... Many were way too yellow, a couple were too orange, some were too dark for my pale skin, and the one that in the end looked most natural to me was this Clinique one.
The product comes in a bronze-coloured tube, with a green cap and white text on it. The product itself is medium brown gel-like ... Read review
Advantages: Good shade, for fair skin as well, not too yellow or orange, easy to mix with lotion and apply. Disadvantages: Standard, not too good self tanner smell.
...natural to me was this Clinique one.
The product comes in a bronze-coloured tube, with a green cap and white text on it. The product itself is medium brown gel-like substance, instead of a lotion. It has tiny tiny shimmery particles in it, presumably to make it look more 'glowy' and attractive while it stays on your skin.
The instructions state: "For best results, exfoliate first. After applying, wash hands with soap ... ...before allowing contact with clothing and hair." I would keep this well away from any clothing that's lighter than the shade itself!
The gel is easy to apply with bare hands, I've never got used to using gloves or mitts for applying self tanner. It goes on smoothly and evenly. Apply the tan fairly quickly, and wash your hands straight after. I always find it a bit tricky to wash my palms free of the tanner to stop them turning ... more
I first bought this self tanner years ago when I was starting to feel that paleness wasn't that interesting anymore. I can get a bit obsessive with testing different brands when looking for 'the best one' of whichever new product I'm about to try out, and was meticulously finger-painting strands of tan on to my belly and arms for comparison from the different self tanner testers in Boots and department stores. Many were way too yellow, a couple were too orange, some were too dark for my pale skin, and the one that in the end looked most natural to me was this Clinique one.
The product comes in a bronze-coloured tube, with a green cap and white text on it. The product itself is medium brown gel-like substance, instead of a lotion. It has tiny tiny shimmery particles in it, presumably to make it look more 'glowy' and attractive while it stays on your skin.
The instructions state: "For best results, exfoliate first. After applying, wash hands with soap and water. Let gel dry - about 15 minutes - before allowing contact with clothing and hair." I would keep this well away from any clothing that's lighter than the shade itself!
The gel is easy to apply with bare hands, I've never got used to using gloves or mitts for applying self tanner. It goes on smoothly and evenly. Apply the tan fairly quickly, and wash your hands straight after. I always find it a bit tricky to wash my palms free of the tanner to stop them turning orange, but keeping the tan I've just applied on the back of my hands. Practice helps.
The instructions state that you should leave the tanner on for at least an hour before having a shower. I would give it at least two. I washed it off after an hour once, and didn't see much of a result.
The smell is the standard, not great self tanner smell, without any additional fragrances added by Clinique.
The colour is quite deep for fair skin if you apply quite a lot of the product on your skin (you can vary the deepness of the tan with the amount you apply), so I often mix it up with my body lotion, about 50:50, which basically gives me a similar result to a gradually building self tanner. I initially bought one tube of the 'Deep' shade and one of the other shade: 'Fair', but found that the 'Fair' looked a bit yellow, and as I can get the same depth of tan with mixing the 'Deep' with my body lotion, have stuck to that. With using different "potencies" of the tan and body lotion on different areas of the body (arms/underneath arms etc.), it's easy to make the tan look a bit more natural than self tans usually would. More economical as well.
The tan lasts for a week, tops, and starts to look a bit too much like self tan towards the end, so it's worth exfoliating it off, and applying again approx. every 5-6 days.
125ml tube of the product retails at around £21 in department stores. I've seen it online for £18.
Good product all-around, does what it's supposed to.
Vaula 21.07.2009 (21.07.2009)
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Review of Clinique Self-Sun Body Quick Bronze Self Tanner Deep
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