From boom to bust: why neck-to-dec is skincare's hottest new erogenous zone

It's easy to forget what’s right under your nose, but a good skincare regime shouldn’t stop at your jawline.

In fact, the often neglected skin on your neck and chest is just as delicate as your face, meaning sun damage and ageing is often more visible there than the rest of your body and, crucially, harder to reverse.

As a result, neck-to-dec is the latest erogenous zone getting beauty buffs hot under the collar and with it comes a rise in specialist brands dedicated to tending to your décolletage with powerful facial-grade formulations.

One such brand is Stellar Décolletage — the first of its kind to focus solely on creating a luxury skincare regime for your bust. Currently spanning just three carefully conceived products, the Luminous Perfector Treatment Polish (£58, stellardecolletage.com) gently exfoliates using jojoba spheres and fruit acids, while the Velvet Restore Sleep Complex (£78) deeply conditions overnight.

During the day, its Elixir Extraordinaire Dry Mist Oil (£68) contains a rapidly-absorbing blend of six vitamin-rich oils, including Inca inchi and macadamia oils, to keep the area well hydrated.

SkinSense, founded by Abi Cleeve — the expert who brought cult Swiss suncare brand Ultrasun to the UK – is also shaking up the industry with its innovative “longwear skincare” line, which incorporates the same lamellar technology that’s found in one-application sun care into skincare formulas, meaning the active ingredients are guaranteed to keep working continuously all day and throughout the night. Among its hero products is its Firming Neck and Décolleté Cream (£36, skinsense.co.uk), which promises to protect against oxidative damage and lock in hard working, wrinkle-reducing ingredients such as zinc and soya oil.

Other mono-tasking products include Liz Earle’s Superskin Neck and Bust Treatment (£33, lizearle.com) — a lightweight serum, rich in omega-3 and antioxidants, to plump and smooth very dry or mature skin — and Dr Ceuticals Neck and Chest Lift (£19.99, boots.com), which boasts an added SPF 15 to protect against daily sun damage.

If long-term neck neglect has left you in need of a little extra TLC, NIOD’s Neck Elasticity Catalyst (£50, niod.com) is more than your average neck cream, utilising pro-elastin technologies to actively increase proteins, collagen and skin density and help the area — quite literally — bounce back, while Omorovicza’s Firming Neck Cream (£95, omorovicza.com) is designed to erase wrinkles and redefine from your jawline down.

As for giving your bust an uplift, Clarins’s Bust Beauty Extra-Lift Gel (£44, clarins.com) and This Works’s Perfect Cleavage Firming Lotion (£38, thisworks.com) both offer a targeted boost.

For a more intensive treat, LA-born cult facial spa brand Skin Laundry has launched a concentrated Rejuvenating Neck and Chest Sheet Mask (£14, harveynichols.com).

Laced with natural nutrients and 19 skin conditioning extracts, it’s exactly like a facial sheet mask and takes just 15 minutes.

What’s more, it works best when adopting a reclining position so now you can tackle your neck-to-dec while lying down.