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The Saga Continues

A couple months ago I blogged about my adventure with at home spray tanning. I was testing the waters because, as I am pregnant, I can no longer go tanning. Not that I should even if I weren’t pregnant. It’s incredibly unhealthy, but I think we all know that by now. So this little bun in the oven was a blessing in more than one way, making me step up my health routine. The first at home spay tan product I used was L’Oreal Sublime Bronze airbrush tanner. As we all learned in my first post about it, my first experience was a little frightening, I ended up looking like a zebra. But it was all about my application. As time went on and I used the air brush tanner more, my tan began to even out and eventually (after about 4 to 5 applications) I had a pretty even and natural looking tan.

Just when you start to get the hang of a product and love it, it runs out on you. Ain’t that always the case? :sigh: ….. anyway. So I go back to the store and I stand in front of the glorious shelf of spray tan products and as usual I am left with a decision to make: do I purchase the one I already used and know how it works? Or do I purchase a new one and hope it works better. So I went with the new one. Let’s review.

So I saw Banana Boat and I think to myself… they’re in the business of tans, they must know how to give a good tan, right? WRONG. This product was awful! Let’s start by listing what it says right on the bottle:

“Fresh Citrus Fragrance” and “Advanced Fragrance Technology”– why does every air brush tanner have to put this on their bottle? IT’S A LIE. For all of them. Just stop saying it. None of your products smell like a freshly peeled orange, we’re not buying it anymore. Give it up. In fact! This product smelled so strongly that I had to spray myself one limb at a time then run out of the bathroom to take deep breaths. It smelled so strongly of chemicals, in fact, that I cannot imagine it’s healthy to breathe in at all, let alone if you’re pregnant.

“Color lasts up to seven days.” Now this one is just flat out bull honkey. The worst part of this spray tan? It doesn’t even show up! I used the L’Oreal tanner every other day after a while and with this Banana Boat tanner, I used it every single day and I never felt like I got any color at all.

The worst part of this while experience? I think the bottle lasted about a week IF that! What a waste of money. So between L’Oreal and Banana Boat the winner is?…

L’Oreal, without a doubt. Banana Boat… you really let me down here! But it doesn’t end there… After the Banana Boat ran out I, of course, had to go back to the store to find myself another bottle of this bad boy. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any left! So I relived this whole nightmare again. Only this time it wasn’t as bad. I just started using the 3rd self tanner though, so I will not reveal the results until that bottle is empty and done. Maybe it’ll work out better than the Banana Boat fiasco.

Are you guys into fake & baking or have you moved on to alternative measures? What have your experiences been?

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Coming Soon…

Coming this week: I am going to do a review on some of my favorite beauty products and some recent purchases I’ve made. I”ll be talking everything from hair to skin so check back later in the week for that. :]

On another note… did everyone have a great Super Bowl Sunday? Because I did! My cousins hosted a nice little get together and everyone brought a little food. I made two batches of my buffalo chicken dip because they go fast. I had two choices: mild and spicy! Between the heat of the dip and the anxiety of the game I was a sweaty mess the entire time haha. What a great game though! I’m just glad all that’s over with… now bring on baseball season!

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The Spray Tan Saga

Well I told you guys this post was coming, welcome to the spray tan sagas! Since I’m pregnant going tanning is no longer an option but I literally can’t stand the sight of myself without a little color in my cheeks. I had to find other options. I’ve tried tans in a bottle before, and I’ve tried spray tans before. I love me a good spray tan, but good lord can they be expensive! So I tried the next best option, a spray tan in a bottle. Let me just start by saying that the first week, long sleeves were a necessity. Behold.

I have been using L’OREAL Paris Sublime Bronze Pro Perfect Salon Airbrush Self Tanning Mist.

The directions for this sun in a bottle are as follows:
– Clean and Exfoliate skin.
– Spray the mist slowly and continuously at arm’s length. Do not rub in, formula will dry quickly.
– Let skin dry completely before putting on clothes.

I’m not a huge fan of the tans that you don’t rub in. And this is why…..

I mean… Hi, I’m a zebra? Awesome. Like I said, the first few days, long sleeves were a must. It was almost comical how this tan turned out. But I followed the directions and continued to use the tanner for the next few days. I concentrated on spraying on the spots that I had so clearly missed last time. Here is how the tans turned out since; day-by-day.

Day 2 the stripes only got darker from the second application, but at least the rest of my skin is starting to get color too right? UGH, let’s continue…

 

 

 

Day 3 is starting to blend a little better. Still not super comfortable  wearing short sleeves hah. Thank god it’s winter!

 

 

 

Day 4, I’m satisfied. This is the harshest view I could show you guys because I wanted to show you just how stripy it was in certain places. The front of my arms looked (and look) much better! Thankfully after 5 days of constant application I feel like I have a really nice, even, natural looking tan.

 

On day 1 I tried to do a technique where I sprayed in straight lines down my arms (and legs, and rest of my body). On Day 2 I knew that was a horrible application idea. I held the can further away and kind of sprayed all over to fill in the gaps, quite literally like I spray painting myself.

When using products like this I generally, and this is going to sound super weird, apply them standing in my shower. Once upon a time I was using a gel self tanner and if you missed your body with even 1 squirt of this tanner, everything it touches becomes tan. Sounds fabulous, but I like my comforter the way it came, nice and white, thank you! So I stand in my shower just in case any of the other tanners happen to be as powerful as the previous one had. (Thankfully I haven’t seen this air-brush tanner wreak havoc on my apartment, so I will boldly say I think it’s safe to apply this anywhere really).

My notes on this particular product are good and bad. It says right on the bottle “no streaks” …. well, we can all see by the first picture that is a damn lie. There are no streaks if you literally sit there with a microscope and make sure you don’t miss a spot. Not really easy. Second, they boast there is “no self tan smell” and even go as far as to say it smells like citrus. Another lie. It literally smells like someone farted on you as it’s drying. But don’t let that freak you out, once it’s dry there is virtually no smell at all. Actually, once it dries it has a fresh scent to it. I wouldn’t call it citrus, and believe me, my super-human pregnant nose knows its scents, but it still smells nice.

So there ya go, the truth about air-brush self tanners.  If you try this brand out, all I can suggest is don’t try to spray yourself in straight lines cause… it don’t work. You will miss lots of places. haha. Happy tanning! ;]