My review of the best self tanner
Having used a lot self tan products, I now and then come across something that stands out from the crowd. Most of the self tanners that I come across are rather average and fall short my high expectations (I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to tanning!). Idol tan was one that I originally read about in a magazine and did a little bit of digging online afterwards to see what it was all about.
I had seen a few reviews on it and they were quite positive but with self tanners you really have to try them out to see what there all about. I’m naturally very pale so a fake tan can easily look very bad on me if the product isn’t high quality!
To start with, it’s worth mentioning that idol tan comes as a gel which is kind of a bit weird if you ask me! I have used so many self tanners before but they were all either lotions, sprays or mousses. First time for everything though! When I began applying it I was pleasantly surprised to see there was no horrible smell, I’ve used a lot in the past that have smelled awful and made me cringe when applying them! The gel itself has a very good consistency that makes it easy to rub in thoroughly and smoothly, you don’t end up with clumps or any mess and it just rubs onto your body with ease.
The tan itself is a very natural colour and is one of the only few self tanners that looks genuine, as if you might have actually been lying in the sun for a couple weeks. Maybe it’s just because im an expert (self-proclaimed!) but I ended up with a really smooth finish with not a single patch or blotch anywhere. I was rather chuffed with the results to say the least. It will be best for me to show you the before and after pictures, then you can see for yourself:
As you can see, a dramatic improvement over my very pale natural look. One last thing to mention is that the tan lasted around eight days before it started to fade, this a lot longer than most other self tanners that I’ve used before. Also the fading was quite gradual and even, in other words I didn’t start getting white patches, my skin just slowly returned back to its normal white self (how depressing lol).
Preparation is key – Whilst Idol tan is probably the best self tanner I’ve used, I have to admit that preparation is very important if you want to get the best out of it. The most crucial part of this is exfoliating. When you exfoliate, you are removing the dead skin cells that reside on the outer layer of the epidermis, these last around 10 days on the skin. If you don’t exfoliate then you will start to shed these dead skin cells within a couple of days. This will mean two things: the first is, your self tan won’t last as long, the second is that you might start getting white patches as different parts of your dead skin shed before others. I recommend going for an oil-free scrub and to do it right before you apply the self tanner.
Some people also recommend you moisturize afterwards but I disagree and have noticed that sometimes this can affect your fake tan. Idol tan has some natural moisturising agents in it and so gives you a self tan as well as looking after your skin at the same time.
Click here to go to the Idol Tan site and check out their offers!
