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. 

Virgin No More: Baby B Browne

Right, so heres the story. I'm an Irish girl in her 20's who has never gone near tan in her life. What rock did I crawl out from under I hear some of you saying. Yup, I didn't even know how much a tan mitt would be on average. But after been given a lovey bottle of Baby B Browne by the girls in the RDS earlier this month, how could I not try it out and see if it was worth the effort to look sun kissed. Heres how I got on and keep in mind, I've never ever done this before so if it sounds awful it could just be purely because I'm a gobshite who was trusted with fancy tan. Jesus save us!

My fears? The colour first off, obviously. What the hell am I going to look like and will I ever be able to return to my milk bottle legs? The smell. Every man I know scrunches up their face and complains of horrible smells when you mention tan. And lastly, will it rub off onto my clothes and everything I touch off of for the next week, hence ruining my bed sheets, clothes, bath towels and so on. Oh feck, I was terrified. 

First off, exfoliate, shave and then wait for the blood to dry from the nicks you just gave yourself with the razor. Bull in a china shop, me. Then it was time, I used the really handy pump and put some on the mitt. Sweet divine, it was so dark and actually didn't smell awful at all. I was tempted to eat it with the sweet smell drawing me in, but in the name of guinea pig for blogging I started rubbing it on my legs. It was a little darker then my skin but after rubbing it in - which was really easy to spread and do - I was left with sweet smelling, slightly darker legs and a plain scary looking tan mitt. (But a quick soap up of the mitt and it came out looking brand new, so hooray for getting several possible uses out of the mitt.) I only did my lower legs and feet because well, if things went awfully at least I could hid the stumps, ehrr pins. Cough.

That was day one in the morning. Soon after rubbing it in I forgot about it until I swung my legs out of bed the next morning and did a double take in my only half waking state. My legs are tanned, like glowy? How'd that happen? Oh tan, yes. I was genuinely surprised at how it turned out. I didn't look scary OR orange.. Well at least on my legs, the knees and feet needed major work. Hello orange knees and badly, half done feet. How do people tan those bits?! I need serious practice and can say it had nothing to do with the tan itself. 

However, on day 3 there was a slight eh, blonde moment on my part yet again. I used my Vaseline moisturiser spray on my legs, the force of it stripping the tan in what I can only describe as 'go faster' strips down the both of them. Oh man, major failing was had with this poor tan. On the plus side at least you can all see the nice before and after shade on my legs? Needless to say it got scrubbed off not too long after so I was no longer faster, sadly. Side note, sorry for the foot picture. How I despise them, its a passion. Thinking about them scares me, not to mention having a photo of them on my screen. So sorry. Oh and awful chipped nail varnish? Yeah, no comment.  

Over all I am pleasantly surprised by this tan. I had a few dodgy  moments but that was purely my lack of knowledge on the how to's of tanning and not knowing I could pressure spray it off! Would I use it again? Yes, I actually would which even I find shocking to admit. However, this is medium tan for face and body and as much as I really liked this, it will never ever go near my face, or any other tan for that matter. At €14.95 I don't think I'd be running off to demand more any time soon, but the bottle is 250ml and a little seems to go a long way. - Another sneaky thing to add in here. I've been testing out a few different tans for reviewing and for making better comparisons. This tan has been the best one I have used so far! Make sure you keep an eye out for my next tan review, its a shocker. 

Baby B Browne* is a Northern Irish brand and is great to see a good quality product coming out of this little island. From starting out as an idea for a good self tan at an affordable price to being stocked all over in salons, this is an amazing achievement. Have a goo at it over here.

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