Top Ten Tanning Tips

Now with summer fading along with my natural tan, I will start to find myself reaching once again for my favourite faker.

So here is a few tips that I have picked up over the years which enable me to glow like a golden goddess all year round!

 

1. Make sure that you wax roughly 48 hours before tanning (and depending on your skin shave 24 hours before) to avoid your tan seeping into your pores leaving an uneven dotty colour.
2. Giving your skin a good old scrub in the shower before applying fake tan is one step that you should never skip! You want to make sure that all your dead skin has gone and has left behind a lovely smooth base for applying your tan, otherwise you will find that the colour will fade away a lot quicker and a lot patchier. If your skin is generally quite dry (like mine) I find that using your scrub on dry skin, then, rinsing it off in the shower is very effective! This is the time that I absolutely love using my Kedem Kiwi&Mango Salt Scrub. (which you can read about at the bottom of My Favourite Moisturisers post)
3. Don’t over moisturise! This is something that I recently wasn’t very aware of! We all want to moisturise before we tan to try to get as smooth a base as possible, but this will in fact stop the tan from completely developing, leaving you a little underwhelmed in the morning when it seems to all wash off in the shower! Instead opt for a oil free moisturiser like the one from FakeBake, and only apply it to the dryer areas of your body such as elbows, knees and ankles! “The moisturiser will act as a diluting agent for areas that grab the tan more” – as said by Leighton Denny, co-founder of the Sun-Believable range.
4. Don’t rush! Try to leave at least an hour between jumping out the shower and applying your tan. After having a hot steamy shower your body will still be ‘sweating’ out excess moisture which can interfere with the tan developing.
5. Avoid using your hands at all costs! For me a mitt is perfect, as long as you chuck it into the washing machine before using it again. Some tans when left in open air turn a horrible green colour, so if you decide to use your mitt after it has turned green you will find that the colour will transfer onto your body and will leave it a less than pleasant colour.
6. Work your way up. Start at your feet, otherwise if you bend over to get to your feet at the end you could end up leaving fold lines across  your stomach and patches on your thighs!
7. Feeling a little sticky? Take an old clean tanning mitt and put some talc on it, then pat around your underarms and anywhere that your skin touches ( behind knees, inside legs and elbows) as not only will it stop the sticky feeling but will also stop any moisture that might prevent the tan from developing.
8. Avoid hot showers! Try and get used to a luke warm shower also don’t rub or wipe yourself dry, try patting your skin dry instead, again this will help keep your colour for longer!
9. Try to moisturise your body twice a day (morning and night) this will help lock in your lovely olive glow!
10. Night Out? If you are going out and really want to show off your tan, try a spray oil on your legs (baby oil works great too!) or even a little shimmery bronzer down your shins and along your collar bones! Don’t get carried away though, you don’t want to be mistaken for the Christmas tree in the holidays!

Happy Tanning!
LuLu

x

My Favourite Moisturisers

I have tried and tested an awful lot of moisturizers and have certain tubs and bottles to do different things, so I decided to make up some fun moisture(eee) related titles to award to my favourites.
So here goes..

Nivea In Shower Body Moisturiser for dry skin £5.10 400ml

 

I saw the advert for this moisturiser on the television and thought it to be the easy way out, this appealed to me as I can rarely be bothered smothering myself in lotion just to stand and wait for it to seep in before I can get dressed. I then passed it in SuperDrug where it was on offer, and bought it (the first one I bought was the normal one, not the one for dry skin) I tried it out, and loved it! I soon used the 250ml bottle up within 2 weeks. I went to buy another, and came across the one for dry skin and picked up the larger 400ml bottle for £3 (usually £5.10) and loved it even more, although i have to warn you that if you don’t rinse out the shower properly after use it can leave a dangerous super slippery residue in the bottom of the shower.

Garnier Intensive 7 Days Body Lotion Shea Butter 400ml £4.99

I love this stuff as a quick fix on dry patches that need to be sorted quickly without the dreaded sticky, walking around like a penguin aftermath. It smells fresh and as the formula is very light it absorbs almost instantly. It does the job but i definitely wouldn’t say that the results lasted 7 days like it says it should.

Superdrug Plum and Red Cherry Body Butter 200ml £3.69

All Superdrugs body butters smell gorgeous, but this one is my favourite, as you can tell by its winning title it smells great and for me, seems to last ages! I tend to use this more in the winter, as i find that my shins can get quite dry and flakey due to the weather. It also works great for your elbows and knees before tanning! This is a pamper night in product certainly not a quick on the go job, as with most body butters it can take quite a bit longer to absorb into the skin unlike normal moisturizers, but they tend to be more moisturizing due to this.

Boots Sanctuary Body Moisture Spray

I love using this after shaving and waxing! It really penetrates the deeper layers of skin that normal moisturizers don’t reach. I also find after tanning , if I apply this to my legs it gives them a really healthy sheen. I’m not sure the price of this product as I got it at Christmas.
FINALLY – The moisturizer that is everyone of these put together!

KEDEM Mango Body Butter & Mango and Kiwi Body Scrub

Kedem Cosmetics has been developed and manufactured by the esteemed Paloma Dead Sea Ltd., the world’s first cosmetic lab to commercially develop and market skin and therapeutic products based on dead sea minerals, salts and muds.

The Kedem range of products are manufactured and imported directly from Israel, where only the finest original dead sea minerals and other natural ingredients are used. Kedem cosmetics is a Paraben-free cosmetic range that offers safe and natural skin care products, that includes facial and body creams, masks, scrubs, salts, butters and soaps.

Our extensive range is a result of over 20 years of research and development of dead sea skin care products.

I have been wanted to speak about this brand for ages ITS INCREDIBLE. Although buying it can be a little confusing. I got this as a present and when I soon realised how amazing it was I thought I would look up where to buy it in the future, this is where the problems started. I found on another blog someone who was having the same problem as me and they said that the official way to buy it was from the ‘kedemcosmetics’ shop on ebay but they were selling one tub for around £60 which I thought was crazyyy, BUT understandable for the quality. I then decided to search around a little myself and find out if there was any other way. I found out that this brand has been sold at stalls in various shopping centers across the country which is where most people have heard about them. I also found what seems to be THE Kedem site, but its South African and everything is in ZAR’s (eg. 500R) The Body Butter was R175.00 which I worked out to be £11.36 which was a large jump in price from the £60, but then worked out the shipping and realised it would actually work out more expensive to have it delivered from South Africa. THEN i found their facebook page, where i found that they sell their products in St Enochs centre in Glasgow, and I am sure if you post a comment you could find out where the nearest seller to you is.

Now the actual product smells incredible, it was the first thing that i noticed. It comes in a glass tub which is very pretty and one you wouldn’t mind sitting in your bathroom for all to see. Its thick and creamy and unlike most body butters it is quick to absorb. If you team it with the Body Scrub pictured with it, then you’ll be in heaven. The scrub on its own it is moisturizing enough, it smells incredible, gets rid of all dead skin, and works great for smoothing everything down before applying fake tan. I’m finding it hard to explain just how it feels, but just believe me when I say its incredible. Honestly the best scrub I have ever used.