My Beauty Space : Product Reviews, Tips and Experiences

We recently went on a trip to an all day amusement park affair, and I forgot my self tanner, which I really needed because I would be wearing shorts or cut off pants (capris), and my legs were as white as a ghost.  So, we stopped at the local store and I ended up picking out a gradual self tanner after much debate, since they didn’t really have many full-on self tanners there, so I really had to choose from one of the ones that are displayed year-round since we are coming up on fall here in Ohio, which narrowed it down to the slew of gradual self tanners that have come out from the makers of moisturizers.

I ended up deciding on a Nivea product, because I do like the Nivea line of moisturizers, and thought that since I know they have a high quality moisturizing line and even some decent cellulite treatment products, how could I really go wrong with their gradual self tanner?  So I settled on one called Sun-Kissed Firming Moisturizer, which is both a firming agent as well as a touch of self tanner in it, for a gradually worked on glow.  I bought the self tanner that was made for those with “medium to dark skin”, although I am fair skinned, since I wanted quicker, darker results that would be overnight almost or maybe two nights since I didn’t have much time for my self tan to develop.

The Nivea tanner comes in an 8.4 oz container, and runs about six bucks which isn’t half bad at all cost wise.  The consistency of the product is very watery in my opinion, so if you try it, you’re gonna want to make sure you don’t squeeze too hard or too much product will come out and you’ll have to distribute it over more surface area than you thought to get it to sink in without wasting it. 

There is a faint smell of DHA to it (the chemical that causes the darkening of the skin in self tanners), but nothing too offensive.  It rubs in right away, so you have to be careful not to over do it in some areas since it absorbs very quickly.  I found that I over did it on my feet, which I had already applied moisturizer to as a prevention measure against it getting too dark down there sincce the drier areas do tend to darken more easily, but I still got a darkening there that didn’t quite look right. 

As far as the smell when you are wearing it, it’s not too bad once the DHA activates, although you can smell a faint smell again when it activates.  The Ginkgo extract is a nice touch for a shimmery and firming quality added to the cream, and you won’t find me complaining about any product that adds firmness while also creating a nice self tan. 

The color was to be expected, pretty much the same as any self tanner, only much lighter since the DHA concentration wasn’t too heavy.  Overall, this isn’t a bad choice for a gradual self tanner, just don’t expect a huge change in color - it does still take time, even if you buy a shade darker than your natural skin tone, which is what I did. 

It’s something that some American advocates are jealous of and want to happen over here in America, but it may not because of the lobbying going on, or at the very least may take longer for anything as radical as this to happen over here, but in Australia, the government arm that controls tanning and beauty salons is reportedly forcing tanning salons to post skin cancer warnings after lobbyists have complained that the indoor tanning industry does not post warnings against skin cancer.

The indoor tanning industry over here in the US has long denied that frequent indoor tanning has any effect on the likelihood you will get skin cancer in it’s most deadly form which is the melanoma form of skin cancer, but the statistics have shown that skin cancer has increased almost 50% amongst the age group of women who also happens to be the demographic that goes to tanning salons the most.  It’s a young age to be diagnosed with such a serious skin cancer, and many researchers point to the popularity of indoor tanning as the primary culprit.

While I agree that frequent indoor tanning definitely damages the skin cell’s DNA and leads the way to melanoma cancer, I also think that avoiding the sun all together can be dangerous as well, since the sun is our primary source of producing vitamin D on our own (and the best, most cancer-protective form of vitamin D can only be made by our bodies via sun exposure and vitamin synthesis from that). 

I think that as long as you wear sunscreen during long exposures to the sun and take into consideration your concentration of melanin for the amount of sun you do get, you should be fine, but little jaunts into the sun without covering up head to toe can actually be more beneficial in the end as far as creating this protective vitamin that trying to avoid sun exposure all together.  This is all just coming to light in a body of research about vitamin D’s protective and preventive qualities when it comes to cancer because it was found that vitamin D lacking patients who had cancer had less chance of surviving the cancer than those who had enough vitamin D. 

Do I think Australia’s warnings are a good thing?  Absolutely!  It’s the real sun that is most therapeutic to us anyways, so the indoor tanning salons really are harmful because of the way people tend to use and abuse them and go way too often to form a deep tan, which is very damaging to the skin and can definitely lead to skin cancer in the end.  There’s always your best buddy if you really want that deep tan, self tanners nowadays are my favorite fashion accessory because the create that deep tan without all the damage to your skin. 

What I say when I mean a good self tanner plus natural sun means you get a gorgeous deep tan, is of course not that you fry yourself out in the sun, and take precautions, especially when it comes to sunscreen on your susceptible body parts that burn easily especially the face, but that with a little natural sunlight after applying a self tanner, you do get a very nice result because the self tanner effect is intensified over and over again when it is exposed to sunlight.

This is for a few reasons.  First, because the natural radiant heat that is emitted from the sun helps to “bake” the self tanner in further and help it penetrate the skin’s layers, making for a potentially longer, more lasting tan, and also making for a more beautiful, deeper color that you can say really came from some natural exposure (but not too much). 

Second, self tanner’s main ingredient is made to interact with oxygen, and when it is exposed to oxygen there is a small chemical reaction between it and your skin, which produces the browning of the top layers of the skin, which produces the self tan that helps make you look gorgeously summery while maintaining the integrity of your skin and helping to prevent wrinkles and skin cancer. 

The less covered you have your body, say if you have a pair of shorts and tank top on, this means the more oxygen your body is exposed to, and the better the self tanner develops, and the quicker it develops, into a brown tan that you can be happy with.  Any time I’ve ever applied self tanner and then gone out in the sun, I’m amazed at how quickly and effortlessly the sunless tan develops, whereas it may take a lot longer to develop if I am fully clothed and indoors. 

A little sunlight is good for you, it helps you produce Vitamin D, it’s just those that overexpose themselves to UV rays that find it backfires on them and they may develop skin cancers and premature wrinkling since sun exposure does produce Vitamin D in the body, but it also can produce free radicals which help destroy healthy skin cells. 

It’s called a “Local Secret” lotion in Maui, Hawaii, where the product is manufactured, and after using it I can sort of agree, but I did notice one drawback of the Maui Babe Browning Lotion, but it wasn’t really all that important since I did feel it worked.  The lotion has become somewhat of a hit with the tanning crowd, because it is supposed to give you a dark tan that is faster and even may help curb burning, although it does not contain any sunscreen, supposedly perhaps because it is such a dark lotion to begin with that may serve as somewhat of a screen against UV rays, but that’s really just my uneducated guess.

Maui Babe, contrary to what I said in my last post, is not in as small a bottle as I thought.  I thought the bottle size was a bit too small from pictures and just visualization before I got my bottles in the mail which I ordered from Amazon.com, but when I got them I thought they were well worth the ten dollar price tag, and after I used the product it furthered confirmed the value becasue a little bit of this super rich and thick lotion does go quite a long ways. 

The Maui Babe Browning lotion does have tons of emollients in it, and because it does, it helps to draw the sun to you a bit more, but it also gives a nice brown instant color because of the potassium iodide, which is also presumably what helps your skin tan a little faster.  I remember the old trick of putting iodine in baby oil when I was young and dumb and just fried my skin to get a tan, so it doesn’t surprise me that potassuim iodide is in this stuff, it’s probably what lends a lot of the dark color to it. 

Some of the other ingredients in the product that are great for the skin are a light mineral oil (less comedogenic than heavy mineral oil, which isn’t recommended because it clogs pores more readily), Kukui Nut oil, vitamins E, C and A, Kona coffee plant extract, aloe and potassium iodide. 

Some of those ingredients are antioxidant powerhouses, so it’s really got some great stuff in it.  My only complaint is that the product does seem a bit heavy and almost sticky, so you do want to be careful not to load up too much when you apply it, because you will feel sticky and gooey for a while, but I think that’s why it lends itself to being water resistant also, because it does stick to the skin very well.  One of the best parts about it is that it gives that instant color like tinted self tanners do, so it’s ideal to put on while you’re in a bathing suit so you can get a little extra brownness going on that looks good instantly. 

A while ago my sister showed me this stuff she bought called Maui Babe.  It was in a pretty small bottle, actually a bit too small for the price, which was about ten bucks, and it was a rich, deep brown color.  She told me the stuff was great, it was a bronzing lotion that helped you attain a deeper tan with less burning (but with no sunscreen), and gave a richer, deeper brown color than normal tanning lotion, with a very pleasant scent and tons of emollients. 

Well, I forgot about that stuff, until I was searching for unrelated stuff on Amazon’s beauty section (which by the way I’m addicted to in case you couldn’t tell), and this Maui Babe stuff popped up because Amazon likes to show other items to people they think might like them based on their past shopping history with them, and I’m assuming since I’m the queen of self tanner shopping, and especially on Amazon since they have good deals on that stuff, that’s why it showed me this stuff.

Well, it got rave reviews from the people who posted about it pretty much, so I ordered a multipack, figuring since I was paying for shipping anyways I might as well order in bulk.  See, that’s how they get you to buy more, but I fall for it like a sucker every time   I’ll have a review coming on it as soon as I receive my shipment, which should definitely be coming this week.  I plan on wearing it out in the sun then next time I’m out doing gardening or lawn work, so I’ll let you know if it gives me a nice glow or if it’s a bust! 

There’s been so much in the news lately about sunscreen, since it is, in fact, summer everywhere and everyone almost can’t help but get a little sun exposure, no matter what their skin tone is.  Here it is the Fourth of July so it’s the perfect time to talk about summer sun protection, which we talk about often, but this was actually newsworthy enough to talk about on news sites, so we’re going to talk about it here as well.

There was that news about the new rating system for sunscreens being looked at as a more effective means to rate and grade the levels of UVA and UVB protection, since currently only a certain level of UV protection is FDA supervised and mandated, and now there is news that the American Academny of Dermatology is testing a lot of the more popular name brand sunscreens and saying that they are misleading customers about the level of protection they offer. 

They’re saying that they want to first test the actual effectiveness and efficiency of these sunscreens at providing the assigned level of protection, how long it provides protection according to labeling (which would include how often it has to be re-applied), and also if there are harmful chemicals or compounds in the sunscreen that may absorb into the skin and be harmful when applied, especially to children who use the product. 

One of the popular ingredients (chemicals) found in sunscreens today is called oxybenzone, and this ingredient has been tested and found in some cases to be a hormone interruptor, as well as a possible carcinogen (cancer causing agent).  This would be ironic, because the very thing we are trying to do when we apply sunscreen is protect ourselves against skin cancer, so it would obviously be disappointing if the very thing we put on to protect our skin was actually helping to create carcinogenic conditions in our body and on our skin.

However, other people say that the warnings about oxybenzone are unnecessary frightening and in fact the ingredient was safe.  If the FDA says so, it must be, right?  I’m being facetious by the way, lots of drugs approved by the FDA later come back to bite us in the butt, we all know that.  Critics of those that claim oxybenzone is unsafe say they are more worried about people not using sunscreen for fear of this ingredient.

In the past, another ingredient commonly used in sunscreen called PABA was eliminated from most because of it’s extremely irritating qualities.  Lots of people, including myself had extreme reactions to PABA, so it’s not found in many today. 

As far as the brands that tested on the low end of the effectiveness scale as discussed earlier, you will recognize all of them, and have probably even used them in the past.  They are Neutrogena, Coppertone, and Banana Boat.  No other recognizable names were mentioned.  
 

For several decades, tanning booths were very popular for people to enjoy a golden bronzed look all year long.  However, due to increased warnings about UV damage with the resulting premature wrinkling and more importantly, the very real danger of skin cancer, people are seeking a safer alternative.  Self tanning products are safe for your skin and have come a long way since the earlier products that left an odd orange tinge to your skin and often appeared blotchy or streaked easily.
 Sunless tanning products come in a wide array of different forms.   They come in lotions, sprays and mousse forms.  It is recommended, prior to application of any sunless tanning solution, to shower using an exfoliating scrub.  St. Tropez features a full line of moisturizers, tan removers, exfoliating scrubs, tanning lotions, sunless self tanning mousses, sunless self tanning sprays and more.

Fake Bake also has an extensive variety of sunless tanning products.  Fake Bake self tanner features Legal Sunburn and Bronzy Babe for facial use.  Similarly, their other products come in a Fake Bake Scrub, Fake Bake Skin Smoothly, Fake Bake Mousse, a self tanning lotion, a face tanner and more.  Airbrush tanning is a new and upcoming method of sunless tanning.  The airbrush method can be done at home or in a salon. 

Airbrush sunless tanning ingredients are FDA approved and safe for use in either setting.   The airbrush sunless tanning method takes 5 to 10 days to achieve a golden tanned look.  The airbrush packages for home use for sunless tanning are a little under $ 400.00.  Whatever sunless tanning method you choose, pick a reputable brand name and follow all instructions precisely.  This will help you to avoid a blotchy orange look and achieve a smooth even golden glow to your skin.

Sunless tanning lotions are meant to be applied about 3 times in the first week and after that they can be applied about 2 times a week.  You may decide to either increase or decrease the frequency of use depending on the depth of the tan color desired.  The tan does not wash off, however, you may notice some of the brown color guide washing off.  The tan will stay.  The sunless tanning lotion by Faux Tan is meant to be applied at night and washed off in the morning to rinse away the brown color guide.

In my weekly Sephora email that announces new products that have come out, or just gives some new advice about products to try, I saw that one new product offering on the market is a home self tanning system by the folks at Mystic Tan, who I look at as the pioneers of the self tan at the salon, because of the reach and popularity of their Mystic Tan system at salons. 

The Mystic Tan at salons employs a really cool technology where you step into the booth and get sprayed on the front and then the back with a natural looking self tanner, and an optional bronzing agent as well.  The thing that’s unique is a micro fine tanning mist, which allows the self tanner to be distributed evenly, and also a technology that employs the use of magnetism to make sure the self tanner adheres to the body and doesn’t just fly around in the air with nowhere to go. 

Almost every time I’ve gotten a Mystic Tan at a salon booth, I’ve been pretty happy with it, unless the self tanner was low, which did happen to me once, and I barely got any color.  The only problem is the cost and inconvenience of it all.  Mystic Tans don’t run cheap at about twenty bucks a pop, and you have to leave your house to get one. 

Well, Mystic Tan has come out with a home tanning system now that costs around $66 and gives you a Mystic tan at home that is supposed to be natural looking and relatively easy to apply.  It has of course a Mystic Tan self tanning fine mist, but it also comes with a sort of primer for before you apply the self tanner called a Conditioning Complex, and then a Mystic Tan enhancing moisturizing spray for skin care after the self tanner has been applied. 

I’d say it’s a good bet that this is a high quality kit for self tanning, given Mystic’s great track record for supplying people with the best option for self tanning at the salon for years now, and even being endorsed by professional cheerleading teams for their self tans.  My be worth a try for all you sunless tanning addicts! 

If you’ve ever been to a Mystic tan booth, or any of the other copycat spray tan booths, you know that it has its pluses and negatives, and once you’ve gone a couple of times those negatives tend to rear their ugly head and make themselves abundantly apparent.  The upside to the tanning salon spray tan is pretty obvious.  It only takes a couple of seconds, and you don’t have to do any work besides stand and turn around. 

So, what is the downside?  Well, the way it sometimes distributes on the skin is very uneven, and the fading of the tan is less than desirable looking.  If you don’t partially lotion your hands at least, watch out, because you will have very orange hands in comparison with the rest of your body.  What I mean is not the palms of your hands, but the upside of your hands, which you wouldn’t necessarily think of protecting with the cream that helps the tan not to take as much, can become very overly tan if you don’t partially moisturize them so they don’t soak up as much of the self tanner.

You can even see how the salon spray tan can look horrible after it’s worn off on stars like Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan.  I once saw a picture of Lindsay Lohan, who is naturally very fair skinned, with the tan that was obviously a couple of days old, because her legs were two toned and should not have been.  I’ve experienced this uneven fading a lot as well with Mystic tan and other self tanners.

If you want to get a better spray tan, you may want to opt for an airbrush tan by a really good technician who is experienced at spraying people with self tanner.  Either that, or you could try it yourself with some of the spray self tanner that are available today, one of the more notable and popular ones being Neutrogena.  You just have to be careful and don’t believe that all you have to do is spray and let it dry.  You still should be rubbing the sprayed on self tanner in very well so that you can ensure an even fake bake, and a little bit better fading as well.

Are you a self tanner?  Or maybe you’re a combination self tanner and sun basker.  Whatever the case may be, if you want to get an even sunless tan, then you need some sort of exfoliating sponge, and the loofah probably fits that bill best, since it is a natural exfoliant and gentle enough so that it doesn’t rip up the skin, yet abrasive enough so that it does slough off dead skin cells as well as old self tanner or uneven spots that can mess up a perfectly good sunless tan.

I couldn’t figure out why I get getting blotchy, and my sister, who’s a self tanner extraordinaire, told me that I had to exfoliate every single time I showered if I intended to put on self tanner that night or day, because if I didn’t then I would definitely get streaky.  She must have perfected it and figured that out over the years she’s been self tanning, because I thought you only had to exfoliate once in a while and still be able to get a good self tan by doing it that way, but apparently it’s more often ideally.

And, it works.  I started exfoliating every time before a self tan, even if it was just with a gradual self tanner, one of the ones that builds itself slowly over time, and only delivers a little bit of DHA every time, instead of mega dosing your skin with it to give you a dramatic color change right away.  Actually, either way, you want to exfoliate generously, but more so if you’re going for a big change in color, since most likely at that point you’re not very dark anyways, you won’t be sloughing off any kind of self tanner anyways. 

If you do a gradual self tan, and apply it often because it is so weak, you don’t want to vigorously exfoliate, just very lightly, so that you do not rub off too much and inadvertently make yourself blotchy, since that’s counterproductive to what you’re trying to do, which is get an all-over, even sunless tan, without blotches or uneven buildup.