Fake Tanning | Beauty

Now the sun has come out, I've realised how damn pasty I am. I never went on a sun holiday lasted year to my poor skin is lacking some serious vitamin D. It's not quite warm enough to sunbathe just yet so instead I turn to the master of fakery - fake tan. 

I love a bit of fake tan but I'm really paranoid that I will end up orange so I'm always very cautious of the fake tans I use. As you can see pictured above there are two I go for which are the Cocoa Brown tan and St Tropez Gradual Tan. 

I think the St Tropez bottle is from last year so it may look a little different in shops now but you can definitely still get it. I love this fake tan! It's one I have used for years, I usually hate "gradual" tanners because it takes so long to build up a nice colour but this one I whack on a tanning mitt and smother it over my body. I would definitely advise on using a tanning mitt with the St Tropez Gradual Tan because the colour does take to the skin quite well and it just saves you from having orange hands. Also I think you get a much better looking tan with a mitt, less streaks! Another major selling point is that it works amazingly as a moisturiser as well, my skin always feels so soft after using this gradual tan. 

Moving onto Cocoa Brown Tan, this tan I picked up last year on a whim. What I really like about this tan is that you can leave it on for 3 hours for a dark tan or just for 1 hours for a light sun kissed glow. I like the colour, of the Cocoa Brown tan, it really does have a deeper colour than just your standard orange tan. I also really like the scent of this one too and the price point is actually pretty low.  Again, always use a mitt. 

Sometimes, I layer both products together. So I'll use the Cocoa Brown tan all over my body for a couple of hours, wash it off and then add the St Tropez one over the top it make for a quite a nice shade but it's fairly noticeable that you've been tanning. 

What are your favoruite fake tans?

Fake tanning with Cocoa Brown…

I literally am in love with Cocoa Brown fake tan. Honestly, I’m seriously impressed.

We all love a healthy glow and ideally we’d all want it to be a natural beach tan but let’s face it, it never lasts and most are super concerned about skin damage from the sun. I’m a lover of fake tan but recently I’ve got bored with my St Tropez Gradual Tan moisturiser and just gave up on a my fake tan routine altogether. Recently I’ve actually read quite a lot about Cocoa Brown fake tan and seen a lot of before and after images on Instagram so I definitely wanted to try it. I stumbled across it in Superdrug (Here) it’s only £7.99 so snapped it up straight away.

I was SO excited to try this product but knew I didn’t have time to have a shower to exfoliate, put the product on and then wait a few hours and wash it off. So I thought I would quickly try it on my belly, let’s face it no one is going to see it so it didn’t matter if it was a little patchy.

The product advises that if you want a light glow only leave it on for an hour, a little darker then leave it for 2 hours and then dark leave for 3 hours.

The application

I’m new to using foam/mousse fake tans at first it got a bit crazy I sprayed a little too much on my mitt but once I started rubbing it in, it evened out fine. I was utterly amazed how wonderful it smelled, didn’t smell like all the other fake tans it had a floral scent that was actually floral. The scent reminded me of dry shampoo a little bit. Another great thing about this product was that dried so quickly I was able to wear a top over my belly.

I wanted to see how dark it can go so wanted to leave it on for the maximum amount of time. So I decided to leave it on whilst I slept**, bearing in mind I put this on at like 11 at night I wasn’t going to wake myself back up at like 1am just to wash it off.

The results

The next morning I woke up and the colour was great. I didn’t really want to put a full on shot of my belly on here (nobody needs to see that) so I thought I would show a tiny comparison between my arm and my belly just so you can see the contrast.

Quite a difference isn’t it. Please excuse the freckly arm, it hasn't see much sun since last year to be honest.

The colour is great, not as orange as most other fake tans and even when I washed it off still hardly any fake tan smell at all. The tan is really even, thanks to the mitt but also thanks to the product I believe because I have applied other fake tans with mitts and still can be a little streaky.

I also put it on my arms and chest and I’m so happy with the results. I actually feel normal again, I have a healthy glow. It was quite hard getting a picture if my chest and arms without it looking a little weird so here are my best attempts...

Looks a little orange here but it really isn't

In the day time

It’s supposed to last 5-7 days so we’ll see if that’s true, but I’m certain it will because it’s lived up to expectations thus far. It’s a bargain and it really is worth every penny.

Have you tried this product yet?




**in my case the fake tan didn’t transfer onto my bedding  this was a risk I was happy to take, it’s up to you whether you’d be happy to sleep in it.