -.

Rough skin

The fastest way to get skin glowing and gleaming healthily in no time? Body brushing, prescribed twice daily for maximum results. Top models swear bu its power to slough away dead skin cells and boost circulation. It rapidly banishes upper arm pimples too. Those teeny white bumps beneath the skin that can build up under wraps.

Some experts believe it can even help banish cellulite, by encouraging the elimination of toxins through the lymphatic systems, so helping to break down fatty pockets. Use a long handled body brush, with long upward, sweeping movements, start at the feet and work up the legs and across the hips, bottom and tummy.

Move to the arms, beginning at the hands, move up the arms to the shoulders. Always working towards the heart. Avoid the breast area, though or you risk soreness. You could also try a DIY 'scrubbing sack', take a gauze or cheesecloth square (10cmx10cm) and pile a tablespoon of dried chamomile or sage in the centre, with half a cup of oatmeal and three to four drops of our favorite essential oil, tie it with string or a pretty ribbon to create a little pouch and then use it in the bath or shower to scrub your skin clean.

Whisking away dead skin cells also gives your favorite moisturizer a chance to sink in deeply. So treat yourself to the body lotion of your favorite scent. Summer's alternative way to wear fragrance can cause skin to scorch or burn or trigger allergies.

Smooth in once, wait for it to sink in , then apply again to turbo charge the skin-smoothing, sense-drenching effects. But do ignore advice about applying moisture lotion to still-damp skin. Any moisture 'trapped' by the cream rapidly evaporates and although your favorite product will go further (and last longer), what you're really doing is applying alight film of moisture rather than the rich dose the skin really needs.

Backside 'bumps'

Fact: we sit on our bum too much. The result isn't simply a spreading bottom; skin on our behind can get rough and pimply and eventually. The squeamish can avert their eyes ere - can end up like a plucked chicken's. Keeping in a state of perpetual motion is the ultimate solution, but it's just not practical. So your best bet is shock tactics; a combined approach of body brushing 9you can afford to be vigorous) and salt scrubs.

Simply take a handful of alt and rub it in a circular motion around the knicker-line area, which tends to be where 'blips' occur. You could also try custom-blending your own aromatherapy salt scrub. Take an empty jam jar, fill halfway to the top with salt and drizzle in three tablespoons of almond oil. Add a combination of 30 drops of your favorite essential oils; screw on the cap and shake like crazy. Leave to stand; cap and shake like crazy. Leave to stand; the oils will be abosrbed by the salt, leaving you with an inexpensive (but highly effective) butt scrub.

Massage with an anti-cellulite product also helps move built-up toxins away from the area (our backsides act a bit like the body-s warehouse. Some experts believe that chemicals which the body can't deal with from food additives to pesticides are wrapped in fat and stored there. Only massage, activity and gently weight loss shift them).

Droopy breasts

Reversing gravity (not to mention the effects of hormonal changes like pregnancy) is a tall beauty order. Cold water and ice cubes work fleetingly but aren't viable on a long-term basis - although the seriously disciplined could try Clarins' Model Bust for an uplifting home hydrotherapy treatment: plugged onto the bath ( or basin) tap, it directs jets of cold water over the breasts to tighten and tone.

After which you apply treatments from Clarins' Bust care range: Bust Beauty Tonic, Bust Beauty Lotion and Bust Beauty Gel, which devotees swear by for their tautening, tightening effects.

Other bust-booster designed for daily use: Decloeor's Galbeor harmonie, Lancome's softening, tightening Energibuste and Shiseido's Essential energy Bust Firming Lotion, designed to soften and tighten.

In salons, Clarins also offers the Paris Method Bust Treatment, known as the Rolls Royce of Bust treatments. Definitely not for the terminally body-shy, it includes a check on deportment and skin elasticity, a bra check (to make sure yours is fulfilling its Best Supporting Role) and a skin-smoothing massage. A better long-term bet for bust firmness is exercise - like swimming ( the ultimate chest-firmer) or weight-training exercises spot-targeted to the pectoral muscles. The I-must-I-must-increase-my-bust exercises we did as teenagers - clasping our palms together, at bust level, and pressing them together - still work a treat too.

Scaly elbows

Blame all those chatty cappuccino with your elbows resting on the cafe table, if you like. Whatever the cause, most women's elbows tend to dryness, flakiness and a kind of ashy tone. Even industrial strength moisturizers don't seem to cure the problem but nature has the answer.



Here's the tip. A lemon and a handful of salt. Sprinkle the salt on the lemon which acts like a mild skin bleach and rest your elbows in the lemons for five to ten minutes (a perfect position for reading a magazine, as it happens).

Rinse, then moisturize. Repeating the treatment twice a week should make alligator elbows history.