St. Tropez Bronzing Mist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About St Tropez
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

St Tropez are a leading brand of self tanning products and have been around since 1996. They have a huge range of products from this Bronzing Mist, Mousse to a make up range to compliment your tan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why I brought the product
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have never been a fan of St Tropez products, I have always thought ...
...know you'll be thinking why did you buy this then? I brought it through pure vanity to tell the truth - I was desperate for a tan and my usual fake tan - Fake Bake had run out, and I didn't want to wait for it to come through the post, as I order on the internet, so I popped into my local salon and picked up a bottle of St Tropez Bronzing Mist. I thought as I'd never used this product so would give it a go. I use Fake Bake Spray and as this was called ... more

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About St Tropez
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

St Tropez are a leading brand of self tanning products and have been around since 1996. They have a huge range of products from this Bronzing Mist, Mousse to a make up range to compliment your tan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why I brought the product
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have never been a fan of St Tropez products, I have always thought they were over-rated and really not that good, so I know you'll be thinking why did you buy this then? I brought it through pure vanity to tell the truth - I was desperate for a tan and my usual fake tan - Fake Bake had run out, and I didn't want to wait for it to come through the post, as I order on the internet, so I popped into my local salon and picked up a bottle of St Tropez Bronzing Mist. I thought as I'd never used this product so would give it a go. I use Fake Bake Spray and as this was called St Tropez Bronzing Mist, I made the mistake of assuming it was going to be the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What St Tropez say's about it's Bronzing Mist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"St Tropez Bronzing Mist has a weightless application that results in a spectacular natural looking tan. Perfect and even instant colour dries in 60 seconds allowing you to mist it on at any time. This self adjusting mist is oil free and your tan will deepen over 3 hours. Aloe Vera leaf juice and AHA (fruit acid) allows for the richest, longest lasting tan possible. Like all St Tropez products, Bronzing Mist has a pleasant fragrance and is ideal for the whole body including the face."

How much of that is true? Well it is suitable for the whole body. It takes up to 5 minutes to dry. It doesn't have a pleasant smell, non of St Tropez products do - its fake tan, its not supposed to smell nice! Although it smells of fake tan, it has a slight undertone of lemon fragrance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Directions Of Use & Looking After Your Tan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First of all, have a bath or a shower and exfoliate your skin, concentrating on dry areas such as elbows, knees and feet. Before applying the tan apply moisturiser to dry areas including your face as you don't want the colour to be quite as strong. Then I'd recommend placing a dark towel on the floor or doing it in the shower, so you can wash away any overspray. You are then ready to apply the tan. Spray onto your body, then rub in evenly with your hands (or I would recommend using gloves). When it comes to applying to your face, do not spray onto your face, spray some into your hands and then apply gently rubbing it in. I tend to spray some tan into my hand and then add some moisturiser and mix together and then apply to my face as I would a moisturiser. I have attended a St Tropez rub in tanning course and this is the way we were taught to do any areas that needed to be lighter, this includes the inner arm and armpits.

St Tropez recommend using their St Tropez Body Polisher and St Tropez Body Moisturiser but personally I do not think these make any difference, and as they are quite costly you are better off using your own products.

To keep your tan looking its best, pat with a towel when drying after a shower rather than rubbing so you don't rub the tan off, moisturise daily and don't go swimming - as chlorine strips fake tan. I also wouldn't recommend using exfoliator until your tan starts to fade towards the end and may look a bit patchy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Applying the product
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With the Fake Bake Spray you have a can, where you literally just spray onto your body in even strokes. With St Tropez Bronzing Mist, you spray it onto your body but then still have to rub it in. I would recommend doing this in the shower and rinsing the overspray away immediately or stand on a dark towel and make sure that anything white is not around you. On the directions on the back it says to rub in with your hands and wash them straight after - too late, your hands will already been stained, I have recently done it and am typing with greeny black palms - how attractive and whatever I do I can't get it off, so I would definately recommend using gloves, and then when you get to your hands, remove the gloves and spray lightly over your hands and blot in with tissue. The product didn't rub in as easily as I thought it would, which was dissappointing, you were there rubbing for a good few minutes and it sprayed on quite patchy. Once it was rubbed in sufficiently it looked good, it takes 3 hours to develop but you can already see quite a big change in colour, which is fantastic! So make sure when appyling if you don't think it is deep enough to wait for several hours before adding anymore to save you looking like an umpa-lumpa! The product says it takes 60 seconds to dry, but I found that it took up to 5 minutes. Also once it has dryed you are still sticky for up to an hour afterwards, so wear loose clothing that you don't mind getting anything on - it should wash off however unless it is white cotton. You must also be careful if you have fair hair, weather it is dyed or not as it can make it appear darker, so I'd recommend wearing a shower cap or something similar whilst applying near your hair. I have ecezma on some areas of my body and I find the tan just sticks to that and looks terrible, so I use the same procedure as I would with my face for applying the tan on my ecezma and gently pat it in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How does it look?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When it is first on your skin, you can see a noticable difference in colour and it takes 3 hours to develop. After 3 hours, I didn't notice much difference, I just had quite a yellow tinge on my skin, with a few patches, so I filled the patches in and left it over night to develop some more. When I woke up, there was still not much difference. It was even and not streaky, and the colour of my hands had finally improved with much scrubbing. The colour was a pinky-yellow coloured tan. I have usually found that St Tropez products turn you orange, but they must have worked on that and made some changes, although I still think they need some more improvement with the colour as it still isn't perfect and natural looking. I tried to apply another coat ontop, to make myself darker, but it didn't work, it wouldn't sink into my skin and just remained ontop, so my skin could obviously not absorb anyone. I was a bit dissappointed with the colour, as it didn't really do much and I would have liked to be darker. When you have a shower some of the colour will wash off, this is normal and nothing to worry about - it is just the cosmetic bronzer in the product so you can see where you are applying the product.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Re-applying the Mist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3 days after I originally tanned myself with St Tropez Bronzing Mist, I decided to reapply it to get a deeper tan. It went on the same as when I originally applied it, and it was still difficult to rub in. This time I wore gloves to do this, I just used some from a hair dye pack. This meant my hands were not stained by the tan this time, but it made it harder to rub in as the surface of the gloves were not smooth like my hands, so I had to do light circular motions with my fingers - meaning it took longer. Again, I decided to leave this over night, and it did make more of a noticable difference this time compared to the first time I applied it. I actually had some colour to me this time. It was annoying having to reapply the product again, as it takes about 30 minutes altogether to do a good job and make sure it is correctly rubbed in. It would be much quicker and more effective to get a spray tan at a salon, which I wish I had done!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How long the tan lasts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

St Tropez Bronzing Mist should last for about 7-10 days depending how you care for it. If you don't moisturise, rub when drying and exfoliate it isn't going to last as long as if you did the opposite. A tan will never last as long on your face, as you are always applying make up and removing it and cleansing and toning so I would say this lasts about 3 days on your face, but is simple to reapply on your face. If you really don't like your tan - go swimming as the chlorine strips the tan, great if it has gone really streaky and theres no other way to remove it, another thing that helps to remove it is toner. If you want to continue using the tan, when it begins to come to the end of the 7-10 days I would recommend reapplying it before it fades. This makes it easier and you don't have to apply as much, you are just topping it up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Price & Availability
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I paid £30 for this from a salon, but I only found out afterwards I was ripped off, as it is available pretty much everywhere else from £15-20. I would recommend purchasing it from www.lookfantastic.com, it is available here for £17.00.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would I recommend it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Probably not, in the future I think I will always stick to my Fake Bake, it is much more reliable and gives me a better colour. St Tropez is expensive, hard to apply and I wasn't impressed with the colour at the end, it's a same because this was a chance for me to change my opinion of them. 

...less