As soon as the weather is nice enough for me to start showing a bit more skin, I like to get the fake tan out. Over the years I have discovered my fake tanning essentials. As a ginger, my skin is very pale. Instead of ‘pale and interesting’, it’s more ‘milk bottle white, almost see through’. Over the last 10 years or so since I started using fake tan, I’ve tried and tested so many different brands. I’m pleased to say that I have finally found what works best for me.

Fake tanning essentials

The key to getting a great fake tan is prepping your skin beforehand. I always make sure that I’ve shaved and exfoliated the night before. The razors and body scrubs that I use always differ. I like to try out different ones, but really like the Bean Body Vanilla Coffee scrub. It smells like a vanilla latte and leaves my skin feeling really smooth. It’s best to use this in the shower so that you don’t have bits floating around your bath!

Fake Tan Remover

Recently, I’ve been sent quite a few different types of fake tan to review. This means that I’ve been trying different ones out and have had different results. Unfortunately, a couple of them haven’t worked great for me. One applies really badly on my hands, leaving them looking patchy and the other doesn’t give as deep a colour as I’d like.

As I have had a couple of fake tan disasters recently, I decided to try out a fake tan remover. Just exfoliating wasn’t really getting all of the tan off, so I needed something to help me out. I picked up the St Tropez Tan Remover from Notino, just to try it out. I was so pleased with the results and will definitely be getting this again! All you have to do is rub the foam into any fake tan that you want to remove, leave it for 5 minutes and then rinse off under warm water. I used an exfoliating glove as well and it came straight off!

My favourite fake tan

Even though I have tried a lot of fake tans and even gradual tanners, there’s one that will always be my favourite. St Moriz is one of the cheaper fake tanning brands out there but it gives the best results. I always use the St Moriz Self Tanning Mousse which is really easy to apply. Using a tanning mit, I apply it in circular motions onto my body leaving my hands and face until the end. I then use any left over product on my hands making sure I don’t miss in between my fingers and then my face. I usually apply it at night and then wash it off in the shower in the morning. It gives such a gorgeous golden glow without looking too orange.

Those are my fake tanning essentials – what are yours?