In an effort to avoid damaging your epidermis but still have a healthy youthful glow, many celebrities and sun worshipers are resorting to sunless tanning using products DIY products from the Chemist up the street!
As much as the advertisements would love for you to believe that it is easy as as spray dry and go I think we have learned (the hard way) that ALOT more goes in to securing the PERF Faux-Glow.
All though preparation and application strategies play a huge part in how your sunless tanning sesh turn out (not to mention the basic make up of you individual complexion) at the end of the day it all comes down to the quality - and user friendliness - of the product you use.
We've found through extensive experimentation (evening spent in our loo with rubber gloves and a tub of moisturizer personally testing products) and thorough research (talking with our girlfriends via mobile or over cocktails about which ones they've tried out) 3 products that really work well, look natural, last and are easy to use! Here are Miss Emerald Apple's findings:
I myself am fortunate (in my own opinion only) to have the type of skin that tans as opposed to some of the more fare Irish ladies out there. Regardless, the first few weeks of summer, when the weather is fine for short skirts and bare legs but our pasty ashy stems are not, is a necessary time for us to smooth on some fake tan slap!So I picked up bottles of what I was told were the Top Three Sunless Tanning products. They would all minimize the likelihood of streaking, uneven colour, drips, inconsistency, and of course - the dreaded after effect of turning totally ORANGE! Okey Doke...we'll see...
Neutrogena Sunless Tanning Spray, Au Courant Sunless Tanning Spray and Moroccan Mineral Tanning Lotion are all products that say the provide a to natural, easy to apply, cancer-free tan. I wasn't so sure but I'm game for anything(that washes off!)
I used all three of these products - with a stretch days between all and allowed them all to wear off at their leisure, not showering and washing any more or less than I normally would.This is what I found out:
I paid just about 15 Euro for the army-issue looking aluminium bottle with aerosol nozzle of Neutrogena. It looked more like something Bear Grylls would would have in his ruck sack to keep himself cool for a trek across the Sahara rather than a product that is going to make me glow like Jenny Aniston but who knows!
So the instructions were simple enough - apply evenly over clean dry skin, spraying six inches away from your body. After a good 15 minute scrub-sesh in my steam room shower with help of my trusty loofah I got down to business! I recruited the BF for the hard to reach spots so that I was even all over.
I paid just about 15 Euro for the army-issue looking aluminium bottle with aerosol nozzle of Neutrogena. It looked more like something Bear Grylls would would have in his ruck sack to keep himself cool for a trek across the Sahara rather than a product that is going to make me glow like Jenny Aniston but who knows!
So the instructions were simple enough - apply evenly over clean dry skin, spraying six inches away from your body. After a good 15 minute scrub-sesh in my steam room shower with help of my trusty loofah I got down to business! I recruited the BF for the hard to reach spots so that I was even all over.
I sort of imagined that it would spray right out of the can a brownish-golden colour, like a can of spray paint, an shellac me on the spot. I really did not know what to think about this product other than that of all the bargain fake tanners this is *supposedly* the best.
More like spray on SPF, the Neutrogena Sunless Tanner was colourless and odorless too! We washed our hands and I let it air dry before I dressed, putting on then only cotton lose clothing. It wasn't sticky and it didn't cause any sort of irritation or reacting to my skin- all pros for this one so far! That DID NOT last long...
Within hours large burnt sienna patches sprung up on my torso while my limbs were covered in citron streaks! Sweet.....'Honey, get me the loofah again!' I was not going to wait to the morning to see how much worse this was going to get!
***Little Hint; When removing god-awful fake tan like this try this sneaky little exfoliation concoction - 3 large spoonfuls of table salt, to half a pint glass of lemon juice and half a pint glass of water then scrub, scrub, scrub!***
I waited a few days before trying the the next product to be sure that all the horrid Neutrogena residue was off my bod (and because I had a business meeting to go to for which i had know desire to show up at looking like Chantalle Houghton). Nest up was the much hyped Celag/Xpose fave of Au Courant. Wary as I was from the first DIY Spray Tan Session, I figured so many glam ladies claim to swear by this and almost always look sun kissed t must be worth a shot!
I followed the same procedure as last time - Mr. Loofah, my boyfriend getting the out o' reach areas. etc. - and followed the bottles instruction to the T. it mind sound silly but by paying double the price (nearly 30 euro as apposed to 15) i did feel safer! "It is expensive it has got to be good!" Thinking like that had gotten me in trouble in the past but I was hopeful that it would pay off here.
Au Courant Instant Sunless Tanning Spray goes on so easily and dries almost instantly. It smells of yummy bananas and did not leave oddly shaped blotches across my body! The color was even and my skin felt good. It took a few hours longer to start to see a change in shade on my skin than the first product but when it did begin to come up it looked very even and natural. I looked tanned and healthy, and I did not have to visit a tanning bed or lay in the sun to do it.
I did like Au Courant Sunless Tanning Spray better than Neutrogena Sunless Tanning Spray because of its more natural shade. The fact that Au Courant goes on at a slightly brown tiny made it easier to see where I had applied it and what spots I missed but the fact the it dried so quickly made it hard to judge how well it had set and if another later need to be applied.
As far as the spray-on went Au Courant was heads and tails above Neutrogena - no questions- but I had a third product I had to try!
Recommended by an Aesthetician gal pal in NY Extended Vacation is a mineral based -I guess we will call it a cream - sunless tanner that was supposed to be incredible natural, easy to apply, and last far longer than anything else on the market. At nearly 55 euros, I was thinking a gorgeous Brazilian man better come out of the bottle and slather me up himself! The package was cute, with an adorable little cartoon of a tan glam lady having a fab time! This was reassuring!
Same exfoliation procedure, pretty much same directions - just with this one it was apply evenly to clean dry skin using rubber gloved hand.
It smelt mildly of the ocean when I sniffed it from the tube but then - JAYSUS!! - It's green! A greeny-brown sludgey cream squirted out into my hand. My boyfriend looked at me with a face that half said 'Ha-ha' like that mean kid in the Simpons and half said 'You are not rubbing that stuff all over you body and then getting under the same sheets as me tonight.'
"Start Rubbing", I snapped! "and make it even!"
The greenness made it easy to apply evenly, but it was pretty much impossible to rub all the way in. As hard as I did it, I still looked like I was covered in a thin layer of filth, not cute. The smell that initially made me think of the ocean, now smelt like the Shannon River - at low tide, in Limerick, near the bus station -Yuk!
Too exhausted, disappointed and pissed off to break out the lemon juice, I threw on an over-sized cotton t-shirt of my boyfriend's, much to his anger, and hooped into bed! "Pisse off " I thought! "the world will just have to deal with seeing my pasty legs in short skirts till I have enough time and good weather to hit the beach for a real tan!" With that I went to sleep.
I awoke the next morning and for a minute had forgotten the debacle the night before.
The mucky river smell was gone!
I looked down at my arm and it no longer looked as though I had jumped in a bog and dried myself off with dirty towel.
It was brown, tanned! Evenly and naturally!
I ran to the mirror and threw off the shirt - I was beautifully evenly tanned all over! HOORAY!
5 Days later was the first time I notice the product begin to slightly fade. 10 days later I definitely looked like I had spent some time in the sun!
So here is what it comes down to; Spend the 55 euro on this stuff, it will last you forever. and rather than reapply it completely every 12 days, touch it up with one of the less expensive spray-on options. If your budget allows than yes, go for Au Courant, if not there are others out there that I am sure will suffice.
But, no. I will NOT experiment with anymore of them! Do your own grunt work! xxox
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