I am the palest person and unfortunately I’m not one of those lucky girls that looks good pale. I’ve always felt I look better with a tan. There was a time when I religiously had a spray tan every two weeks. I don’t naturally tan and I don’t want to be laying in the sun for hours on end to try and attempt a sunkissed glow. Over the winter I didn’t tan at all mainly out of laziness. Recently I have really got back into doing it because I feel so much better about myself when I have a little bit of colour. I have tried pretty much every brand of tan there is, with mixed results, apart from Skinny Tan.

I have seen Skinny Tan on Twitter and read posts by other bloggers and I’ve been so keen to give them a go. I’ve very kindly been sent the brands Express Mousse to try out and as I’m off to the launch party of a luxurious new hotel this week, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to experiment.

About Skinny Tan

Skinny Tan is a self tanner that contains natural tanning actives with naturally derived skin smoothing actives to provide you with a sunkissed tan, all while reducing the appearance of cellulite. The tan has a light coconut scent and contains guarana. It should also last for seven days which is the perfect length of time. Most importantly for me the tan is cruelty free.

The Express Mousse promises to go on evenly for a streak free finish. You can leave it on for one hour for a medium tan, two hours for a medium to dark tan, or three hours for a darker tan.

Preparation

I needed to make sure that I removed all of the tan I already had on. Not just because I wanted to accurately review the Express Mousse but also because if you tan on top of tan you run the risk of a patchy finish. The best way to create a good base is to have a bath and then gently exfoliate it off. However, I hate baths so it’s a shower for me. I have run out of exfoliator so I just used an exfoliating glove and shower gel which had the same effect.

Now that my skin is tan free I made sure I moisturised. I tend to focus on my knees, elbows and hands. My hands are so dry at the moment to the point that the skin on my knuckles is cracking. I know I’m going to have to try and be careful when it comes to tanning them, orange knuckles aren’t exactly the best look!

The Tan

Along with the Express Mousse I was also sent a tanning mitt. I always tan using a mitt as I find it gives the best finish. This one actually has a velvet feel to it which I’ve never tried before, generally mitts are quite spongy. I started with my legs and pumped the mousse onto the mitt. It has a very smooth almost creamy consistency when you put it on. The initial colour is brown rather than the weird orangey brown that some brands tend to have. It was so easy to create an even finish which I think is down to the formula and also the velvety mitt.

I had to get my sister to tan my back, I lack any kind of flexibility in my shoulders. She is a beauty therapist and a tanning pro. She also commented on how well the tan goes on and the lovely colour it has which is high praise coming from her!

I know some people don’t but I always put tan on my face. Because I am ridiculously pale I can’t get away with just applying makeup as there would be several shades difference between my face and my body. To begin with I found it a bit awkward to use the mitt on my face. I think sponge mitts are a bit more flexible but I quickly got used to it and the best way to get coverage. It doesn’t help that I do have quite small features to navigate. Having spoken to people on social media I remembered to be extra careful with my hands and around my wrists, but I will just have to wait and see how they turn out.

The Result

I decided to leave the tan on for three hours purely because tan tends to not take well on my skin and when it comes to showering off I feel like the whole lot has come off. I did lose some of the initial colour but I knew that it would keep getting darker.

The next day the tan had deepened and I was very happy with the colour. It did look like I had just been on holiday. I wanted my legs slightly darker so I applied another layer in the morning and left it another three hours. This time the colour matched the rest of my body and had a golden brown glow. I think my legs needed to be tanned twice because they never see the light of day so they are bright white.

The only part of me that looked a bit patchy is my hands. This is because even with moisturising they are just so dry. Just make sure that you apply light coverage to them as tan in general really does stick to your knuckles.

Would I use the Skinny Tan Express Mousse again? Yes, I intend to carry on using it and I’m actually keen to try other products in their range.