My Fake Tan Routine!

My friends often ask me how I'm so bronzed and beachy all year round, my secret is fake tan! I have a natural olive complexion and as I go abroad 4 or 5 times a year I'm usually lovely and bronzey, however in those times when I need topping up I do use fake tan. My go to fake tan has to be my St Moriz Instant Self Tanning Mouse in shade Dark. I've used this for nearly a year now and it has never let me down! I have used various applicators to apply my tanner, the best one being my St Tropez Self Tanning Mitt. These two together are the dream combo!

How I apply my tan:

Skin Preparation
This step is vital, if your skin isn't silky smooth enough the tan will end up patchy, which is never a good look! I shave my legs first because this creates a smooth surface to start off with and if you shave first you don't end up with shaving lines in your tan!! (However don't cut yourself like I manage to do every time)

Then I exfoliate my skin with my trusty Frank Body body scrub (I would highly recommend checking them out on insta @frank_bod as they are a lovely vegan skin care brand!!). When I'm in the bath I scrub my whole body and face with this as this removes old tan as well as dead skin cells and other dirt, Frank Body recommend you to leave the scrub on for at least 5 minuets so your body can absorb all the coffee goodness.

I then wash this off, it usually does a really good job, but to double check I use my exfoliating gloves from Superdrug and just go over my body again getting all the hard to reach/ more sensitive places that need extra care. I don't moisturise my skin before I tan as I find the tan stays better on fresh skin and doesn't stick in random places.

Application
When my body is completely dry and clean I put 2 pumps of tan onto my mitt, starting at my feet I rub the tan in circular motions all over my body under a bright light so I can see if there's any places I've missed. I then move onto my belly and back then my arms. For each section I find 2-3 pumps of tan is enough.  Finally I tan my neck up to my jawline using the left over tan on my mitt, this way it gradually fades from my face colour (which is a lot lighter than my body) to my body, this also makes it easier to blend your foundation into your neck line making it look more natural! I then sleep with my tan on and shower it off the next morning. When I shower it off I just let the water pour over me until it runs clear, I don't rub or scrub my body as this can make your tan patchy. (In this case I had a bath because our shower is broken.)

Maintenance
To keep my tan fresh looking and beachy I moisturise using my bodyshop coconut body butter every other day. I'm very lucky as I don't have any dry skin on my body so moisturising every other day is enough for me. If you have dryer skin you may find you need to moisturise every day and those with oily skin may find they need to use a tanning moisturiser as this will help the tan remain for the longest time possible keeping the colour of it which could be lost due to your skin being oily.

How I remove my tan:

Removal
After about 2 and a half weeks my tan will start to fade and go patchy, this is when you know you need to take it off. I wash my body with my normal shower gel at the time. Then I just scrub my body very roughly with Frank Body and my exfoliating gloves. This usually gets it all off as by this point the tan is ready to be taken off. For any tough parts I use coconut oil on my exfoliating gloves and this gets it off instantly and it's all natural!

Aftercare
I usually give my skin a breather for a day or two when I've removed my tan. I usually remove it on a night time and after I've removed it I don't apply any creams or moisturisers until the next morning to let my skin air and calm down from the scrubbing. Then when I'm ready to apply my fake tan again I start this whole process again!

Normally I start fake tanning in October and end in about May because by then I've usually had a sufficient amount of sun to make me tanned enough! Through out summer my tan is always a natural one (I do use tanning oil and sometimes moisturiser with tan in it to get my tan started), I don't like tanning all year round because everyone skin needs a rest from products. There is a down side from fake tanning though, the fake tan I buy makes me a lovely bronze colour but when I tan naturally I tan more browny so I have about 5 different foundations to match me all year round which is a bit annoying but it's all worth it for the end results!! I hope this helped everyone who was wondering how I remain bronzed all year round! Thanks for reading.