Adventures in Self Tanning June 28, 2012

When winter finally ends in Chicago and I start wearing shorts and skirts I am always struck by how pale my legs or arms are.  Plus I have lots of prominent veins and capillaries on my legs that I really need to have professionally taken care of sooner than later, but in the meantime I am just trying to mask some of this unattractive feature.  This summer I decided that I should give Jergens Natural Glow for the body another try since now they had come out with a version with SPF 20.  I thought – perfect I’ll get my sun protection and a little color all at once.

I don’t want to look deeply tan or even medium dark – I just want a warmth to my skin instead of looking pasty white.  Of course, I knew that my skin should be exfoliated before application and that I should rub the lotion really well into my skin in order for the color, which appears after a few days, to look natural.  After reading the directions I realized I also needed to let the lotion dry thoroughly before I could get dressed.  This was difficult for me since I am always late and in a hurry in the morning, but because I didn’t want to get stains on my clothes I sucked it up and stood around my bathroom in my underwear and bra until I felt like the lotion was dry.  The lotion has, in my opinion, a strong scent which to me smells like artificial coconuts.  It isn’t my favorite smell, but I can live with it.

When I began using Jergens about two months ago, and even though I rubbed it in very well, it did not look good.  I had orange streaks on my feet, dark patches on my knees and elbows, and my hands were ghostly white since I wash them so much the self-tanner didn’t stay on them.  I tried to exfoliate the dark patches so that they looked more normal and gave up.  I just decided that stop using the lotion and live with my pale skin since I was so self-conscious about the results.

Less than a week ago I figured that I should just use up the self-tanner instead of chucking it.  And this time – wow!  great results!  No streaks this time, no ghostly white hands, and no dark elbows and knees.  The problem is I can’t figure out what I did differently this time from the time before.  Really.  Why did I get so-so, even bad results two months ago and nice, natural looking results this past week?  I wish I knew why.

I just finished the bottle this morning, and I don’t know if I am going to buy another one.  The smell bugs me, and I am afraid that my good results now were a fluke instead of what is going to go on all the time.

Please share your self-tanning tips and tricks below.  Remember – the only type of safe tan is a fake tan!

Extra Tips and Product Recommendations:

• Our Favorite Self-Tanners to Revive Your Complexion – Allure
• How to Self-Tan Your Face - Allure
• Beautypedia reviews of self-tanner
• Beauty 101 – Bronzer – Allure
• Whish Body Self Tanner: Inside the Beauty Brains Bathroom

Image from jergens.com

Make a Donation Just by Watching a Video May 24, 2010

 

I’ve already mentioned in my blog how you can buy a Sun Safety Kit through Sephora that helps benefit The Skin Cancer Foundation, but it turns out there are numerous other ways you can donate to The Skin Cancer Foundation and some of those ways won’t cost you a dime.

Watch this video on YouTube with actress Jane Krakowski and Jergens will donate $1 for every view (with up to $20,000 in donations total).  All it takes in a minute and a half of your time to make a difference.

Or simply sign-up to receive information from the La Roche-Posay Save Our Skin campaign and the company will make a donation to The Skin Cancer Foundation.

And check out this page on The Skin Cancer Foundation website in order to see what other ways you can help out this very worthy.

Isn’t shopping always more fun when you know you are doing some good?