James Read Express Glow20 and Bondi Sands Everyday Gradual Tanning Milk give you a subtle summery glow.
In the wrong hands, a too-dark self-tan can make you look like a reality show contestant who gets kicked off the very first week. And when you’re over 50, that same faux tan might leave you resembling Magda from There’s Something About May.
Her tan may have been over the top, but Magda’s earrings and shimmery aqua eye shadow were brilliant.
This duo, above, of James Read Express Glow20 and Bondi Sands Every Day Gradual Tanning Milk will keep you looking natural while delivering a warm, subtle and believable faux tan.
James Read Express Glow20 ($44) is a hydrating tanning serum that you massage in like skincare and then rinse off in either 20, 60 or 90 minutes, depending on how deep a colour you want. It even contains skincare ingredients: skin plumping hyaluronic acid, antioxidant vitamin E, and vitamin C for brightening. So, unlike time spent in the sun, with Express Glow20, you’re actually repairing skin while getting (fake) darker.
Bondi Sands Everyday Gradual Tanning Milk, ($27.99, Shoppers Drug Mart) smells quietly beachy with a subtle cocoa butter scent, while the pump dispenser makes it easy to us when you emerge from the shower. I’m pretty slapdash with application but it’s impossible to mess this up. (I used this tanning milk as my body lotion all through last winter into spring to take the edge off my ghostliness.) Colour appears slowly as a glow which then deepens with repeated daily applications. So you will never look Oompa Loompa or Magda orange again.
Now go forth and spend as much time outside this summer as humanly possible. This year more than ever, I do not want to spend any more time indoors than absolutely necessary.