[BEAUTY] Dos and Don'ts for the Perfect Fake Tan

With the recent good weather I have been wearing dresses and skirts a whole lot more but my legs seem to never tan, even a little bit, so while the rest of me has caught a little colour over the past few months, my legs remain pale and pasty. So I have found myself reaching for the fake tan more regularly in an attempt to even things up a bit. Finally, after years of streaky legs and patchy arms, I have found a self tanning regime that works:

1. Moisturise. Before fake tanning, ensure that you’ve been moisturising regularly. Try to take care of any really dry patches (the fronts of my legs are particularly dry, so I pay special attention here). I currently love Garnier’s Intensive 7 Day Daily Body Lotion.
2. Choose a self tan that works for you. After a lot of trial and error I cannot recommend St Moriz Instant Self Tan Mousse enough. It never streaks. It doesn’t have a strong fake tan smell and has no orange. It is also tinted so you can see where you’ve been – and if you need an instant tan, you can even put it on in the morning, or before a night out, and you’re good to go.
3. Always use a tanning mitt. There is nothing worse than the tell tale stained palms of a fake tanner! I’d also recommend using as much of the tan as you can. Do not scrimp. I think this is the key to getting an all-over even tan. It doesn’t seem to matter if I pile it on a little too much but if I don’t put enough on – then I can patches.
4. If you don’t fancy the hassle of fake tanning every couple of days, why not choose one night of the week to tan and then top up every other night with a little gradual tanning body lotion, like Dove’s Summer Glow Moisturising Body Lotion.

What are your dos and don’ts of fake tanning?

[BEAUTY] The Dove By You Exhibition

Earlier this week, Dove launched its The Dove By You Exhibition at Facebook.com/Dove to encourage fans to showcase what the beauty brand means to them.

https://www.youtube.com/v/CJkplznG3pU?version=3&feature=player_embedded

Real Women are being asked to incorporate the iconic bird image within creative designs that have emotional resonance for them – from a place that inspires them, to a person who makes them feel beautiful.

[BEAUTY] Summer Essentials: Skincare

I find that in the summer months I often end up with a mountain of beauty products thrown into my bag for days out or enormous toiletries bags for long weekends away – which is never good for hand baggage only flights. So I have put together a mini series – of three posts – of my favourite products to see you through the summer.

The first post starts with summer skincare and we’ll move on to hair care and make-up too.

Skincare in the summer is something I take seriously. It’s too easy to put sunscreen etc on and look after yourself in the sun than the alternatives!

• I’m not too loyal to any one brand of sunscreen. I usually go with the best cheapest option. After all, Asda’s £3 bottles of sunscreen were deemed to be the most protective – so that suits me fine! I keep a mini bottle of Boots’ Soltan sunscreen in my handbag for days that start cloudy and take me by surprise when the sun comes out! Or top-ups on hot days. I’ve recently discovered Soltan’s new Protect and Tan Ultra-light sunscreens which boast to help you tan! For a pale and pasty girl like me, that is good news indeed!
• Even when it’s not hot and sunny I use Burt’s Bees Radiance Day Lotion with SPF15 and so I continue to use this throughout the summer and add a little SPF30 when I’m on the beach or lying out for a long time.
• I am obsessive about after-sun treatment to keep my tan when I’m on holiday. Not so much when I’m home but I am getting better at this. I confessed in a recent post that I’ve always been something of a lotion-phobe but that this has improved a bit since I was introduced to Dove’s latest body moisturisers. One thing I do take care to take on holiday with me is an after sun. No matter how careful I am my skin is always quite hot after a day out, so something soothing, like the Burt’s Bees After Sun Soother, does just the job.
• Burnt lips are the absolute worst thing ever! At LFW in February I was gifted a Biotherm lip treatment with SPF to try out. Of course, until now I haven’t really been able to try it but now I am using it every day. It’s a little like a lip gloss but without being too sticky and obsorbs pretty quickly to leave my lips moisturised and protected.
• When I’m holiday I find that my feet take all of the battering really and they end the day tired and sore. This year, however, things will be different as Crabtree and Evelyn have sent me their gorgeous Reviving Foot and Leg Mist to help revive them.

What are your favourite summertime skin care products?

[BEAUTY] Confessions of a Lotion-Phobe!

We all have that one thing in our “beauty regime” that we hate to do – or rather, that we just don’t do because we hate to do it. Whatever the reason might be: time restrictions, laziness*, forgetfulness, dislike, pain – and many more. But whatever the reasons we always have that niggling feeling that one day it’ll catch up with us!

Maybe you can’t be bothered to take your make-up off at night and then spend hours each week worrying about the lines this bad habit will eventually leave you with.

Or maybe you can’t be bothered to shave and then spend your entire time in jeans or tights.

Or maybe it’s styling your hair and you end up with your hair tied up all the time in the hope that no one will notice the frizz**.

Whatever your beauty bad habit, we all seem to have them – even those who really should know better, like the lovelies over at Elle magazine, who last week confessed theirs’.

What’s mine? I’ll tell you. Moisturising. I’m pretty good at moisturising my face. At night. Not so good during in the mornings but I figure once a day is a whole lot better than never at all! But moisturising anywhere else – my legs, my arms, my shoulders, anywhere – is something I nearly never do! Not because I don’t want to. Or really because I’m too lazy to***. No, it’s actually because I hate the feeling of the lotion on my body making me feel sticky and greasy and grossy**** all day! So when Dove offered to send me a couple of samples of their body lotion I thought it might be time to give it a go.

Dove sent me their Hydro Nourishment Body Lotion – which boasts fast absorption and a light feeling -and their Intense Nourishment Body Lotion – which restores extra dry skins. So I began by using the light formula each morning. The fragrance of the lotion is unoffensively subtle and it quickly aborbs into my skin – just what I wanted! I love the fact that I don’t really notice that I’ve even put any on throughout the day. If I’m honest, I’m lucky that my skin was never very dry, despite never moisturising and so, I haven’t noticed too much of a difference but my pealing burnt skin on one shoulder***** is feeling far less sore since I started using it and looks a lot less raw.

I decided to try out the intensive lotion at bedtime so that any greasy residue might be washed off in the shower in the morning. To be honest I haven’t really noticed too much of a residue anyway – maybe I was always just imagining it!! There is a definite difference in the consistency of the two lotions and this one is obviously more creamy and rich. I love it. My legs are definitely loving this lotion. Again, the lotion’s scent is subtle rather than sickly.

What is your beauty bad habit?

* that’s my reason – mainly!
** this was me at school – and at uni – and now, at work!
*** Ok, maybe it’s that a little bit!!
**** not a word – I know!
***** very attractive!

[BEAUTY] Instant vs gradual vs full-on fake tan

Who doesn’t love a tan? Now, living in the UK it is difficult to get a tan without a little help from a bottle. I’ve tried a fair few fake tans in my time, my legs in particular refuse to change to anything from the bright white they naturally are. (I’ve reviewed a fair few on the blog, here, here, here, here and here.)

So I thought it was about time I did a little analysis on which works better, or worse: