Academie Bronz'Express Self Tanner

I know. I'm back again with more tan talk. When will I learn to politely decline from reviewing tanning products and just leave it to the pros out there? Well, one because if I did that with make up all those years ago I wouldn't know half the stuff I do today! And two, its a gas bit of craic to see how badly I manage to feck up every single fake tan I use. As a novice of tanning, its always a nice challenge to find a product that totally baffles me and I end up thinking why people spend time and money on this stuff. But some people would say the same about make up or books. I get it, thats why I want to try and (badly) embrace it!

*Bronz'Express is a French brand that has been on the market since 1958, so its safe to say at this stage that they have fine tuned their products, or so you would think. This particular one is for both face and body and is immediately effective once its applied. The bottle is the first problem on the list. Out of all the tans I have tried, this was the hardest one to use. The screw off lid leaves you to pour the liquid onto your tanning mitt and then apply. But as it was totally liquid it went down the side of the bottle, onto my hands, the floor and into the bath. I could also feel it soaking into the mitt itself leaving my fingers stained once I took it off. This is not for the faint hearted, nor the busy 2 minute tanning lovers. Considering how difficult this was to just get out of the bottle I felt that so much product was wasted between it going on the floor and soaking into the mitt. 

But not all is lost just because the bottle was poorly thought out. Once you get the hang of pouring (which I just couldn't for the life of me) then the application is really simple and quick. The product has a pleasant sweet smell, that almost reminds me of a perfume I can't quite remember the name of. It drys quickly so you need to get moving fast but it leaves a really nice slight colour from the moment you apply - the photo below makes it look like I've big bruises but it just picked up badly! After the seconds it takes to dry, it takes on a different, more tan-like smell which I wasn't in love with. As its so fast drying you would really need to exfoliate well before using it as I would say it will cling to any imperfections. 

I left it for the evening and the next morning my skin was a really lovely, if somewhat dark sun kissed look. This time I was honestly not fussy with trying to tan my feet as I just can't do it and it always looks awful. So a little got slapped on, as you can see in the bottom right photo. But the upside to this is it works as a fantastic visual aid! As you can see with just the one quick application my fake tan has come up really well. Now after 3 showers and a bath over 3 days it did fade a lot, but not as much as I expected that it would. 

Overall despite the really crappy bottle, I really liked this tan. It started to give you colour from the moment it was applied, it only needed one application to give a really nice darkish tan and it stayed for a good few days even though it got  attacked with lots of water and scrubbing over it. And it can also be used for your face whcih is always handy too. If I was a tan person I would use this again without hesitation. You'd just never hear the end of my bitching about the bottle! You can get this 100ml bottle for a bargain grabbin' €10 from The Cosmetic Outlet. 

*I did not pay for this item, it was a PR gift.  Please see my disclaimer here. 

Cocoa Brown New 1 Hour Dark Tan Mousse

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to get to go to the launch party for the new products that Cocoa Brown were bringing out. Since the Irish company launched their first product, Cocoa Brown have been going from strength to strength and now can be bought in Penneys all across Ireland and have recently ventured across the waters to sit on the shelves of SuperDrug in the UK. You might also be able to find them in your local chemist as they are ever expanding, fair play to them! 

Over the past two months I have gone from fake tan virgin to full on pro (or so I'd like to kid myself into believing!) and have been trying out lots of the different brands out there. I had a go of Cocoa Browns brand spanking new *1 hour dark tan mousse and I have to say, it was a total let down. More people then I can count have nothing but rave reviews for this product and the brand in general, but I can't say I feel the same. I might be in the minority here and I haven't used all the products in their brand yet, so perhaps I will find something to love yet.

The one hour tan is really handy to put on quick so your not flaffing about. A quick squirt of mousse-like stuff onto your tanning mitt, rub it over your skin and thats it! It suggests for a deeper tan that you leave it on for about 2 hours. After that you wash it off and your ready to go. 

My problem? Once I read the bottle and applied the tan I couldn't really do anything for the time it took to tan my legs. I wrapped a towel around myself only to find that it was taking the tan off my legs. I had to rub a little more tan on the rubbed off parts and just sit with my legs not touching anything. Which makes me think it would be really difficult to sit or do anything if you were trying to do a full body tan with this product. I eventually got comfy and sat with a book for over 2 hours- I got carried away with the book. After that I washed off the mousse and didn't really notice any difference in the colour. Maybe it took a while to come up?

The next morning there was a slight tan but nothing to write home about. The pictures above are a little misleading as it was late afternoon and dull when I took my before photo and early in the morning while it was very bright in my after photo. I didn't think that it worked very well at all and for €7.99 I feel you could get a better tan for your money, effort and all that sitting about time wasting. 

Have a look at my Baby B Browne tan review here.

*I did not pay for this item, it was a PR gift.  Please see my disclaimer here.