An unconventional fashion blogger trying to find her place on the internet

With our wedding coming up very soon (this weekend – just in case I hadn’t mentioned 😉) I was over the moon to have been selected by Influenster to receive their Rimmel Sun Shimmer Box as I’ve been meaning to find the perfect tan for the big day. I was only expecting to receive one product to try out, but was far too excited to see I’d received three FULL SIZED products!

As I’m quite the pasty faced gal at the moment, I selected the lighter options when they first contacted me about receiving the product – nobody’s going to buy that I got a glorious dark tan from the unpredictable British weather.

Self Tan Lotion

Okay, this was the first product I tried out and I’m going to put my hands up and say I got far too hasty, didn’t have any of the right gloves/mitts to apply this and ended up with some extremely brown palms. I applied this on a Sunday night whilst catching up on the latest episode of Suits and thought I’d done a dandy job – besides the fact my hands looked outrageous.
The lotion gave me instant colour and is for an “all year round” glow. It was a little bit runny, but silky to apply, didn’t totally stink of the infamous biscuit smell at first, but did have a slight undertone of it later.
I went to bed feeling fab and glamorous until Monday morning when I saw I’d missed most of my right foot and parts of my calves, but not until I’d gotten dressed and didn’t have enough time to get changed before heading out to work.
Because I’ve been having some issues with dizziness (it’s apparently labrynthitis 🙄) I’ve been having baths more than showers as standing for too long makes me feel drunk. You might wonder what my point is and I’m getting to it, but I was laying in the bath admiring how I looked like a bronzed goddess, thanking the lord I wasn’t dizzy from all the wiggling around I’d done to get the hot water to the top of the bath (we all do this I’m sure), when I noticed the colour of the bath water. It was at that point that I knew I MUST take a picture and document this whole fake tan journey.
I haven’t worn fake tan since I was at college and picked up a gift set from Fake Bake at the Clothes Show Live in Birmingham, which smelt like chocolate and my sister Georgie stole (because that’s the kind of sister she is), so why not document me getting back to it again?!

Being gross and real, I thought I’d take a picture of the bath water to show you how little of this came off – someone’s going to have to tell me if it’s loads, because I haven’t got a bloody clue.

Self Tan Mousse

I really liked this mousse, it was the only fake tan that developed and had to be washed off – I applied it on a Sunday morning using one of Aaron’s old socks that had a hole in and a sandwich bag underneath so my hands didn’t stain like before as I still hadn’t managed to get a proper tanning mitt (give this bride to be a break – I’m planning a bloody wedding!) I left it on for about 45 minutes as we needed to head out for our usual Sunday lunchtime shop before heading to the in-laws for a roast dinner, but loved how natural it looked.

As before, I had to share a pic of my dirty bath water – so we can all see how much of it comes off when it’s been washed off (I’m starting to see how grim this is, but I don’t care 😊).
It definitely could do with another layer to make me look a bit darker – especially as my Dad and step-Mum Fran are so dark from spending the last week in Rhodes so they could have a good tan for our wedding 😂 look at how brown they are!

Lucky bastards 😂
But I don’t think my tan looks too bad, but I’m sure it’ll be much better when I’ve caught the sun in beautiful Bali!

Instant Tan

I managed to give this tan a try when I headed out for a night in Cambridge and loved how it gave me a really natural glow – I felt like a bronzed goddess and I was all for it! It lasted well at home for a few hours, but I did notice it transferred onto my all white outfit (make sure to check out my full post on my Crazy Hen Do to hear some more about it all) after getting caught out in the downpour when we arrived in Cambridge.

So although this looked amazing at first- it didn’t last as well as the bottle claimed it would. It says water resistant and can be removed by washing off, but this went all over my bloody clothes when I got wet 😂.
I’d recommend if you know there isn’t any rain forecast or you’re not going to be sweating your tits off (just in case 😉).

Verdict

These were some really great products and very natural looking – when I was wearing them it didn’t look like I’d gone all out with the fake tan or like I’d just walked out of an Essex tanning salon.
My favourite has got to be the mousse – it was really lightweight, didn’t have the strong biscuit smell (it had a little bit) and applied really evenly. I think it’s the one I’m going to pick up in readiness for the big day on Saturday!
Fake tan has come a long way on the high street from my teen years when I used to love bronzing (or Tangoing) myself up before I got my natural tan in the summer months.
Let me know if you’ve tried any of these products in the comments below and if you’ve had any funny fake tan fails!

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