Category: Self Tanner

Jergens Brilliance Flawless Effects

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Once upon a time, there was a BB cream lotion product by Jergens. I loved it dearly for the no-hassle very faint tan it produced on my skin, and I kept buying it until even the close-out stores stopped carrying it. It looks like Flaweless Effects was meant to replace it, given the near exact ingredient listing both of them appear to tout.

This isn’t meant to be a self-tanner specifically, even though the shea butter makes it smell like one, but more of a color corrector. The color of the lotion is an iridescent purple-grey-brown color (is there a word for that kind of color?!), but once absorbed, is colorless. Well, I shouldn’t say colorless, since the pigments in the lotion are meant to cancel out any unwanted tones in your skin, such as age spots or blemishes.

The color payout on the Brilliance product is actually quite apparent a few hours after application. It creates a very light brown pigment over the skin. Compared to the older version which created more of a yellow tint, I like this coloration much better. But the Brilliance lotion is much “dryer” than the BB cream. It dries quickly, therefore is harder to spread around evenly. Rest assured, you won’t experience any “streakiness” a self tanner would give you, but you’ll need to be mindful when applying this product in areas of thinner or thicker skin.

The color is by no means a deep color that is meant to last for days, but rather, maintain your skin tone at a consistent, slightly darker color over the period of a few days. That color can actually last through a few showers.

Though I loved the CC Cream and I think I like this product as well, I’m not sure what the need for a re-formulation was. The ingredient listing looks the exact same, and still contains a few questionable parabens that they could have omitted the second time around. The CC Cream felt more luxurious and plush (ie: actually moisturizing!), while the Brilliance lotion is difficult to work with. It leaves a film behind, which makes me feel oily as opposed to moisturized.

The Brilliance lotion is still a good buy at $10 if you’re looking for subtle color to color correct throughout your body. Like most body lotions, I would not recommend this for the face. But I’m quite impressed with color for this just being a correction cream! ~A

Perceived efficacy: 4/5

Longevity: 3.75/5

How much I actually like this product: 3.75/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Sensitive skin users might want to patch test. Avoid using this on your face.

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Tanologist Express Tan Water

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My purchase of self-tanners seems to increase tenfold right about this time of year, when I’m starting to get real sick of winter. My goal this year was to look for self-tanners that contained no isopropyl alcohol or alcohol denat, which turned out to be a much harder feat than I would have expected. These types of alcohol ensure that the self-tanner will dry down into your skin immediately, but that doesn’t negate the fact that they’re big-time skin irritants!

Enter the Tanologist Express Tan Water, with none of the aforementioned ingredients. It also lays claim to being “odorless and transfer-free” (it also gets bonus points for a vegan formulation!). I got this in the “light” formulation, since I’m not ready to commit to an extremely dark fake tan just yet, so going into this I wasn’t expecting too big of a color payout.

Conceptually I like that you can spray this self-tanner onto your skin and rub it in with a mitt. Lotion can be difficult to spread evenly, and it’s just plain old messy to work with, whereas “water” cuts out the a lot of the manual labor since your skin absorbs it on it’s own. But since the water has no color to it, and there’s no sense of “guide” that tells you where you still need to apply (or not apply) the product. It’s EXTREMELY easy to create a blotchy or inconsistent self-tan with this water on the legs, arms or neck area.

Blotchy results aside, the color payout was phenomenal after four hours of set time, even with the light product. I didn’t feel that the color skewed orange whatsoever, and the product, where applied evenly, looked extremely consistent. For it being the light option, it was pretty dang dark. Sadly the color didn’t quite live past my second shower, but again, that may have been because I purchased the lightest in the line.

The stand-out feature of this product for me personally is the non-comedogenic formulation. I have never broken out from using this on my face. It doesn’t leave that overly-drying sensation over your skin either, which also potentially gives way to break outs. As long as you remove any over-saturated areas of spray, the color is not blotchy when contained in a smaller area, so I generally spray once on each side of my face. The color may only last a day or two, but the re-application is easy to begin with.

I will say the only thing about this product I felt was false advertisement is the claim that the product did not smell like self-tanner. This is true maybe in the first two hours of application, but like all self-tanners, it quickly degraded into the usual, highly potent smell of DHA.

For $15, I think this is a phenomenal option for face self-tanners. For the rest of my body I think I’d probably still err on the side of messy but effective lotions, since the color guide is crucial to not having a blotchy tan. But for the face, this tanning water is essentially foolproof, and it’s customizable to different shades if you prefer a darker color. Sensitive skin users, this is the one to try! ~A

Perceived efficacy: 4.5/5

Longevity: 1/5

How much I actually like this product: 3.75/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Yes!

Jergens Natural Glow 3 Days to Glow Moisturizer

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Three Days to Glow is Jergen’s mid-way product between their gradual tanner and their instant tan. I was excited to try this out because I’ve been happily using their gradual tanner for at least a decade (click here for my review on it) so my expectations for this self-tanner were high.

Although the price-point of 3 days is generally the same as the gradual tanner ($8-10), the bottles run a little smaller, likely due to a higher concentration of DHA needed to make your skin tan faster than the gradual tanner. The product is easy enough to get out of the tube, but it doesn’t give you enough to cover a whole limb, and it’s also not the most easily-spread of self-tanners I’ve used in the past. I had to go back to the bottle for more product quite a few times. The lotion dries down clear, until the color results are produced later on in the day. Since it’s not instant tan, the instructions don’t call for a mitt or for gloves, but I still experienced the usual color build-up in between my fingers despite scrubbing my hands, so I would recommend a mitt, personally.

Day 1 of application won’t bring around many changes, as expected. But I was actually already a little frustrated with the product by day 2. I was seeing the colorful results of inconsistent product drying. I noticed obvious tan/not tan color gradients on my arms and legs, and dark color deposits in areas that I don’t usually experience — like, my shoulders!? That’s a new one! Of course, some of this can be blamed on user error, since I’m not the most careful self-tanner-applier in the world. But also think it lends itself to the fact the lotion is not easy to spread out, and of course, there’s no color-guard since this is moreso intended to be a body lotion.

In general, the color itself, even after three days, was not particularly distinguishable. I’d say it was maybe half a step up from my regular color. I thought this was strange, since I see better results from the gradual tanner in the same amount of time. The good news is this tone did seem to stick around for about two weeks, which is pretty impressive for self-tanner longevity.

One other thing I’ll give 3 days credit for is that it doesn’t smell nearly as bad as the regular gradual tanner, which is bizarre, because I would assume 3 days had a higher DHA concentration, thus it would smell worse. I did a side-by-side of the ingredients of 3 days and the gradual and they are… identical. The only explanation is that, possibly, the concentrations of other ingredients that cancel out the smell in the 3 days are also higher, but I’m no scientist. Something I do know, though, is that there are no drying alcohols in this product! In general, this should not irritate the skin too much, so long as it is kept away from your face.

My conclusion to this review is one I didn’t really expect. If you want darker color, use Jergen’s Gradual Tanner. If you want something extremely subtle and want to dial down the DHA smell, use the 3-day product: but be prepared for the almost inevitable color-pooling. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 2.5/5

Longevity: 4.5/5

How much I actually like this product: 2.75/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Yes

TanWise Self-Tanning DHA Boost Drops

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Summer is winding down. Actually, by the time this gets posted, I’ll probably be wearing leggings and drinking pumpkin spice coffee. I figured I’d sneak in another Tanwise review before my skincare attentions are turned to heavy moisturizers to combat seemingly sub-zero temperatures. The last Tanwise self-tanner product I reviewed was a total bust (link to that review is here), but fortunately, these drops are night and day better compared to the gel product.

For $11 from Sally’s Beauty, you get 2 fl oz of this water-based DHA formula inside a dropper bottle. I’ve had this for two months and it’s taking FOREVER to go through the bottle, even though I’ve been somewhat routinely (twice a week) putting it in a ton of my regular skincare products. You really only need a few drops to create some color. So, so far, it’s been a fantastic value for the price and the amount of product.

I’ve mixed one or two drops in with my regular moisturizers (Cerave PM, Dramatically Different) and had a magnificent warm brown color turnout after just an hour or two. NOT orange. I’ve also mixed this in with my body lotions (you might need a few more drops for this, depending on the expanse of your skin you need to cover), and also gotten very good color. I suppose it might not be as dark as Jergens, and possibly not as long-lasting (the stuff washes off in a day, two if you’re lucky); but I’m still very happy with it.

As far as the drop’s malleability with other products, this won’t conflict with anything you want to wear for the day — it won’t cause anything to pill since it’s water-based, and the tan will still develop regardless of what you put over it. What’s also awesome is that this product does NOT streak at all — although, it will get stuck under your fingernails, so be mindful of that. Otherwise, it’s basically foolproof. My only recommendation is NOT to stack the product more than one application every two days. That’s when this will turn you orange (trust me on this… I learned from personal experience. Not great.)

Huge bonus: This DOES NOT SMELL LIKE SELF TANNER. It’s unbelievable. Ok, maybe like, a tiny bit, if you haven’t washed it off after having it on for a day. But the smell is so minimal that I could actually forget that I’d applied it… unlike almost every other product on the market, that all inevitably remind you that you’ve slathered DHA over yourself.

Quick skincare tip: self-tanners are best applied at night, and NOT in conjunction with anything that contains SPF. SPF will cause the tan to fade faster. This is a weird little anecdote, since there’s a few self-tanners on the market that contain SPF. So keep your sunscreen in your morning routine, and slap on the self-tanner at night.

Since this didn’t break me out like the Tanwise gel did (no drying alcohols, woohoo!), this is going to be a definite re-buy of mine. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a quick glow, without the usual glove-and-guide mess that are typical of traditional tanners. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 5/5

Longevity: 3.5/5

How much I actually like this product: 5/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Yes (if no sensitivities to DHA)


Tanwise Self-Tanning Face Gel

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This stuff works, but at what cost? The cost of your beautiful, blemish-free skin! This self-tanner is king at clogging pores.

This is a cheap find at Sally’s for $7. I went in to Sally’s a few days ago and noticed that the packaging for all Tanwise products had changed since I bought my bottle, so I’m not sure if that infers an ingredient reformulation was done as well.

This comes out as a white gel-cream. The smell is a little tough to describe, and there’s nothing “flowery” or “fresh” covering it up: you know that smell you smell, when you walk into a hair salon…? That’s what this is. It’s easy to spread, you really only need two pea sized dollops to cover your whole face.

The gel will very quickly develop on your skin and turn your skin a reasonable shade of brown, I’d say about 2-3 levels darker than your base even after the first usage, which to me is a pretty good result. And, it’s not orange! I never had an issue with the color getting blotchy or streaky, even after layering other products over it. Which brings me to my next point, this lotion works very well with anything else you use before or after it, moisturizers or makeup. The staying power of this self-tanner is pretty good too, even if you wash your face frequently — two to three days will pass before you’ll need to go in with another application.

The bad news: this stuff makes me break out like crazy! I see benzyl alcohol has snuck in the second line of ingredients. So that might be the culprit (or it might not be, but I’m blaming it on that!). After a day of using this, I tend to wake up to find 4 or 5 brand new spots on my face. Not good.

It’s really too bad because this is a really nice facial tanner otherwise, and it lasts much longer than anything else I’ve tried before. Heck, it doesn’t even devolve into that infamous DHA stink after 12 hours! But it’s definitely not worth the breaking out for. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 5/5

Longevity: 4/5

How much I actually like this product: 2.5/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: No

Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer

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I think I’ve been buying this since lotion for well over a decade now. It’s definitely gone through several changes during that time. It’s latest iteration, to a bit of my dismay, changed how I use this product completely, but I suspect that’s not going to stop me from keeping this lotion around as a beauty staple for another decade after this.

Natural Glow has always come in two colors: Fair to Medium, and Medium to Tan. There was a time when Fair to Medium used to produce a noticeable color, but I don’t really feel like that’s the case anymore, so I usually default to medium to tan, even though my skin tone is pale. My issue now is that this product has become surprisingly blotchy for being a gradual tanner, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

I used to religiously mix this in with my regular lotion every morning and apply to my skin. It distributed the color evenly and I never had an issue with blotchiness. It dried very quickly. The DHA smell didn’t really pop up until halfway through the day, and that smell was tolerable enough until the next morning, when I’d end up washing it off anyway.

But ever since this was reformulated, the lotion is extremely thick, and dries SLOW, like, 30-45 minutes slow. The color shows up a lot faster than it used to, and darker, but it comes at a cost. Mixing it in with another lotion is disastrous, because if your ratio isn’t exactly 1:1, then you’ll start having weird color deposits, or lack thereof. So I treat it more like a mousse. I put it on over clean skin at night, sleep in it, wake up and rinse it off in the shower.

Speaking of showering, it’s a good idea to have one around several hours after applying. The smell — in general, and the resultant DHA-stink — is HORRIBLE. This lotion has always had an initial “bubble bath” kind of smell that did a pretty good job of persisting at least halfway through the day. Even when the self-tanner stink finally kicked in, it wasn’t overwhelming and I could live with it. The primary smell is still “bubble bath” after the reformulation, but it doesn’t stick around for long, and the self-tanner stink is HORRENDOUS.

But if you wake up after keeping this on overnight, the color is pretty reasonable. For being a gradual tanner, and not being the “three days to glow” product by the same brand, this works pretty quickly. You’re not going to get super dark like you would with an actual mousse, but with the medium to tan shade, you’ll at least be noticeably one shade darker the next morning. Brown, not orange, phew! As long as the lotion has had a few hours to sink into your skin, the color will persist even after you shower, and for a day or two after.

This being a gradual tanner, you could build it up. But Natural Glow has always seemingly had a “cap” — no matter how much you build it up and for how many days, there’s a certain point it just doesn’t get darker. It is just a lotion, after all. There’s also the issue of blotchiness with this particular version. I have a really hard time preventing this from creating pigment deposits in thinner parts of the skin, like the hands, ankles, etc. I never had this issue with the older iterations, but the deposits prevent me from wanting to keep stacking this product.

Sensitive skin users, don’t put this one on your face. It’s not going to give you a DHA rash, but the product is far too heavy and will clog up your pores. There’s notably no “bad” alcohols in the newer iterations (the existence of them in older versions probably explains why it dried so quickly and this does not), but again, due to the weight, it probably wouldn’t even spread the color evenly across your face, even if you mixed it in with a moisturizer.

There is also two versions of this self-tanner, besides the shade differences: there’s a “firming” version and a “daily moisturizer” version. I like the daily moisturizer version better. The firming version does dry a little quicker, but it makes my skin feel tight (…as the name would imply, lol), which I don’t care for. Also, the last time I checked out the ingredient list for the firming lotion, it was still sporting benzoyl alcohol.

I’m probably going to keep buying this $8 for the indefinite future, despite it’s several setbacks, and despite needing to keep up with how to best utilize the formulation changes. But it’s always been my “base tan in a bottle”, and the consistency of the color is still unmatched by any other drugstore gradual tanner. ~A

To get this overnight base tan in a bottle, click here to buy Jergens Daily Moisturizer:https://amzn.to/2upLFCP

Perceived efficacy: 4/5

Longevity: 4.5/5

How much I actually like this product: 3.5/5 (ugh the smell)

Recommended for sensitive skin: Yes — on body only.

St Tropez Gradual Tan Tinted

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I think this is my HG instant tan. “But it’s a gradual tanner!” If I had a separate category for “Doing what it says”, this would get 0 stars. But like many other beauty products, this functions perfectly as something other than it’s intended use.

Get the gloves or mitt on for this one: it will stain your hands. Unfortunately this dark brown lotion isn’t incredibly “runny” so you’ll need quite a bit of product if you’re looking to tan your entire body, it’s probably about a month or two’s worth of product if you use it two times a week. Price tag is $30. Stacked against other tanners, this is… not horrible, but still a pricy venture. But keep reading — I think it’s worth it.

This lotion has probably one of the most phenomenal, most foolproof guides I have ever encountered. They’re incredibly dark brown, and you can see it within 15-20 seconds of spreading the lotion. This is quick enough to “notify” you that you need to do a better job spreading the product, because at that point, the lotion hasn’t fully absorbed yet. I am extremely careless when applying self-tanner, and don’t do a great job of checking myself over so it’s good to have a reliable guide. A lot of self tanners I’ve tried are notorious for having the guides show up way too late (well after the lotion has dried), or the guide is simply too light.

Speaking of dry times, this one does have about a 30 minute wait to set. I can generally start moving around a little more after the 15 minute mark, but 30 is probably safest to mitigate the risks of streaking. Also, if you notice any over-applied spots during this time (super pigmented spots in between your fingers, on your feet, knees, etc.), you can easily blend it in or remove some of the product.

Streaking only truly occurs, for me, after 3-4 days of wear and showering. Any splotchiness is caused by me rubbing my skin too hard against something, NOT the lotion itself, and furthermore this lotion DOES NOT cling to dry patches. Loving Tan mousse, for instance, had a tendency to spontaneously crack open once dried on the skin for no real reason. But St Tropez is remarkably resistant to a lot of direct interaction with the skin.

I personally like the color. It’s not orange, it’s a closer to dark brown. It’s not the darkest you’re ever going to get, but the difference is pretty dramatic if you’re originally an NC 10/15/20. The initial smell is a bit like cocoa butter, and fortunately this didn’t descend too quickly into extreme-DHA smell (no matter what anyone says, no matter what product you’re using, you’ll never escape that smell completely!)

As for the ingredients, well, let’s just say that I have lower expectations for the safety and comedogenicity of all self-tanners. There’s a lot of weird stuff in the ingredient list to begin with, but on a very basic level I can say DHA can be a controversial compound — it’s better than actually tanning, but is the forcing your skin to turn over and interact with melanin any better? I’ve also been googling “anisyl alcohol” for fifteen minutes, and can barely find any literature on it in regards to skincare. I didn’t experience any rashes with this product on my body, but my face didn’t tolerate this as well, and I had a few breakouts from it.

Onto the gradual tan vs instant tan issue: I don’t think this works AT ALL as a gradual tanner. Using it day-over-day will cause splotchiness, or at the very least, show evidence of day one looking lighter than day two’s application. But as an instant tanner, if your skin is more on the pale side? This is great! The color is evident after the first 30 minutes of wear, and as I mentioned before, the color fades out naturally in a few days, without tell-tale zebra stripes. That’s everyone’s instant tan dream, isn’t it?

That was a long review, but I think it was worth it to defend my favorite instant tanner that’s in the disguise of a gradual tanner! ~A

Buy St Tropez Tinted Gradual Tan here: https://amzn.to/2UA5amW

Perceived efficacy: 4.5/5 (as an instant tanner!)

Longevity: 4.5/5

How much I actually like this product: 4.5/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Maybe

Tanwise Gradual Tan Moisturizer

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I wouldn’t say this is the best self-tanner on the market. I can’t even find it now that I’m googling it, and it looks like Tanwise has rebranded anyway since I bought this a year ago. I grabbed this at Sally’s for $9, figuring it was cheap enough to give it a shot.

This is a brown gradual tanning lotion. Gradual tanners obviously aren’t the answer to getting dark within a day or two, but I tend to think their end result is a little more natural and less blotchy than instant formulations. This product unfortunately missed the mark in both categories.

It went on as a white lotion. No guide, since it’s a gradual tanner. If I recall it was pretty notorious for getting under my fingernails and between my fingers, which is unusual for a gradual tanner, so in hindsight I probably should have used a glove. It does smell really good on application — fruity, very sweet — but after a day, this changed into one of the worst DHA smells I’ve ever smelled in my life.

With most gradual tanners, you should be able to use the lotion every day, causing the color to be darker the longer duration you use it for. But this was BAD in terms of being blotchy, and producing sections of extreme dark tan where another patch of skin would have almost nothing, despite efforts to spread the color evenly. Showering would also cause streaks after day 2, which is also very unusual for a gradual tanner.

The one good thing about this tanner (besides the initial smell) is that I think it’s actually ok for sensitive skin. I wouldn’t recommend it for the face, but for the rest of the body it was fine. Sometimes DHA products can briefly produce a very faint, temporary rash, but I didn’t experience that with Tanwise.

Looking around Amazon, it doesn’t seem like Tanwise has great reviews for most of their products, except for their mousse. Maybe that will be my next purchase, but their gradual tanner was definitely a miss. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 1.5/5

Longevity: 1/5

How much I actually like this product: 2/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Maybe

L’oreal Paris Sublime Bronze Tinted Self-Tanning Lotion

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loreal paris sublime bronze

Myself and my pasty pale skin have been through many a self-tanner. Sublime Bronze was definitely not my favorite, despite it’s otherwise high reviews for a drug store tanner.

First of all, I noticed L’oreal, moreso than most beauty brands, LOVES benzyl alcohol and alcohol denat, particularly as the second or third ingredient… Sublime Bronze is no exception, so if you’re looking to avoid it, you might want to pass on this one.

The color comes out of the squeeze bottle in a dark brown gel lotion, and has a tinge of sparkle to it. I don’t mind a bit of shimmer in my self-tanners, and the glitter in this isn’t too overbearing, so that works for me personally. Don’t forget to put a mit or gloves on before applying this — it will absolutely stain your hands. This smells… a little banana-y. To me, the DHA smell isn’t too overpowering, even after a day or so.

There is a guide with this lotion (gets dark where you need to blend it in, so that there aren’t streaks!), but it’s relatively useless. I truly hate how this tanner dries. Not only does it take awhile to dry, but it dries patchy and streaky regardless of how much attention you pay to blending and being cognizant of the guide. The color will last you maybe a day or two, even if you’re being careful not to scrub your skin in the shower and not sweating particularly much. Since it’s an “instant” product I can’t say that longevity is necessarily the goal here, although it would be nice if it stayed on for a little longer. Although… the blotchiness and the streakiness of this lotion makes you want to remove it anyway!

Weirdly, this product works AWESOME for the face. It darkens immediately, won’t look blotchy if you mix it in with moisturizer, and for some reason the color sticks around for 4-5 days. But alcohol denat as the second ingredient makes that venture totally not worth it for the health of your skin.

Too bad, L’oreal. I liked the shimmer, the not-too-overpowering smell, and the $7 price tag, but the other aspects of this product just don’t stack up. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 2.5/5

Longevity: 2.5/5

How much I actually like this product: 2.5/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: No