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Self-tan products

The following is an extract from a chapter on self-tan products from Beauty Scoop: The indispensable guide to the best beauty products on the market by Julia Carling and Kate Shapland

• How to use self-tan
• How does self-tan work?
• Do tanning pills work?
• Temporary tans
• Shopping for self-tans
• The best six self-tans
• The best three wash-off skin tints

So who were those giant smelly carrots?
Us - and you - before self-tan became the marvellous impersonator it is today! It has also become seriously big business - hardly surprising when you think what a bad press sunbathing gets. The more we know about the perils of sun exposure the better self-tans get: the competition is on for sun care companies to make one which looks and feels as close and good to the real thing as possible. And they are doing very well. Mind you, things couldn't have got much worse. If you were brave enough to use the stuff a few years ago you ran the risk of turning orange; streaks and a strange telltale smell were not optional either. But judging by our testers' comments on their questionnaires, it appears that there is still some way to go: requests included 'a fake tan that lasts for at least a month before it needs topping up again' and 'something that removes self-tan streaks'. In both cases we reckon it is probably only a matter of time. Despite the overall progress some self-tans haven't changed - they still do the same humiliating things to you. Others are so much better that they deserve a new name. Read on to find out which ones they are.

How to use self-tan
Don't skip this bit because you think you have read it a hundred times before: there is no point splashing out on a good self-tan if you don't put it on properly:
1. Exfoliate everywhere you intend to put self-tan - the point of doing this is to get rid of a build-up of dead skin on your body which makes self-tan look uneven and come off more quickly (when you lose the dead skin).
2. Moisturise your whole body - self-tan clings to moisturised skin better than dry.
3. Apply self-tan in long sweeping movements and swiftly without massaging it in too much. Wipe over heavily lined areas like your knees, heels and elbows with a flannel or damp cottonwool pad to stop self-tanning pigment from collecting in the lines.
5. Allow self-tan at least an hour (no matter how quickly it claims to develop on the bottle) to absorb or develop before getting dressed or into bed.
6. Reapply self-tan as you need to (usually every three to four days) after exfoliating and moisturising again.

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