Georgia Phelps Happy hump day and welcome back to another post of me rambling on about all things beauty! This post however, will be slightly different than normal as I’ll be discussing the topic of tanning which is something that I’ve not mentioned on my blog before. As we come into spring and summer is coming at us faster than ever, tanning is something that I’ve thought about more and more. I’m unfortunate enough to live in dreary England where a strong tan is hard to achieve (yep, even in the summer sadly!) so I’ll have to fake it ’til I make it with this one and hope for the best.
I was lucky enough to be approached on my social media by the lovely brand Skinny Tan who kindly sent me a selection of their products to put to the test and share my thoughts on. I’ll put the disclaimer out there now that although I had these products sent to me, all opinions on these products will be honest and my own so rest assured, you’re reading my truthful view on this brand.
About Skinny Tan:
My favourite thing about this brand is that their products are a combination of bronzing goodness and also cellulite control! Yep, you heard it right. Skinny Tan products are designed to tighten and tone the skin and let’s not lie, everybody needs a little bit of this in their life. For me personally, this is massively appealing as anything that promises to tone the skin, I’m willing to try out and put to the test.
Packaging:
I’ll start by talking about the first thing that caught my eye with this brand. The packaging is so dainty and pretty I’m completely obsessed.
I’ve followed Skinny Tan on Instagram for quite a few months and every time their posts pop up on my newsfeed, I always stop my lightening speed scrolling and take a moment to just admire the packaging. The white and pastel tones compliment one another perfectly and create the prettiest, most dainty combination ever.
The products come in squeeze tubes which makes distributing the correct amount of tan into your hand/mitt super easy. I’ve had issues with tan in the past where the product comes with a pump and always found that one pump doesn’t push out enough product but two pumps is far too much so I was happy to try out something squeezy instead!
Products:
Exfoliating Mitt – £5.99
I’m guilty in saying that before I received this, I’d never tried any form of exfoliating mitt! Normally I just use a really harsh body scrub and work it into my skin using my hands so receiving something brand new to me was really exciting. For my first time using it, I was pretty impressed! It helped me to work in the pre-tan primer (which I’ll be talking about in a minute) and left my skin feeling smooth and supple.
This mitt is double sided for two different levels of exfoliation. The orange side is slightly softer and is designed for prepping the skin before adding any tan. This will remove any dry/rough areas of skin to ensure that your tan doesn’t gather in those areas and in turn, creates an even and flawless application. The brown side has a much more rough texture and is designed to remove or correct excess tan on the body. I haven’t had to use the brown side of the mitt just yet as the tan applied evenly to my skin and wore away perfectly so I didn’t feel it was necessary to use it.
Pre-tan Primer – £9.99
Again, this isn’t something that I’ve experimented with before and normally just reach for just a classic body scrub that I’ve got close to hand in the bathroom. However, if you think about it, a ‘primer’ makes sense. Not a day goes by that I don’t prime my face before applying make-up so to prime the skin before applying products, is a sensible idea and in theory, does exactly the same thing. In the past when I’ve used body scrubs, my skin can sometimes feel stripped back, sensitive and dry but this Skinny Tan pre-tan primer is specifically designed to add moisture into the skin whilst prepping it for tan.
The first thing I noticed about the pre-tan primer was the smell. My god the smell is heaven in a tube. As somebody who hasn’t been abroad in many many years, the smell of coconut is always a winner for me and puts me in that relaxed mode that I can imagine a holiday would do. Coconut is one of those scents that makes me think of sun, sea and cocktails on the beach so when I first caught the scent of this product, I literally just wanted to cover myself head to toe in it.
The pre-tan primer works just like a body scrub would but it’s much softer and much more moisturising. Paired up with the mitt it gives the perfect level of exfoliation without leaving your skin angry and red and it feels so soft and hydrated afterwards too! Unlike other scrubs can do, this primer doesn’t leave any residue or greasy ‘film’ on the skin.
Gradual Tanner – £14.99
Here’s the interesting part and probably the reason most people have stuck around this far into the post – if you’re still reading to this point, thank you so much!
I’ve only ever tried one other gradual tanner (it was the Dove one and was absolutely god awful) so I was super excited to find this in my little package and couldn’t wait to try it. For me personally, a gradual tanner is so much more appealing because they enable you to get your desired level of tan in whatever timescale you want. I normally find that one application isn’t quite dark enough for me so tend to apply for two consecutive days but I prefer this so much more than instant tans that make you look a completely different colour straight away.
Again, the first thing I noticed about this tan was the classic beautiful coconut smell which was a lovely surprise because let’s be honest, most tans make you smell like a digestive biscuit and I don’t know about anybody else, but as much as I love them, I don’t particularly want to smell like one just for the sake of being bronzed for a week.
I remember the first time I ever used the dove tanner and I woke up in the middle of the night and the tan honestly smelt so strong on my body that I literally could not get back to sleep as it was making me feel so nauseous. SkinnyTan doesn’t particularly have a scent that sticks around once it’s developed (the coconut scent is very faint eventually) which I can’t complain about too much. I would have loved it if the coconut scent stuck around a little more but no scent is better than biscuits, right?
The tan was easy to apply and blend into the skin as the consistency is so silky and smooth. It comes out of the tube as a white cream and blends into the skin to be colourless and then develops within 4-5 hours to a beautiful natural bronze tone. I normally apply this before I go to bed and use a tanning mitt to get an even coverage all over. I woke up the next morning the perfect shade of light-medium natural bronze as if I’d just been catching some real sun!
After Glow Gloss – £9.99
First things first, how fancy and luxurious does an ‘after glow gloss’ sound?! I’m a highlighter addict so the glow part caught my attention straight away and a glossy lip is so perfect for summer so why not have a glossy tan to match, right?
Once again, the delicious coconut scent was present so this product passes the scent test too, just like all the others! However unlike the other products, this gloss had no colour to it whatsoever and was just a clear transparent formula.
The After Glow Gloss is designed to give your skin a beautiful subtle sheen whilst elongating the life of your tan and I genuinely believe it works! Normally, gradual tanners fade on me/go patchy within 3 days but the SkinnyTan one lasted on me for a whole week (maybe slightly longer) and still looked fresh on the last day before I firmly scrubbed it off which I believe was helped out by the gloss! My skin felt smooth, silky and looked radiant without that horrific sticky/tacky finish.
Overall opinion:
Overall, I absolutely adore this brand and their products. Their gradual tanner is hands down the best I have tried and I was so pleasantly surprised to fall so hard for it. Skinny Tan products are such good quality for their low price point and I honestly urge any Tan lover to try something from their range! I would absolutely love to try some more Skinny Tan products, especially the tanning mousse as I’m so intrigued by it and I’ve heard nothing but good things. If you want to try any Skinny Tan products they can be found on the Superdrug website!
Thank you so much for reading this review and I hope you’ve enjoyed it. If you’d like to leave any comments below please feel free to let me know what you thought!
Until next time, lots of love,
Georgia x
