Things have been incredibly hectic for me as of late with university, work, life, family and a broken washing machine and fridge (dealing with melted ice-cream and a flood ALL over my kitchen is not fun!) so I’ve fallen incredibly behind with the Tanning for Women of Colour project but here I am reviewing the tans I should have reviewed a very long time ago!
Here I am without the tan:
And below is my skin with the tan!
Karamel & Brown Glow Fast
Packaging: The try size bottle of the Glow Fast* I’m using is nothing special, it’s just a small plastic bottle with the product sticker on it. However, the 200ml bottle of the Glow Fast is in a sleek white bottle which I really like. Minimal with a touch of glamour with the font and colouring with use of browns and gold.
Finish: The finish the Glow Fast gives is a deep brown with no shimmer at all. A very natural looking finish.
Texture: It has the consistency of a runny but slightly thicker liquid. It’s very dark and brown in colour which looks quite intimidating when you look at how dark it is but the skin doesn’t go as dark as the Glow Fast looks.
Key Ingredients/Facts: There’s aloe vera, organic active ingredients and added anti-oxidant vitamin complex. I also like how the Glow Fast and all of the other Karamel & Brown products are paraben free and they don’t contain alcohol.
Application: A tanning mitt is a must when applying this unless you want brown palms too. Karamel & Brown provided tanning mitts which are a pleasure to use as they’re quite soft and gentle on the skin. Karamel & Brown have suggested a few instructions to follow before and after using the tan like waxing and shaving 24 hours prior to application, ensuring the skin is properly exfoliated and wearing dark, loose fitting while the tan develops for a couple of hours.
MakeBelieve Glow Tinted Moisturiser, Bronzer and Self Tan Lotion With Bronzer
Packaging: The Glow Tinted Moisturiser* comes in a cute little tube that you can easily carry in your handbag and the Self Tan Lotion with Bronzer* is in a big plastic tube which is quite easy for application. The bronzer* comes in a little box with a compartment for the brush. Looks very good but it’s impractical to carry around.
Finish: The Glow Tinted Moisturiser is made to enhance a tan and will give your skin a luminescent glow and radiant, smooth complexion. With the Self Tan Lotion With Bronzer, it comes with a colour intensity guide of 1-5 with 1 being a subtle glow and 5 being very dark tan, and I’m using 4 which gives a golden tan with a deep and luscious skin tone. It gave my skin this gorgeous glow.
There’s a very matte finish to the bronzer.
Texture: The bronzer is smooth and almost velvety. The Glow Tinted Moisturiser is a thick cream whereas the Self Tan Lotion with Bronzer is quite runny, almost like liquid chocolate!
Key Ingredients/Facts: Self Tan Lotion with Bronzer contains caffeine which stimulates the breakdown of cellulite, bupleurum falcatum root extract to tighten, tone and firm up the skin as well as a blend of cohune and brazil nut oils to provide intense moisturisation to the skin.
There’s nothing entirely special about the Glow Tinted Moisturiser, I couldn’t find anything interesting in the ingredients list. The same with the bronzer.
Application: You apply the Glow Tinted Moisturiser as you would with any other foundation or tinted moisturiser. It applies quite well on the skin and feels very soft and silky when doing so however it looks quite chalky and ashy on me as it’s significantly lighter than other tinted moisturisers I’d go for.
The application of the Self Tan Lotion with Bronzer is done with a tanning mitt and I really like how easy it is to use. Definitely no worries about getting a patchy tan because of how thin it is, I can ensure I get even coverage all over the skin.
Xen Tan Deep Bronze Luxe Weekly Self Tan
Packaging: The Deep Bronze Luxe Weekly Self Tan* comes in your average white bottle with a pumpy thing. I got the smaller sample size in a tube which was simple to use.
Finish: I absolutely love the finish which is a deep, matte brown colour without any shimmer, sparkle or whatever and this is great as it looks very natural.
Texture: The product is of a creamy texture.
Key Ingredients/Facts: The Deep Bronze Luxe Weekly Self Tan contains jojoba and nuts oils which I noticed straight away as the tan is very moisturising.
Application: Because the Deep Bronze Luxe Weekly Self Tan is creamy it applies like a dream. I didn’t have any problems working this into my skin.
Vita Liberata pHenomenal Mousse Tan
Packaging: pHenomenal comes in a sleek brown can. It’s definitely the best packaging I’ve seen so far.
Finish: It’s a 2-3 week tan which makes it the first of its kind. I’m not a fan of the finish it left on my skin as it looked a little patchy.
Texture: The product is quite watery but frothy too. It’s in Dark so the liquid is quite dark which worried me as I thought it’d stain in an instant but it wasn’t so bad.
Key Ingredients/Facts: There’s Pentavitin which is a moisture lock complsex and there’s 70% organic extracts including witch hazel, papaya, pomegranate, raspberry and liquorice in the tan.
Application: pHenomenal is applied with a glove mitt, as it’s watery this makes everything easy to apply.
Smell: There’s no smell whatsoever after using this, however there’s a noticable smell when it’s dried the next morning.
