Facial Tanning
Clarins Liquid Bronze Self Tanning £15.80
Dior Bronze Self Tanner Natural Glow 120ml (Body) £26
All Over Tanning
Sienna X Gradual Glowing Self Tan £15.95
Laurens Way Self Tan Bronzing Lotion in Dark £16.95
Ambre Solaire Hydrating Tan Maintainer £4
Xen Tan Moroccan Tan £20.95
Sun Kissed Self Tan Mousse Medium £3
After recently becoming a bit of a tanning fanatic, I thought I would share with you a few of my faves, some that Ive tried and which tans you need to be splurging on…
Facial Tanning
Clarins Liquid Bronze Self Tanning £15.80
Dior Bronze Self Tanner Natural Glow 120ml (Body) £26
All Over Tanning
Sienna X Gradual Glowing Self Tan £15.95
Laurens Way Self Tan Bronzing Lotion in Dark £16.95
Ambre Solaire Hydrating Tan Maintainer £4
Xen Tan Moroccan Tan £20.95
Sunkissed Self Tan Mousse Medium £3
Okay, so you really want to look bronze but you don’t want to harm your skin under the rays of the sun or the sun beds (just don’t), so which self tanners should you dabble in. Lets start with facial tanners.
I would probably recommend not using all over body tanners for your face, as the chances are they will break you out or will be too dark in colour to create a more natural glow. At the end of the day, you can wear makeup and bronzer to look like you have a sunkissed glow to your face, so why ruin that with some dark tanning mousse. You’re best to go for some of the better facial tanners that are specifically for the face.
First of all the Dior Bronze. I have used this now for maybe 7 years and have never looked back. The bottle lasts for probably around a year and I find it makes me skin just look so healthy and glowing. I apply it all over my washed and dry face, making sure to only add a small amount and blend over all areas of the face. After application, the skin should feel slightly sticky, but not soaking in product – if it is, you’ve added way too much. Just a slight application, left on your face overnight, or for at least 2 hours or so without getting it wet or touching it, and you will be left with a beautiful glow to the skin. I often wear this every three nights before bed and wake up feeling so much better. I cant recommend it enough to be honest and as I said, for the £26 you will have it for so long. This is the body version, but they also sell a face size version. Do not be duped into buying the face bottle, as it is half the size, only about £2 less and the body version if for face and body. I made this mistake once and then the sales assistant asked me why I was buying just the face bottle, on my next purchase.
Moving onto the Clarins Liquid Bronze, this is very similar to the Dior bronze. Apply in exactly the same way as I mentioned for the Dior and again you will wake up with a glow. I wouldn’t say that the glow was quite as enhanced as with the Dior, but if you apply this a little more, perhaps every other day, you will love the results. This is slightly cheaper too, so you may prefer this one, but overall, they are very similar products. Which will I buy again if I could only buy one? The Dior, of course.
So now its time for the all over body tanners. Bear in mind that you can use the Dior Bronze all over your body too, but I don’t think you’d be quite as keen on the outcome. It wont get you as deep and bronze straight away, as most ladies want after first application. So I would stick to using that for your face. But here are a few more alternatives.
One of the first self tanners I ever bought was the Sienna X Gradual Tan. I have had it ever since, mainly due to the fact I started to buy more brands and actually began to forget about it. However, this is slightly different to other tanners in that it comes out as a white cream rather than Stain-your-bedsheets-brown cream. This means that you can apply it with your hands if you have to (washing straight away afterwards) but it also means that you cant quite see if youve missed a spot. Its quite biscuity in scent which Im not always fond on, but then for a good tan, most of the time you need a cream using DHA – which reacts with the proteins in your skin and creates the biscuit smell. So you cant win really. Overall the colour is great, not streaky and probably last for around three days. But I wouldn’t say it was my favourite tanner in the world.
The LW Self Tan Bronzing lotion in dark applied so smoothly, almost like a serum gel, that glided over the skin like a primer. Super smooth and without a really awful biscuit smell, in fact this had a totally different smell to it altogether. Quite light and certainly not biscuits, so that was a nice change! The colour was more orange than the olive toned Xen Tan, but nothing to the oompa loompa scales. Just a lovely all around tan that didn’t streak and wasn’t overly dark. Just enough for my skin tone. You can see a video of me wearing the tan the day after I had applied it overnight here. I will say though that the colour didn’t last overly long on me, perhaps about two-three days really and then because I hadn’t moisturised, it started to get patchy quite soon. But thats probably down to my lack of maintenance. Overall though, I will definitely be using up the bottle and will probably try applying a coat the day after my first coat, to really build up the colour.
The Ambre Solaire Tan Maintainer was a gem I stumbled across when I took it away with me on a sunning holiday. I used it as an aftersun, as that is its main purpose, but the beauty of this is that it contains tanning agents, so it begins to turn your red sunburn brown, as well as the rest of you. For that reason, I tended to use this as a tanning lotion after my holidays, as keeping moisturised is only going to keep you tanned for longer. The colour is a lovely subtly brown that builds up with more usage and the smell is nowhere near as biscuity as some. It applies like a lovely moisturiser in a cream shade and really hydrates the skin, so if you’re after something really moisturising, then this is the one for you. But if you’re after immediate tanning satisfaction, this might not be your bag. But as an aftersun with added benefits, this cannot be beaten!
Moving onto the tan that I talk about a lot (probably too much), this is the Xen Tan Moroccan tan. Part of the Xen tan range and by far my favourite that I have tried. As the formula contains moroccan oil, it sinks into the skin within seconds and after a minute or so, the solution feels practically dry. I apply this with a mitt before bed, cover up my body in pyjamas, wash off in the morning and always feel like a bronzed goddess. It doesn’t streak and it leaves the most stunning olive toned tan, I have never found anything that can quite beat it. However, it does leave your skin slightly biscuity for the time after and I find that if I move around, the smell sort of lingers on my skin and I can smell the biscuity scent still. But then, sometimes I feel its a small price to pay for awesome bronzed skin. This is one of the priciest of the lot, and a £20 bottle will last me around 4 full body applications, but the results are fantastic. I apply this every 4-5 days or so and the colour keeps building and building.
Last but not least, the Sunkissed Self Tan mousse. The only mousse formula I have used and I was actually really impressed. Again biscuity in scent and leaves quite a nice shade of brown on the skin, between olive and orange, so very natural and bronzed. It applies really nicely, almost like a foam and sinks into the skin quite fast. The smell does linger for the day afterwards too, even after showering, but then what can you expect if you’re covering all of your pores in tan?! The shade when applying reminded me of a dark cup of tea, so I almost felt I was covering myself in a beige tea shade. I think I would probably go for the darker mousse next time, but then the bronze I achieved is actually really lovely, so perhaps the darker shade could be better for high summer. This is really affordable and for that reason its one of the best cheaper tanners I have found. For that reason, if you’re on a budget, this could be a great tan for you to try out. The Sunkissed tanning mitt is also pretty good, but very exfoliating in its texture, so it almost felt as though I was exfoliating when applying – which I feel is only a good thing. They do only last for around 6 applications though I find, before the sponge detaches itself from the fabric backing. But then, after 6 applications, you’re in need of a new mitt anyway I guess. But just an observation.
I really hope this has helped some of you with your tanning dilemmas. In short, for your face I highly recommend the Dior, for a super cheap tanner head to the Sunkissed range, for a medium priced tan you should try Lauren’s Way or if you’re after the most expensive but probably the best out there, then Xen Tan is the one and only.
V x
Some of these items may have been sent to me for review. Please see my disclaimer for more information
