A few of you have alerted me to the fact that a) I have been featuring a lot of white and b) I have made you long for skimpy little sundresses — while c) it’s still mid-April and we’re all blindingly pale. Point taken! (What, you wouldn’t feel comfortable blending in with your white bikini?!)
And so — while nothing beats an authentic mid-summer glow — I want to highlight a couple of faux-tan tricks and tools that have helped me through the worst of winter wanness. I’ll begin by saying that I’m not a huge fan of self tanners because they all smell wretched and an even application is difficult to come by. They also (on the whole) tend to make you look orange. However, if I’m really desperate for some serious color, I use Clarins Gelee Auto-Bronzante Express. The scent is minimal and the color is as natural as self-tanners come. I always mix it with scented body lotion prior to application — it ensures a more even application and neutralizes the scent. Sometimes I’ll mix a dab in with my face lotion when I’m looking especially washed out, and it seems to do the trick.
For the most part, however, I use washable bronzers. They work like a charm! I love Lorac’s TANtalizer Award Show Glow — it’s a concentrated bronzing mousse that I smooth onto my shoulders and decollete prior to heading out on the town, and it looks totally believable (and you can wash it off with water if you go overboard!)
It smells phenomenal and leaves a glossy, tan-boosting sheen. It also costs an uncomfortably high $59. I unfortunately dropped my bottle on the bathroom floor when I had about half of it left, so I decided to be more responsible and go with Bobbi Brown’s $30 counterpart (which is in many ways just as good). For those looking to legitimize the splurge, I should also add that the Guerlain stuff lasts — I’d had my bottle for nearly a year before it broke, and it was still half-full.
When traveling, I always bring Michael Kors’ pocket-sized Leg Shine. It bears the Kors signature scent (which I love), leaves legs (and shoulders — you can use it anywhere) smooth and lustrous, and is a cinch to apply on the fly.
I like to add a dab of Benefit’s High Beam luminizer on the apples of my cheeks and, for a big night out, on the brow bone. But be weary of over-application — you can quickly look oddly oily and shiny if you don’t know when to stop.
Speaking of not knowing when to stop — I should also mention that too much of anything is a bad thing, and the same is especially true of any of the tanning products above. (We’ve all seen Snooki-esque tanning disasters, and it’s not a good look.) But until mid-summer rolls around, do what you gotta do to get a little glow going!