I don’t tend to ‘sit on the fence’ about very much – I either love something or I hate it, simple as that. Which is why I’m so cross with St Tropez tanning products – they have left me in a grey area (a metaphorically grey area as well as the grey area that was my bed sheets the morning after I used the product!)
Is this a miracle product or is it all hype…I still can’t decide.

I read up plenty on the product before I bought it and quickly realised how divided opinion on it was.
It seemed that the ‘whipped cream’ mousse version of the product was the easier to use because the original self tan lotion needs an alarmingly scientific amount of mixing and the potential for disaster just seemed so much greater.
The lady in Boots (who now I think back was actually very pale) swore by it and said it was impossible to streak, the Oompa Loompa who works in the tanning shop said it was the best product she’d ever used (or over used, judging from her less than subtle Lucozade hue…)
So I went for it!!

I read the instructions carefully – it took all of a minute as they are ‘Smooth St Tropez Whipped Bronze evenly into the skin’…how hard could it be??
It does make a big thing about exfoliating and moisturising dry areas like elbows, heels and knees, so I made sure I went on a scrubbing frenzy before applying.

I’m very pale naturally so I was quite intrigued by the ‘self adjusting tan’ – apparently you can’t go orange (for some reason that’s to do with aloe vera leaves and far too botanical and dull to go into here…all you need to know it that it works not why it does!!)
One good thing I noticed straight away is the smell. It doesn’t have that evil ‘chemical’ smell that comes from some self tans (although as it develops you do get more of a strange smell but it still isn’t too strong.) It smells like moisturiser and it smoothes on easily like moisturiser…so far so good!

The mousse has a colour guide so you can clearly see where you have applied it – they claim it gives you a tanned colour as the guide colour…I’d say that’s tanned in a sort of a ‘Dawn of the Dead’ sort of way…its grey!
Applying it is certainly easier if someone is giving you a hand – legs and arms are easy enough but your back is virtually impossible unless you are very bendy indeed.

So here comes the bit where I’m undecided about this product – the end result…
The colour certainly is even and natural and not at all orange, but I found it worked better on my ‘fat bits’ tummy, thighs etc. On my bony bits it was less natural looking and on my hands and feet it just looked terrible.
The second time I tried it was a total disaster – it streaked on my legs!! (it’s not supposed to do that…how I managed to get it to do something it’s not supposed to do is anyone’s guess) Re-applying it didn’t make any difference either. The self tan removal product that you can buy only works before development so it’s no use whatsoever if you find anything has gone wrong when you wash off the guide colour.