Is your skin really ready for the big summer reveal?

If your arms are bumpy and legs the colour of Spam, don’t worry, says Rosie Green: start prepping now and they’ll look perfectly presentable when sunnier days arrive

Anxious at the thought of exposing legs that have been hibernating in 80 denier tights? Same.

When the temperature hits 20 degrees you may want to jettison your winter wardrobe – except you know your limbs are the colour of Spam and about as smooth as a doormat. Don’t worry, I have tips.

As a rookie beauty editor in the 1990s I learned that although you can’t change your god-given genes, you can fake them. I exfoliated, I moisturised, I self-tanned. I may not have looked like a supermodel, but at least I didn’t horrify passers-by every time I wore a skirt.

The good news is that all those products have improved dramatically. Exfoliators are now more effective and gentler. Moisturisers are loaded with ingredients that hydrate, but also remove dead skin cells. Fake tans aren’t patchy, nor do they make you smell like a packet of McVitie’s.

As we get older, the battle for presentable limbs gets tougher: spider veins proliferate and the rate at which your skin cells renew gradually declines. In fact, the average skin cycle dwindles from 28 days to as many as

60 in midlife.

So even if it is raining as you are reading this, begin your body prep now, because being ready to bare requires a long run-up.

Start with exfoliation. This means a good body brushing every night or loading a shower mitt with your usual cleanser and giving yourself a once-over. A chemical scrub a couple of times a week will remove dead skin cells using active ingredients rather than grains or granules. My tip is to apply it to dry skin a minute before you shower, so it has more time to work. Then get that skin hydrated. I like layering an actives-loaded moisturiser under a body oil. Once you’ve been doing that for a week, switch to a gradual self-tan as your moisturiser. I guarantee you will see results.

Today’s fake tans are no longer patchy nor do they smell of biscuits