As a girl who was nicknamed Tomato one summer from a really terrible sun burn (I’m not even joking), I know the value of sunscreen. Unfortunately, that also means that my skin tends to be quite pale (thank you Scandinavian heritage for that one). While I am all for the pale look, and know the my fair skin is beautiful, sometimes I just want a nice tan. For years I have tried different self-tanner creams that promise to give me that “natural glow”. Most of them haven’t worked, or the smell is so off-putting that I can’t bring myself to use them day after day. When I started to hear so many raving reviews of St. Tropez, I decided I might as well give it a go.
I decided to try the Self Tan Express Bronzing Mousse first, because there are different levels of tan that you can get depending on how long you leave it on. With one hour, you get a light tan, 2 hours medium and 3 hours a “golden bronze”. I’m not sure why, but one hour doesn’t do much, if anything for my skin. I found two hours was the best for a noticeable tan that wasn’t too dark. I use the Tan Applicator Mitt and find that it really helps to give me an even finish. After two or three hours, I have a shower to wash off the guide colour. After that it can take another eight hours for the colour to fully develop. One thing that I really loved about this is that even when I wasn’t so careful with my application, my mistakes were not glaringly obvious. Everything was blended nicely, and it was not obvious where the tan started or stopped. As I said, for some reason leaving the mousse on for one hour didn’t do much, especially when it came to my legs. I feel like my legs just absorb less colour or something, because the difference between the tan on my arms and my legs was still quite significant. Sometimes, when I had some time, I would use the Everyday Gradual Tan for Body a day or two before using the Express Bronzing Mousse in order to give my legs a bit of a base colour. It worked pretty well for the most part, as long as I was really careful about my application and didn’t apply too much, otherwise things got a little orange.
As much as I love getting it done quickly, it also meant I couldn’t leave it on overnight, or go out while I had it on so I had to make sure I tanned on days when I didn’t have anything going on. So after using the Express Bronzing Mousse for a while, and feeling like I had it figured out, I decided to try the original Self Tan Bronzing Mousse because I wanted something I could leave on longer than three hours. This mousse works the same way as the other, but you have to leave it on for at least 4 to 8 hours for the colour to develop properly. With this one, I have a shower at night, do the exfoliating and shaving that I need to do, then apply it before going to bed. When I wake up, I shower and wash off the guide colour and am left with a nice tan close to what I would get with 2 or 3 hours with the Express. I find that the regular bronzing mousse dries a lot faster, but the guide colour isn’t as dark, so sometimes it’s difficult for me to see where I’m putting the colour. I definitely find that I have to be more precise and make sure my application is blended evenly, because this one isn’t as forgiving as the Express Bronzing Mousse.
Overall I’m really happy with the results. I love that I can get a natural looking tan and not look like a ghost at the beach this summer (like that time we went to Newport Beach and I got so many stares from the golden California girls). I will definitely be trying out more products in this range, and currently have my eye on the Tan Booster and the One Night Only Instant Glow Body Lotion, as well as looking forward to the new In Shower Gradual Tan and hoping it comes to Canada soon!.
Have you tried any of the St. Tropez products? What is your go-to tanning mousse or lotion?
