Hi everyone,
I thought it might be helpful if I talked a bit about some of the different options that are avaialble when it comes to deciding on the best sunless tanning system – and as I’ve tried more than one of these options, I feel that I’m fairly well placed to talk about the pros and cons of each.
After I’d decided that I was no longer going to spend hours lying in the sun in pursuit of the perfect tan, the first thing that I tried was an indoor tanning salon. The benefits of using a tanning salon are fairly obvious in that you can use them all year round – you’re not just restricted to having a tan during the summer months. This was particularly important to me because as I may have mentioned I do a bit of modelling part time and having golden skin is part of my “look”. I therefore always wanted to have the option of being able to turn up to a shoot with tanned skin.
But over time the disadvantages of using a sunless tanning salon started to outweigh the advantages. The cost was no big issue. I always bought my credits in bulk so it worked out to be about $5 an hour, but it did inlvolve lying prostrate for at least an hour each time over several sessions to get the sort of results I was after. And using a tanning salon is not like being at the beach where you can entertain yourself with a book (or by looking at boys 
) or by getting up and going for a swim – no! you just have to lie there; and if you’re busy and pressed for time that can start to become an issue.
But what ultimately put me off using a tanning salon was the case of Clare Oliver, who died from skin cancer at the age of 25 after extensive use of tanning salons. If the risks of using a sunless tanning salon end up being the same as lying in the sun, then I decided that this approach was no longer for me.
I didn’t dump salons altogether however because the next thing I tried was sunless airbrush tanning at one of my local salons. With an airbrush tan, the salon technician hooks up a DHA solution to a spray compressor and then sprays the tan onto you. Your eyes, lips and nose are all covered suring the process which takes about a few minutes in total to complete. An hour or two after the session you start to see the results. I was quite happy with the tan that I received as a result of airbrush tanning and obviously relieved that the “tanning” ingredient was DHA and not harmful UV Rays! But I just could’t afford a sunless tanning spray as a long term tanning solution. If you buy in bulk – say 10 sessions – you might be able to get the per-session cost down to aroudn $35 or $40 per session. But given that you have to have the tanning mist re-applied every 2 weeks in a best case scenario ( I was finding that I had to have it re-applied every 7 days) then the costs can really start to add up. I just found the difference between $40 a session and $5 a session (which is what I was paying to use a tanning bed in an indoor tanning salon) to be too big a jump for me to be able to afford on student wages.
So this left me with looking at self tanning lotions – which was not a decision I came too easily. I was considered instant tanning lotions a bit daggy when I was growing up and I always thought it was obvious when someone had used one because you could see the streaks or their skin looked a bit blotchy. But given that I didn’t really see any other options that were both safe and cheap, I thought I should probably give them a go.
And I have to say that in the end, I’m more than pleasantly surprised. Yes – I had to try more than one sunless tan lotion before I found one that I was happy with, but when I finally did, I’d found the perfect solution for instant sunless tanning. I’m not going to say too much more about it here because I plan to review it in depth in a subsequent post.
I hope you’ve found these sunless tanning tips useful and I wish you all the best in your pursuit of the perfect sunless tanning system!
Carly
Best Self Tanning Lotion – This Is What I Use
Carly here. If you’re looking for the best self tanning lotion, then you’ve come to the right place.
If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you’d know that I was an avid sun lover when I was younger spending most of my summer days running around half naked. As a result I always had a nice tan. It was something that other people often remarked upon and after a while it was something that I started to take great pride in.
But – living in Australia – there is a cost to be paid by spending too much time in the sun, and after a while I came to my senses and decided that if I didn’t want to end up looking like a lizard (or worse still, get skin cancer!) then I really needed to limit my exposure to the sun.
Of course, this presented me with a dilemma because I really enjoy having skin with a golden glow. So I started to search for an alternate means of having a great suntan that didn’t carry any risk of permanently damaging my skin.
I used tanning salons for a while but stopped doing that when I realised that they posed as much as skin cancer threat as lying in the sun itself! I then gave airbrush sunless tanning a go and I was more than happy with the results but after a while the costs really started to stack up.
So that’s when I started to look at the different self tanning lotions that were out there …
And I have a confession to make here. I always thought tanning lotions were a bit daggy when I was growing up. I mean, why would you bother?? Why not just spend a bit of time in the sun? And then added to that were the less than spectacular results that I would see on some people that had used sunless tanning lotions – I’m sure you’ve seen it yourself: the dreaded streaks, the orange skin – yuck! So it wasn’t like I was that thrilled at the prospect of trying sunless tanning lotions for myself.
The first self tanning lotions that I tried were during the winter months, so if things didn’t work out, I could simply cover the results up with clothes. The lotions that I first bought were over the counter – Banana Boat Self Tanning Lotion, Loreal Self Tanning Lotion etc – and whilst the results weren’t as bad as what I remembered seeing when I was yonger – I still wasn’t satisfied. What really put me off was the smell. These lotions just didn’t smell that great. You don’t want to be going out on a date smelling like old eggs – so some forethought was really required as to when you applied it! I didn’t experience any streaking with the Loreal product, though it didn’t turn my skin as dark as I would have liked. The Banana Boat lotion did streak and was also too light a shade for my liking.
I was probably ready to do away with the experiment at this stage but then a girlfriend alerted me to something new that she’d just found …
She’s discovered a product called Idol Tan and was using it and was getting really good results. She told me that they were offering a free trial of the product so that I should check it out for myself.
I went to their website and was a little put off at first by the glossy pictures of models, but decided that that was just the advertising and not the product – and it was the product that was the important thing. So I signed up for their free trial (I had to pay the S&H cost) and a week later received the product.
I put it on straight away. I didn’t expect immediate results after the first application (and I didn’t get them) but what I was immediately impressed with was the beautiful citrusy smell of Idol Tan. At least I could go outside and still socialise if I was going to use this product.
I reapplied the lotion the next day and after that application I did notice a slight change in my skin colour. So I kept on reapplying and by the fifth day my skin was the same colour as it would have been had I spent a few hours on each of those days in the sun. There was no streaking, just the beautiful all over tan that I’d always prided myself on.
Click Here To Start Your Free Trial Of Idol Tan
So after that I was sold. Idol Tan is now my self tanning lotion of choice.
Here are my thoughts on the product in summary form:
What I Like About Idol Tan:
* It gives me an all over golden tan without carrying any risk of being over exposed to UV Rays.
* It smells great.
* It moisturises my skin at the same time as turning it a darker colour.
What I Don’t Like About Idol Tan:
* I can’t just go to a chemist or department store and buy it. I need to order it online. It’s not a biggy, I guess. It just means that I need to be a bit more organised with my timing when it comes to ordering re-fills.
So if you’re after a great looking suntan then Idol Tan would be my recommendation as the best self tanning lotion that you could try. And as it comes with a free trial* – why not try it out for yourself?
Click Here To Go To The Idol Tan Free Trial Website
* The terms of their free trial are stated quite clearly on their website but I thought it was also worth pointing out here. If you cancel within 14 days of receiving the product, then you will not be charged anything other than shipping and handling costs. If you don’t cancel then you will be put onto their refill program and your credit card will be charged. I was happy with the results that I was getting so I never felt the need to cancel.
Happy Tanning!
Carly