Dear girls, Re: bronzer

I need help.

Summer is round the corner, the fake tan will be coming out very soon, and I'm in need of bronzer. I'm also in need of lessons on how to use it properly.... It's been many years since I went near the stuff, and when I did, it was muddy, glittery mess from the front of a magazine. Up until I started getting into the blogging world I had no idea that someone as pale as me could use bronzer without looking like a total fool, and looking like a total fool is obviously what I'm wanting to avoid. No more oompa-loompa look here thank you!

At the moment I'm leaning towards a bronzer from the Accessorize range, or the Bourjois chocolate one. Links to reviews would be great, and links to tips on using bronzer would also be a huge help too!

Love,

Bronzer Noob

x

St Moriz tanning mousse review

Image credit: Cosmetics Fairy/ Google Images

My first impressions of the St Moriz mousse weren't great... I ordered from Fragrance direct along with some other bits and they arrived impressively fast for the £1.95 postage charge (bargain!).

Upon opening the box I was greeted by a lovely leaky bottle of mousse, the mousse having dried a greeny brown on the outside of the bottle.. Nice! All visions of my looking nicely brown flew from my head as I imagined a hellish application with wonderfully orange results. 

A week or so later I took the plunge and applied a wimpishly small amount of the mousse to my arms and chest; the guide colour was just right, not too orange that you couldn't leave the house, yet strong enough to give you an instant colour boost and to see any bits that you've missed (lots, in my case!). I was pleased to discover there was no strong fake tan smell on application, nor whilst it was developing, which is always a bonus! Unfortunately due to me ruining my previous tanning mitt and being too impatient to wait for the new one to arrive I decided to apply it with just my bare hands, something I've never really done before... Uh Ohh.

A beautiful orangey brown colour immediately appeared on my palms, round my nails and between my fingers, and it took some serious scrubbing to get all of it off. Definitely not recommended then! I left it on until the next morning to wash the guide colour off and though I was left with a significantly lighter colour, it looked natural and I decided to be braver next time in applying more. 

A couple of days later and I decided to apply it with cling film wrapped round my hands, an interesting concept, I looked like a complete twit but I avoided the dreaded orange hand scenario! I applied it more generously this time- two pumps per arm- and am really, really happy with the results. 

My original arm pictures that I was going to use for before and after's haven't come out all that well, so I'm going to use an older OOTD post and compare it with one taken today! 

I realise that for a lot of people my "tanned" colour is pale ;) but compared to my usual colour it's not! And I plan to build it up a little more.. The pictures aren't that great, but it gives you an idea of the difference in colour.

There's been no "puddles" of fake tan coloured staining on my sheets at all (yay!) which has been a problem with nearly every other fake tan I've used, the colour looks really natural and it's pretty much fool proof to apply. It really doesn't matter what it looks like when you first put it on, it went on quite streakily the first time but I was still left with a smooth even colour after I showered. 

For the bargain price of £2.99 you really can't go wrong! Will definitely be repurchasing this :)

Rach xx

Fake tan Fiasco's!

I'm pale. Very pale. Blue/red blotchy pale, not the nice smooth pale. Therefore fake tanners, or anything that promises to make my skin a little bit less blinding in the sun is a good thing!

I must have been about 13 when Johnson's holiday skin came out and I bought it within a week of it's release, I remember sitting in the park of our local town applying it, and being incredibly frustrated when the the "gradual" colour didn't develop immediately. Unfortunately when it did Johnson's holiday skin turned out to be a little too orange in colour for my skin tone... And to be honest I'm not hugely keen on gradual tanners, it's hard to tell where you've been, and I'm yet to successfully achieve an all over even look with one of them.

Saying that, this is the collection of fake tan items I collected last year in the few months surrounding summer:

Avon's Skin so soft spray was quite successful... but the spray leaks and it's awkward, plus it takes time to get it to a decent level of tan... The lotion STINKS, and I'm not willing to smell that chemically all day!

Dove I found useless, no colour from that, or if any, it was patchy..

L'Oreal was ok, but sparkly... And if I got at all warm in the night off it came on my sheets, nice brown circles! Same for the Nivea one, that gave the best colour, but it came off in the night annoyingly, despite exfoliating. These were the two that I used mostly through the summer, if all else fails invest in dark sheets for the summer!

Enter the highly rated by many bloggers...

St Moriz! At first glance this looks to be quite promising, the mousse is quite a deep brown, with quite a thin texture, it reminds me of bath bubbles. You can easily see where you're applying it, and the only problem I've had so far (first application) is that it dries a little too fast, making it a bit difficult to blend... Useful for getting dressed though! I'm waiting for a tanning mitt to arrive which I think will probably make a difference to blending it (I ruined my last one by applying fake tan after applying Palmer's cocoa butter 2 hours before, it rolled off all over the mitt and now it's greasy and the moisturiser is rolling off back onto me! A warning to you all! Haha!)

Will do some before and after pictures and a proper review when I have more of an idea of how it works!

Hope you're enjoying the weekend!

Rachel xx