Skinny Tan

Living in Buckinghamshire in the South of England means that my lilly-white legs, pasty palms and white wobbly bits are my year round apparel, as sadly on the several days of undivided hot sunshine that we manage to cling onto across the summer, for one reason or another I’m running indoors and out, tending to my two children or gathering annoying tan lines from my bra straps and clothing. As a teenager I first discovered the wonder of tanning with the use of sunbeds. I loved how my white washed-out looking skin became beautifully bronzed, healthy looking and gave me such a nicer warmer complexion. At one stage I was using sunbeds for twelve minutes a go several times a week for an all year round tan that cost me a pretty penny, but it was totally worth it for how great it made me feel. Fast forward a few years and the skin cancer scare came about, putting a stop to my use of sunbeds.

My Skinny Tan Has Arrived

Now that I’m 26 and a single parent to my two children, I decided to have a little pamper and some beauty treatments, one being a Saint Tropez spray tan at a local beauty salon. Instantly I fell in love with the beautiful golden-brown tan as it hid the tell-tale signs of sleepless nights and uneven skintones, and to my delight everybody asked me how my holiday had been. Without having the time or money to spend every week in a salon, I didn’t manage to maintain my professional tan for much more than a week when it gradually faded off. And now that summer is approaching and the sun is shining, I’ve been thinking about giving fake-tanning from home a go. I’ve been totally put off in the past about doing my own fake tan simply for the horror stories that I see when I step outside; girls with orange fingers, white armpits, streaky arms and uneven ankles which look absolutely horrendous and everybody can see that it’s a badly applied and poor quality fake tan. I always think that they’d look far better being ghostly white rather than embarrassingly tango’d. Needless to say, I never wanted to be one of those girls smelling of biscuits and looking bright orange, so I refrained from self tanning. That is until now. It is safe to say that I am a fake-tanning virgin, a complete beginner and possibly the best, or worst, person to review a tan because I’ll either completely mess it up and look like an oompa loompa for the entire week, or get it right somehow and prove that it is indeed entirely foolproof. This is going to be interesting…

Opening up my Skinny Tan package, I lined up the contents of a greeting information sheet, two sizes of tanning mitt, a tube of pre-tan primer and a tube of 7-day tanner. The pre-tan primer is an exfoliating and moisturising lotion that you use in the shower to tend to dry areas such as the knees, elbows and ankles to help in achieving a flawless tan; and it states on the tube that it is Australian made and owned, which if I’m not mistaken, is a pretty clued up country on maintaining the perfect tan. The information sheet explains how best to self-tan, with care and application instructions and tips in a friendly and human conversational manner; no ‘see diagram 1’ or beautician lingo and strange terminology that leaves you scratching your head and reaching for Google, just straight forward, helpful advice like you’d give to a friend. How refreshing. To give you a summary of the sheet it starts with the fact the tan has a guide bronzer, which means the tan itself goes on coloured so that you can see where you’ve applied it and not miss any bits. This isn’t the final colour however, it’s just there to help you to cover everything, big thumbs up! If the bronzer isn’t applied perfectly, it will still work as the colour develops beneath by reacting with the amino acids in your skin so will never look streaky when rinsed off. The Skinny Tan also goes a very long way, with a blob the size of a 10p covering an entire arm but you must ensure you don’t overwork it. Finally all you have to do is cover all of the areas that you want to tan and wait 5-10hrs before rinsing it off with a light shower. You can leave it on overnight if you want and the final shade will be a natural medium colour, which if you want to be darker you just apply another coat over the top. Finally the sheet is signed by Kate and Lou with a picture of two very pretty ladies smiling and holding the products, and I feel as though they’re my new BFF’s already for how simple and attainable they made it all sound. The proof is in the pudding, and let’s hope it’s a treacle sponge and not a double chocolate chip.

I began by taking a shower and using the pre-tan primer to exfoliate and moisturise my skin, which is a natural coloured cream with little brown balls to rub into the skin and it smells lovely. I also removed any unwanted hair and made sure that my skin was clean and fresh for everywhere that I wanted to tan. After towel drying I changed into a black strapless bra and french knickers ready for the tanning to commence. I peeled open the large tanning mitt which is water-resistant to ensure that your hands remain stain free, and the care instructions advised you can apply the tan directly onto the skin or mitt which can be machine washed at thirty degrees after use. I popped one hand into my mitt and decided to squirt a blob of tan onto the mitt first before rubbing it onto my shin. The tan came out of the tube as a gloriously glossy dark chocolate brown like pudding sauce and immediately I panicked that it looked too dark. However as I rubbed it into my leg it changed from a dark brown, to a medium chocolate, down to a light biscuit and rubbed in like a pale tinted moisturiser, how clever. As I bent, twisted, turned and assessed my white bits in the mirror, after several minutes I had covered my entire body and was happy with the results. Despite it being my guide colour, I instantly fell in love with it, and although in places it did look a little streaky, if this was my final finish I’d still be really proud of myself for my first attempt.

As I have bright white Egyptian cotton bedding, I panicked at the thought of staining my sheets with fake tan, so I decided to do my tanning this morning after dropping my daughter off at school, this way I have five hours for my tan to set before washing it off to go and pick her up, sparing my sheets in the process. Had I have had black bedding still then I would have put my tan on in the evening and left it to set overnight. After applying my tan I stood with my arms and legs wide like a cowboy, nervous to touch anything or mess up my coverage, I expected to be tacky and smelly but I was anything but. The tan literally disappeared into my skin and I was dry, soft and smooth within minutes, just like my normal skin; no tackiness, no sticking, no rubbing off and thankfully no odour or smell. If anything there is just a hint of a subtle and clean, natural body spray when I sniff my skin. I was aware that tans can rub off during the setting process so you have to wear loose clothes and not touch anything that you wouldn’t want to stain, but after a few tentative attempts of sitting on a chair cushion and pulling on my jogging bottoms I soon realised that I wasn’t rubbing colour anywhere and my skin was pretty stayfast which was a great relief as my two year old son decided to chase me for a cuddle and I wasn’t sure how I’d explain a brown forehead and tiny hands to the rest of my family.

My Skinny Tan Before And After

Five hours passed pretty quickly as I carried on with my day, making lunch, doing some housework, going on a bike ride and doing the laundry. When it came to collecting my daughter from school it was time for me to wash off my tan as I’d managed to squeeze in the minimum of five hours setting time, but when I looked in the mirror, and despite still wearing the guide bronzer, my tan looked pretty amazing so I decided to leave it on and walk to school without showering it off. Instead I used a wet wipe to gently rub over any obvious streaks to even them out, which left me looking bronzed and glowing with health like I’d just strolled off of a yacht in the South of France.

After seven hours, and a nice hearty dinner, I jumped into the shower to rinse off my tan and as soon as I got under the water it was like dipping a teabag into a pot, a sandy-brown colour swirled into the water as I rinsed off my arms, legs and torso which lasted a couple of minutes before running clear. After patting myself dry with a towel and putting my underwear back on I took a picture of my flawless tan. Every streak was gone and a beautifully natural and healthy glowing tan covered all of my skin. No fear of damaging my health, no premature ageing or looking like I’ve been tango’d, just a pretty awesome tan that is super easy to do. So I guess it must be foolproof after all then!

UPDATE: 27/05/14

So it has been one week since I had my first experience of using Skinny Tan, for which I have showered daily, and wow what a difference it has made! Not only do I feel great as I’m no longer a little white ghost, but people keep asking where I’ve been on holiday. Not once has anyone suspected that my tan isn’t straight from the sun itself as it isn’t orange or streaky at all. I never thought I’d feel this way, but I feel so much more confident in myself as I look so much healthier and it really is true that having a tan takes pounds off of you and makes you look more toned and in shape. As I have many social media profiles which I post photos to, oddly enough since posting with a tan my followers have increased by almost 2,000 in six days and I’m getting hundreds of messages an hour pinging through to me asking for me to take pictures promoting pages and sites online. I’ve even had a few marriage proposals! I honestly wasn’t expecting such a reaction from people all over the world. 🙂

My Skinny Tan Is Still Flawless After A Week

So needless to say, after this mornings shower I applied my Skinny Tan once more to provide me with another week of flawless bronzeness. My gorgeous tan makes my blue eyes look brighter, my teeth whiter and my nail varnish zing. It hides my pasty white skin and has given me such a healthy, professional glow that is effortlessly perfect. I feel a million dollars! Thank you Skinny Tan.

I Have Just Applied My Skinny Tan To See Me Through Next Week

So now I am perched in my underwear waiting for my tan to set, eating some juicy melon on a cold and miserable rainy day whilst replying to my hundreds of messages and marriage proposals. I wonder if I can buy shares in Skinny Tan?

For more information, live demonstrations and tanning tips you can visit Skinny Tan online here!