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
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.
How does self-tan work?
It is very simple: all self-tans use the same ingredient - dihydroxyacetone (DHA) - to chemically turn your skin brown. DHA browns skin through its interaction with the amino acid arginine found in surface skin cells. Some self-tans contain more DHA than others; and the more a product contains, the faster self-tan browns your skin. DHA is what gives self-tan that - er - distinctive smell. But some companies have found better ways of masking this than others. Find out which in the results of our road test.
Do tanning pills work?
It depends which ones you take and what you classify as a tan. There are two types of tanning pill (also called pre-tan accelerators): those that contain an ingredient called tyrosine that is needed by your body to produce melanin (which is what tans your skin). But, no matter how much tyrosine you take orally you won't tan unless your skin is exposed to UV rays. In other words, tyrosine-based pre-sun tanning pills are a waste of money. Other tanning pills contain beta carotene, the property that makes carrots orange and if you take enough of it (or eat enough carrots), it changes the colour of your skin. To orange. If this is the colour you want to be, fine. But our advice would be to give them both a miss and get yourself a decent self-tan.
Temporary tans
No matter how good self-tanning formulas have got, lots of our testers said they still didn't want to use them - mostly for fear of turning themselves orange. Bronzing powders make good substitutes if you still want to give your face a bit of healthy colour. Sweep them over completely dry skin (i.e. with all traces of moisturiser absorbed) with a big, fat, soft brush to give skin an instant pick-me-up.
Shopping for self-tans
Before you head for the shops or flash your cash:
1. Decide where you are going to use self-tan: some people (ourselves included) only use it on their legs and faces, others put it all over, and you can buy different formulations for your face and body.
2. Decide how much you want to spend: our testers found that you can find effective conventional self-tans in each of the different price brackets from competitive to premium, but that you need to pay a bit more for a good wash-off (temporary) face tint.