The new creams that help you fake Kate’s great legs

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Ah, to be a Duchess — it seems to come with a guarantee of spectacular pins.

Let’s face it, Kate and Meghan could give each other a muscle-toning run for their money in the lithe leg department. But it was Kate who had all eyes on stilts when she stepped off a catamaran in Plymouth last month, sporting breezy nautical-style shorts by Holland Cooper.

Her legs looked impossibly toned, while her skin was lightly tanned, shimmering and flawless. To some extent she can credit her mother for this; great skin and elegantly turned ankles are in the genes, and will last her a lifetime. Thanks, Carole.

It was Kate who had all eyes on stilts when she stepped off a catamaran in Plymouth last month, sporting breezy nautical-style shorts by Holland Cooper

But the next best secret to getting great legs is exercise, and here Kate comes up trumps again. She is a sports lover who’s spent her life enjoying pretty much every type of exercise and competitive game (hockey, tennis, sailing, yoga, running, scuba diving, rowing, weights . . . phew).

Dalton Wong, a personal trainer at London’s Twenty Two Training, says: ‘Dancing, swimming, power-walking, taking those 10,000 steps a day — the more you move in different ways, the shapelier your legs will be.’

Prefer to take a more indulgent route? You’re in luck! A vogue for incorporating facial skincare ingredients in body products has led to an avalanche of hard-working lotions and potions that can smooth, tighten and even out less-than-aristocratic legs.

Here are the best of the lot, along with clever tricks, tools and treatments to help.

Brush up to tone

Legology Lymph-Lite Boom Brush for Body, £16, legology.co.uk

So low-tech yet so effective, there are few things better for legs than body brushing. Done religiously, (every day for a minute or two) it de-puffs; banishes mottled colour, rough patches and uneven texture; boosts hydration and glow; and can also help firm skin and shift fat pockets.

Use firm, long strokes upwards, towards the lymph nodes in your groin, before showering.

The cellulite-shifter

Weleda Birch Cellulite Oil, £27.25, weleda.co.uk

Butcher’s broom (a small, evergreen shrub), birch, citrus and cypress aromatic essential oils are considered efficient cellulite-shifters for their detoxifying, draining and circulation-boosting properties.

You can spend a small fortune on luxury anti-cellulite creams, but you’ll find the same ingredients in this energising massage oil, where a little goes a long way. Use it for a vigorous daily massage, working from the ankles up.

Soothe swelling

Margaret Dabbs Firming Leg Serum, £45, margaretdabbs.co.uk

Heavy, tired ankles suffer from stagnant fluids and need stimulation. Move and elevate your legs whenever you can, and for instant relief use this gel.

Alcohol and menthol give a cooling sensation while toning essential oils and ginger extract reduce water retention.

A smooth operator

Cerave SA Smoothing Cream with Salicylic Acid, £10, boots.com

Those rough, red bumps on your inner thighs — dubbed ‘chicken skin’ or ‘strawberry legs’ — are caused by tiny hairs trapped in their follicles. Distinctly undignified for a Duchess.

Get rid of them in mere days, and prevent their return, with an exfoliating, acid-based cream like this one from Cerave (which is great value). It will gently free the follicles and soften skin.

High-end hydration

U Beauty The Super Body Hydrator, £118, theubeauty.co.uk

If you’re going to pay serious money for a body cream, it had better offer some seriously good results. This one definitely does.

With high levels of niacinamide (a form of vitamin B3), peptides, exfoliating acids and vitamin C, this can plump and firm crepey skin over time, as well as even out its colour. Best of all, it leaves limbs with a long-lasting, muted sheen that is suspiciously similar to the one Kate is sporting in those shorts.

The tan perfector

Isle of Paradise Shape and Glow Big Blending Brush, £13.95, theisleofparadise.com

Yes, it seems like a lot of hassle, but using a body application brush — basically an oversized foundation brush — for applying fake tan can get you the streak-free, golden results you never managed with your hands or a tanning mitt.

It works with mousses and water sprays such as Hawaiian Tropic Self Tan Water (£10, hawaiian-tropic.co.uk), dispersing the formulas for an even coat.

Particularly genius for avoiding tide marks around the knobbly bits of your ankles and knees.

Wash-off wonder

S19 Super FX Body Make-up, £16.66, boots.com

For instant banishment of mottled patches, thread veins and stretch marks, reach for body make-up. It won’t improve the long-term look of your legs, but it will trick the garden party into thinking you have fabulously gleamy, blemish-free pins.

This one comes in ten shades, which you can either match to your skin tone or use to give your legs a wash-off tan by going one or two shades darker. It has an elegant, soft-focus finish and is water and transfer-resistant.

Glide on easily with your hands or an application brush, which the brand sells separately.

It lasts until you wash it off with soap and water.

Blurred lines

Stria Lab Stretch Mark Cream, £40, strialab.com

Stubborn stretch marks are almost impossible to shift. But for those that are relatively fresh, a power-packed cream can make them less visible. It can also help to prevent them.

This new-to-market formula relies on a clinically proven blend of Tiger Grass (Centella) extracts and a cell-energising plankton complex to repair and thicken the stretched tissues in three months.

The thick, silky cream also has a ‘silk stocking’ effect to blur out imperfections instantly.

The fat-melter

Emerald Laser, from £175 per treatment, emeraldlaser.co.uk

Of all the new, in-clinic technologies that claim to sculpt your body, Emerald Laser has generated the most buzz.

Backed by independent clinical trials and FDA clearance in America (meaning the device is legally deemed to live up to its claims) as well as the UK’s CE medical mark (even more difficult to obtain than the U.S. one), the painless ‘cold laser’ shoots a specific wavelength of low-level photonic (light) energy into your cells, increasing their metabolism and so revving up their ability to heal and regenerate.

It means the under-the-skin toxins, fluids and damaged tissues that cause cellulite dimples can be better cleared out.

But the light also empties fat cells by making them temporarily leaky, resulting in fat loss in localised pockets (for example on the thighs and knees, if legs are an area of concern).

The treatment is painless (you simply lie under the lights and wait for them to work their magic), and requires six to 12 sessions, each lasting half an hour.

It can’t promise thighs like Kate’s, but yours will be visibly slimmer and better-toned than before — and will remain so, as long as you stay as active as the dazzling Duchess.

Ingeborg van Lotringen’s book Great Skin (£12.99, Gibson Square) is available to buy at mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3308 9193.



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