As a young, pale and freckled, ginger living in Florida, I was constantly besieged by sunshine. During a time when the maximum SPF available was about 8 and long before sun guard swim shirts were available, I went to bed each night wishing to wake up with brown hair and skin that tanned like my friend, Carol.
My teenage dreams, while living in Connecticut, that this would be the year of golden glow, rather than seashell pink, or worse lobster red, never materialised either. I willed my freckles to blend together to make their own tan. Alas, to no avail.
In my pursuit of summer skin, I’m embarrassed to say I’ve experienced more than one sunburn due to inadequate sunscreen application. When your skin turns a colour that clearly explains just how angry it is with you, you know you've taken a wrong turn. My grandmother, Betsy (the Elizabeth of A&E), was a great one for home remedies, treating me with freshly cut aloe and tea bag or vinegar baths. Amazingly, I still love the smell of Noxzema.
In my 20s, when sunscreen was merely in my moisturiser and didn’t go past my neck, my chest got too much UVA (or ageing) exposure from v-neck t-shirts and has aged much faster than my face. To combat this, my daily moisturiser now is loaded with Vitamin A and I regularly do deep serum treatments on my chest. For my upcoming holiday, I’ve chosen a swim top that rises to the bottom of my neck so that I don’t undo the progress I’ve made!
As a side note, the other thing I would tell my 20-something self is to use eye cream.
Today, I’m obviously much more vigilant about my sun exposure and living in England is a massive benefit to my skin. Still, I apply sunscreen every single day from forehead to décolleté, whether I can see the sun or not.
Even with all my skin knowledge, which tells me a tan is our skin’s way of defending itself against the sun...
And my self knowledge that I physically cannot achieve a tan, no matter how hard I try. I can burn through a car window. Seriously...
Acknowledging these truths, sadly, doesn’t make me any less desirous of golden skin in the summer. So I've had to get really good at faking it.
For the face. For me, that’s easy. My make-up collection offers a variety of bronzers and blushers that can make me look like I’ve been worshipping the sun for days.
For the body. This has taken significantly more effort to master. Self-tanners abound, however I've had many self-tan fails thanks to poor formulations and let’s be honest, operator error. Too light, too dark, streaks. I’ve done it all, badly. And I think, I’m a grown woman. What is my problem??? Luckily, practice has improved technique, even if perfection isn’t always achieved.
One of the biggest challenges for me with self-tanner has been planning because the weather doesn’t always comply with my self-tanning schedule. So with the original self-tanners that needed time to dry once applied and then overnight to develop, I always seemed to be putting it on at the wrong time. Before a day that turned out to be pouring with rain. Or not being prepared on a surprisingly sunny day.
Formulations have improved over time and there are now options with immediate results, allowing me to “tan” before going out to dinner. Equally important for me is that it can be removed with my next shower. My current faves are from This Works and Vita Liberata. By the way, if you do have a bit more time to spare to bronze your skin (4 to 8 hours), this option is half the price of Body Blur and works just as well!
The other transformation has been using a mitt for application rather than just my hand. I get better coverage overall and no longer have the panic of getting the self-tanner off my palms, without streaking my hands and arms. The great thing about mitts as well is that they can be cleaned and reused.
Pre-tan exfoliation has also been improved with the right tool. While I love a good scrub to use in the shower or bath, on days when I’m going to self tan, I reach for my exfoliating sponge pre-shower instead.
So while I will always be slathered in SPF 50 at the beach, even in the late afternoon, I will make an effort to fake my tan so I don't look like I've been stuck inside all season. And now you know how I’ll do it.
Do you ever fake your tan?