Gradual Tans Archives - My Mills BabyMy Mills Baby

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I have a ton of vices. I drink enough to have to sneak some of my bottles in the neighbours recycling boxes every week, I smoke and I’m still carrying around baby lbs I should have dropped years ago. With all these risk factors going on, I made a pact with myself years ago that I’d never ever get on a sunbed - I’m already a likely candidate for cancer so why increase my chances further?

I’m also a skin fanatic. As a size. 14, I have lots of it, so it seems a good idea to look after it. My bedside table contains thousands of £ worth of anti-aging elixir, and my bathroom looks like a Boots storeroom (it’s so bad that Craig has his own bathroom down the hall). Sun lotion and fake tan is therefore something I have covered by the tube load.

In fact, I’m all about the fake tan. Holidays are for Sangria and gin, not sunburn and peeling skin. Of course you’ll find me relaxing around the beach, but any bronzing is out of a bottle and not a result of the sun. We all look better with a fan - Fact. It’s slimming, makes you look more toned and healthier, and it’s a look we’re all trying desperately to keep up as summer slips away into Autumn.

Self tanner

So if I hear about something revolutionary or innovative on the home-tanning scene, I’m all over it. So here I am bringing you a PHD Skin Care Self Tanner review, as I believe this is more than a little special. Okay the name is about as unsexy as you can get, but their tanner & sunscreen takes a hell of a lot of beating. Their “never miss a spot” technology drew me in and didn’t disappoint.

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For anyone who regularly uses tanning products at home - they’ll be well-versed in the zombie-like shuffle required post-session to ensure a steak-free finish. They’ll also be used to the chemical smell in their bathroom, ugly stained mitt applicators and sprained shoulders from contorting to reach your back.

Well, no more.

Why? It’s all down to PHD’s “next generation intelligent delivery system” - I know, quite the mouthful, yet really quite ingenious. It might look like it’s been inspired by a Unibond sealant bottle, but the squirty straw-thingy (aka wand / angle spray) really does help you get to those hard-to-reach places. This also helps prevent wastage as you’ll no longer be inadvertently coating your shower curtain and tiles in the good stuff. Thankfully you can also ditch those mitts as this is a no rub formula that dries to a matte finish in minutes.

Application

I’d go so far as to say this is the easiest self-tan to apply I’ve come across. It is more spray than mist and your skin will feel quite saturated by the time you’ve done your 2 coats, and you’ll still have to wait a good few minutes for it to dry sufficiently to get dressed - but you won’t need to get into a yoga pose to apply it.

The finish is really quite impressive and you get a deep yet natural glow that’s less Essex and more St Tropez. In terms of streaks, of course there were a few, but no more than you get with any mist spray, and a great deal less than some of the specialist cream / mousse tans out there. I’m confident with a little more practice it would look even better.

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The formula has been put together by Bioscientists Brothers Dr Steven & Michael Isaacman. I won’t pretend they’ve created an all-natural chemical-free formula that smells of perfume and roses - no one has managed that feat yet! But this is a pleasant coconut scent with none of the usual moldy biscuit smell we’ve come to associate with self-tan - so that’s yet another step in the right direction.

Some effort has also been made to include natural ingredients and there’s a splash of coconut water to moisturise and hydrate the skin. Otherwise, I can’t pretend those with sensitive-skin are going to hold their bottles up the heavens with glee, but there are some notable absentees as far as nasty preservatives go.

All in all, self-tanning is never going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and many of those who do embrace it nip to a beauticians for a professional spray. Yet if you’re saving those pennies, or aren’t body confident enough to stand in your bikini for 20mins whilst a stranger with a spray gun gets trigger happy, this could be the solution for you. I’d rate it right up there with the big boys in terms of colour, yet a zillion times easier to apply.

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With an RRP of £19.99 (currently on offer at Boots for £13.66) there’s no hefty price tag to stop tan addicts from giving this a go either. It really is a game-changer and a product I’d absolutely recommend to my porcelain buddies.

Find out more at PHDSkincare.com or follow on Twitter to see more testimonials, deals and more.

YES thank you Melissa Carter - finally a gradual tanning lotion that doesn’t smell of embalming fluid

High street tanners are an absolute minefield. Yet for those of those that think sunbeds are for the stupid, and spray tans are too OTT, it’s our only choice. So we buy tanner after tanner and spray, rub and smooth them onto our skin making our bathrooms reak like a mini mortuary. The next day we’ll wake up to streaks and layer up on bracelets and bangles to cover our mistakes.

It’s not much to ask to find a fake tan that smells good, keeps us relatively soft-skinned, and doesn’t make us look like we’ve fallen asleep in the sun on our front. All we really want is even coverage that doesn’t make other people on the tube have breathe through their mouths.

Well Founder & Creator of Cocoa Brown, Melissa Carter has done just that. She’s created a tanning range that carries a pleasant floral scent and is getting storming press in Ireland and glowing testimonials from celebrities such as Rosanna Davison, Pippa O’Connor and Karen Koster. Okay, these may not be big names here in the UK but they’ve graced the covers of some of the biggest Irish beauty publications on the market.

So what makes it so good?

Well it’s not rocket science. It’s a range of tanning products that are inexpensive, long-lasting, smell great and are pumped full of (albeit mostly synthetic) ingredients that are hydrating and nourishing. Why the likes of L’Oreal and Garnier couldn’t pull this off sooner is anyone’s guess. But they didn’t, and now Cocoa Brown have won themselves another advocate - me.

Tough Stuff 3 in 1 Body Scrub

It’s gritty, it smells of berries, it exfoliates. It’s also won awards and costs a tiny £5.99 from Superdrug. What more do you need?

The 3 in 1 claim is a little ambiguous. They’re aren’t 3 benefits as such, rather it prepares your skin for tanning by lifting off any old remnants and creates a clean slate for slathering on the new one. But who cares? It’s by far one of the toughest body scrubs I’ve come across.

For knees, elbows, feet and other tough skin, using it bi-weekly will wipe away dead skin and leave it far softer than before. It’s also effective on dry skin if you get in a fight with a toddler and a marker pen which deserves a standing ovation from any parent.

I’m not alone in thinking this is a bit special either - this body scrub sold 4 months worth of stock in just 2 weeks when it first hit the market. They’ve now sensibly created a 200ml tube available from Primark, Superdrug, Lloyds Pharmacy and FeelUnique.com. I’m unlikely to use another body scrub ever.

Gentle Bronze Gradual Tanner

Gentle Bronze launched in March 2014, after a whirlwind 2013 in which Cocoa Brown achieved huge success; sealing deals with major retailers such as Boots, Superdrug, Primark and Tesco. Prior to this, their flagship 1 hour tan mousse went head to head with its highstreet competitors and literally wiped the floor with them. But for some of us, mitting up, applying a mousse then showering is a bit of a faff. This is where the gradual tanner comes in.

This can be applied everyday and gradually builds your tan to a beautiful bronze shade. How does it differ to the likes of Dove’s Summer Glow, Garnier’s Summer Body and L’Oreal’s Sublime Bronze I hear you ask? Well it smells good and there’s not a hint of orange.

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Ingredients

Okay, it doesn’t have Vita Liberata’s organic base ingredients, or St Tropez’s aloe vera infusion - and there are a few dubious ingredients to make the hardcore skincare buffs wrinkle their noses:

Isopropyl Myristate: synthetic oil is often added to beauty products to give them a slicker, sheer feel rather than an oily one. Has been linked to skin irritation.

Dihydroxyacetone: derived from sugar beets or cane sugar, this is the key active ingredient for self-tanners. The skin-browning effect is the result of a nontoxic chemical reaction between DHA and the amino acids which are part of the keratinous layer of the skin’s surface, much like the browning effect in food caramelization. Although there has been studies to show low levels of irritation, Cocoa Brown insist their DHAs are vegetable derived and mild.

Ceteareth-20: The most controversial one in there, but unnecessarily so. An emollient and emulsifier that gets a fair old bashing from the die-hard organic fans as it can contaminate a product with carcinogens. Generally regarded as low toxicity though.

But! It also has Argania Spinose Kernal Oil - who’s been reading my blog then? Which is an organic hero ingredient with a raft of benefits - I definitely hadn’t expected to see this in here and it’s a very very very welcome surprise.

So what did I think?

Love it. My arms and legs are looking spot on. I’m yet to experience any streakiness and the colour is deep and natural. They’re also lovely and soft as I can pop my usual organic body lotion on top without any cross-contamination. The scent is Cocoa Brown’s signature Tahitian Gardinia Floral scent which is an acquired scent, but it beats the hell out of any of its competitors.

My only gripe is that it can “sit in” the creases of your skin (as you might expect). Although my legs have got away scot-free, my wrists need a good scrub afterwards. This is fine if you aren’t doing your arms, but it can lead to tell-tale lines if you are. I’m hoping Cocoa Brown bring out a mist to reduce this problem. They do have a Lovely Legs wash off spray tan, but an all-over longer-lasting solution would be welcome.

All in all, it’s the best I’ve come across in a long while and at £5.99, it’ll be a regular in my shopping basket. Well done Melissa.