At last a fake tan that I’m more than happy to recommend.
This is the St Tropez Dark Bronzing Mousse, which is the dark version of their popular Bronzing Mousse.
it’s available as a lotion or a spray. I bought this one because although I find the lotion lasts better and has a better moisturising effect it takes far too much effort to do it in properly, whereas I’ve got so used to the mousse it’s much quicker at about 10 minutes.
Most people would agree that St Tropez is one of the best available fake tans around, but it’s not cheap at £30.00 for 200ml when compared to the original, which is £31 and 240ml (there is a smaller bottle), actually makes it seem cheap (maybe not quite).
Make no mistake, I love my fake tan, I am a constant shade of orangey-brown, usually brought to me by the St Tropez Bronzing Mousse, but I really don’t find the colour to be dark enough. Last weekend I exfoliated all my tan off and then applied 2-3 coats 2 hours apart throughout the evening, but then still have to apply another on the Monday, which gets really annoying and expensive, as you can imagine.
With this, I think I could probably use 1 coat on the sunday, and then top up again on either the Tuesday or the Wednesday, and then more as it faded.
I could not find anything directly comparing it to the original product, so I thought I’d do a little experiment.
Above is the original Bronzing Mousse and the Dark both squirted on a bit of kitchen towel, and the 2nd picture is 10 minutes later. As you will see, the original has a brown undertone but the dark is a bit on the dark green side!
I thought I’d do one leg in the dark and one in the original (can guess which one is which?) to have a direct comparison between the ease of application and colour result of both products.
I prepared my skin as normal, exfoliating with gloves in the morning and epilating my legs, then moisturising with oil, and then when I got home from work I exfoliated again, just moisturising my knees and feet, and gave my skin a couple of hours to chill.
I use d a mitt when applying the products. The original version applied slightly streaky as always, which I tend to just ignore after a bit of rubbing of rubbing, or you will actually make yourself quite streaky.
Putting the dark (or green) tan on was quite funny. It was actually dark green. It’s exactly the same texture as the other one though, so it was fine.
I then buffed it all up, and went to sleep. Next morning I rinsed them off and moisturised, and was left with this. As you can see, the dark is considerably darker than the normal one, but still not s good as I would like. I should have reviewed this last week so I could have used my arms, but there was no way I could go out this week with half my body dark and the other half less dark!
The problem is my legs just don’t take to tan that well, and the first coat always just seems to seep into my follicles, as you can see. I do also think I may have overbuffed, as the colour came out a lot darker on my body. The original doesn’t seem to have done anything, and the dark colour is barely there.The lighting here is terrible, but as I’ve said my legs are rubbish at fake tan anyway.
Do keep in mind my legs were deathly white before; both products take a lot better on already lightly tanned skin.
I do think the dark mousse makes the original leg look a lot paler than it normally would, one coat of the original would definitely be enough for a lot of people, despite it looking pale.
The rest of all my skin, which already had 2 layers of the original tan applied the previous day is the perfect colour for me, it’s a gorgeous dark brown. I didn’t talke a before picture of my arm because I am a moron.
Now I’m looking forward to the weekend when I can scrub everything off and just see how the dark turns out alone on my body.
I also tried it on my face, which was good, it didn’t seem to do much different than the original on my face for some reason, other than be green before I washed it off!
So take a look: here is my natural colour, the colour guides and my natural colour.
A clear difference is how much guide colour washed off from the dark one. I find this makes it easier to apply, but there is no way you could go out with it on. It also might be a bit of a shock for people showering in the morning; a lot are confused by the colour coming off the original! But don’t be scared of the guide colours, they’re harmless. Unless you’re a white towel or sheet, in which case you’re dead.
generally speaking thids is a great product which I am happy to give 4 stras to. I will continue to use the product regularly it, but I do wish they did it in the standard bottle sizes, as I feel a lot of people would be more willing to buy the small one to try, and then the bigger one once they loved it.
I’d say if you already use the original and are considering buying this, but scared it’ll be too dark, just go for it. It is quite a lot darker if you apply it thickly, but is probably the equivalent of two thin layers of the original when applied thinly with a mitt.
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