If you still have nightmares of streaky and orange legs, you can put those to rest. The best self tanners these days have progressed well beyond those early favorites, and most have stabilized their primary and tricky ingredient, DHA. Granted, our favorite faux comes from professional spray tanners like Gorgeous Glo, we realize that’s not always do-able.
The best options come in all types of application = mousse, towelette, mist and the old stand-bye but much improved lotions. Here are our picks for this summer’s golden glow. If you want to do some product digging yourself, we like the review blog selftanning.com.
New Kid on the Block: Tan-Luxe
Out of the UK, with a tanifesto that sounds perfect to us, the new assortment from Tan-Luxe has several products that bring new technology to the market. Available at Sephora.com. We can’t wait to try these ~ The Face, a tanning concentrate that transforms any moisturizer, serum, or face oil into a custom self tanner, the Sleep Oil overnight self-tanner and the Hydrating Self Tan Water. Their Wonder Oil sell out is harder to snag, but you should be able to buy it on HSN.
The Long Time Favorite: St. Tropez Mousse
Other than the Infinity Sun products you can buy at the local tanning salons, St Tropez is our long running choice for the most natural looking color. Their mousse is particularly user-friendly, but there’s a wide assortment of applications to choose from, including a handy new Travel Kit and an at home spray kit.
Kardashian Approved: Vita Liberata
I mean they are endlessly golden girls, so whatever they use must be good stuff. Apparently this Kim-used tan mousse lasts 2-3 weeks, and the reviews are solid. It also made the cut at Neimans, which does always give an added checkmark IMO.
The Natural Shade: Clinique Self Tan
While the deep dark tan girls might find this one a little too light shaded, most of us will love the application and the final color of Clinique Self Sun™ Face and Body tinted lotions. It’s tinted lotion gives you both instant color (and shows you where you’ve colored) and your darker golden “tan” develops over a a few hours. It isn’t long lasting, but the application is so simple that redoing every 3-4 days is ok.
The Bloggers Favorite: Tanceuticals
They love this one. “A smooth and natural, darker shade of bronze. It’s also easy to apply, dries quickly, feels great on the skin and lasts nearly 7 days. Finally, Tanceuticals has a wonderful coconut scent which we absolutely LOVE.”
The Drugstore Buy: Banana Boat
You don’t have to spend a fortune to get great faux color (although like pretty much everything, you should probably buy the best product you can afford, cuz they don’t say you get what you pay for for nothing.
This is the #1 drugstore buy by the tan blog experts at selftanning.com = “Unlike most inexpensive self tanners, we didn’t see a lot of streakiness or splotchiness. And there was virtually no sign of “orange” that these products are notorious for.”
The Pale One: Kate Somerville Tanning Towelettes
This is a personal fave, as I am both pale and picky about the too dark tan. It doesn’t get easier to apply than a towelette which is also super easy for travel touch ups. Many folks will find the shade too pale, but I like that. (overall, the expert tanners don’t really love the towelettes other than for travel touch ups).
