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I Tried Self-Tanner For the First Time and Here’s What Happened

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Gustavus chapter.

I have never been tan in my life. I have two tones: white as a sheet and lobster red. If I don’t lather on sunblock with a high SPF, I burn and of course I can’t tan with so much sun lotion on. So, when Her Campus National sent us our Spring Break Survival Kit containing a plethora of tanning products, I decided to conduct a bit of an experiment. For one week, I used L’Oreal Paris Sublime Bronze self-tanning towelettes. These are simple wipes that you rub over your skin. The special tanning serum on the towelettes then soaks into your skin and a tan will develop over the next few hours.

Before:

After:

Here’s a little recap of what I learned on my tanning adventure:

1. L’Oreal Paris Sublime Bronze self-tanning towelettes work! For the first time ever, I was actually tan! It was super weird, but also pretty awesome.

2. It’s so important to actually read and follow the directions on the box, because everything it says is true.

3. You need to make sure you are running the towelette over your skin evenly. The first time I did it it my tan came out kind of splotchy because I needed to put more pressure on some spots than others.

4. The first time you do it, just run the wipe over your skin lightly and see how your skin reacts before you put more pressure on while you wipe. The first time I tried these tanning wipes I said “YOLO” and just went ham and rubbed the towelette everywhere and the next day I woke up a little orange and it did not look very good. It works best if you slowly build up the tan over many days, because it will look more natural.

5. If you are unhappy with the results, you can wash most of the tan off. After I woke up kind of orange, I got in the shower, scrubbed for a while, and most of the tan came off!

6. The smell DOES go away. The first day I smelled kind of funny from the tanning serum. However, once I took my first shower it went away and never came back even after I used more wipes to darken my tan.

7. It lasts a while! I haven’t been using the wipes for a few days now and I am still fairly tan.

8. It’s fun! I didn’t always look perfect but I still had a blast doing it and it was definitely an adventure! 

Me pre-tan:

Me post-tan:

If you’re looking for a little bit of that sun-kissed look this spring break season, I’d definitely recommend trying some self-tanning products like L’Oreal Paris Sublime Bronze self-tanning towelettes for yourself!