If your golden summer glow, whether it’s a suntan or a self-tan, is starting to fade, here are some handy tan hacks to help you stay bronzed and beautiful. Here are some more tips and tricks …
Avoid soap
Taking a shower with soap can exacerbate dry skin conditions, speeding up tan-fade. Use a rich, conditioning cleanser instead: Dermalogica’s Conditioning Body Wash is a soap-free botanical body cleanser that is acid balanced to prevent over-stripping or over-drying. Enriched with moisturising essential oils, to leave skin smooth, supple refreshingly clean and soft, its fragrant botanical extracts provide a natural conditioning lather that’s great for tanned skin.
It’s all about hydration
Tanning can dry the skin – and if your skin becomes dry, the colour won’t last for long due to flaking, peeling or cracking. Keep well moisturised by slathering your skin with a rich, conditioning and indulgent body cream every morning and evening. We love Dermalogica’s Body Hydrating Cream, Elemis’s Sweet Orchid Body Cream and Decleor’s Aroma Nutrition Nourishing Rich Body Cream.
A tan-friendly diet
Drinking plenty of fresh water to keep hydrated from the inside is essential for good skin health, cell turnover and keeping your radiant glow for longer. You can also add foods rich in beta-carotene (papaya, sweet potato, carrot and mango, for example) to a healthy diet to encourage your tan to stick around.
Stay cool – and dry
Even if the temperature falls, taking a cooler shower is better for prolonging your tan than a hot bath: hot water can dehydrate the skin. It’s also better for your tan – and your skin generally – to dip in and out of the shower rather than taking a long bath. Long soaks or showers can cause skin cells to flake away faster, making your tan appear lighter. Similarly, steam rooms and saunas are great for cleansing skin, opening pores and removing blackheads, but by encouraging perspiration, and the shedding of skin cells, it can also make your tan fade a little.
Exfoliate with care
Exfoliation is a must before you take a tan onboard, but once your skin is glowing you’ll need to exfoliate very gently – as more of a top-up – to prevent your tan fading away. Avoid products with ingredients or properties that remove the top layer of skin, where you’ve caught your tan. To preserve your colour you could try a bespoke exfoliating product: St Tropez Tan Enhancing Polish and Xen Tan Fresh Prep Scrub can both be used before and during your tanned time.
Flatter with fashion
When you have a tan, certain colours in your wardrobe – particularly white – do a brilliant job of enhancing your colour. As well as white, try turquoise, neon pink, jade green and jet-black to flatter your tan to the max.
Beauty boost
When it comes to beauty products, a bronzer is a must: avoid shimmer to keep your look as natural as possible. Xen Tan’s Perfect Bronzer is ideal for enhancing your tan. Easily blendable and shimmer-free, olive undertones mean there’s no risk of looking orange, pink or ‘rusty’, even if your skin is very fair. Nail colour will also make your tan pop. Try one of Jessica’s Summer 2018 shades: we love Sahara Sun, Mojave Desert, and Flower Crown.
Amplify it!
Instead of fighting against fade, use a product that amps up the tan you already have and builds on your glow. Fake Bake’s Amplify is a daily gradual tanning lotion that works to intensify and boost a natural tan, simultaneously building a beautiful, golden self-tan.
