Even when I spend a week at the beach, my fair skin always seems to turn pink—never gold. As such, I am a huge fan of self-tanning. I have literally tried every product and service available from drugstore lotions to the airbrush salons (the kind where you leave your modesty at the doorstep). One of this summer’s most buzzed-about beauty products is St. Tropez’s In Shower Tanning Lotion. Sounds too good to be true, right? I had to investigate.
The Application: The instructions for this product are extremely simple: While in the shower, turn off the water and apply a generous amount of lotion to wet skin, wait exactly 3 minutes, then rinse. This is a dream compared to my usual practice of wearing gloves and applying foaming mousse as evenly as humanly possible—which takes time and attention so you don’t get streaks. The application for this product takes less than a minute to cover your body from head to toe. Since the lotion is applied to wet skin, careful blending is not a priority–you’re just going to rinse it off anyway.
Wait Time: Wait exactly 3 minutes—no more, no less. I made the mistake of getting bored within the first 30 seconds and decided to add a hair mask, which sounds like a good idea, but I eventually needed to wash my hands and couldn’t turn on the shower without jeopardizing my perfect tan. My only option was to get out of the shower to use the sink. Things got real complicated, real quick. To make matters worse, the hair mask was dripping into my eyes and starting to sting. Time seemed to be moving at a glacial pace—two minutes left to go (that’s right, that all happened in 60 seconds). Note to self: Next time, do not multitask.
The Results: Like most self-tanners, you have to wait overnight for the color to fully set in—it’s gradual, so you don’t see immediate results. To be honest, when I woke up I was expecting to see a more dramatic change. The color was very subtle after one use, but—perhaps more importantly—there were zero streaks. This product is definitely meant to be used multiple times to achieve a noticeable glow. If you are looking for a just-got-back-from-Hawaii look, stick to St. Tropez’s bronzing mousse. However, this is a great product for the self-tanning novice since applying the lotion directly to wet skin is easy and doesn’t leave streaks. After using the product 3 times in one week, the color amped up, remained even and even looked natural. I’m sold.
