Cocoa Brown Gentle Bronze

Howdy folks! Before I get into the wonderful world of tanning I just want to take a sec to apologise for the HUUUUUUGE gap in posts. A mix of personal and family issues meant I just completely lost my blogging mojo, and to be brutally honest.... blogging was the last thing on my mind! Things have finally started to calm down so I'm gonna try ease myself back in!

So with that said, I've recently been mucking around with the newest additions to the fabulous Cocoa Brown family! Each will get their own post, but first on the chopping block is the gradual tanner- Gentle Bronze.

I'm pretty much anti gradual tanners, the smell is just too much for me- even off products that promise to have NO fake tan smell at all. But inevitably I always wake up in the middle of the night to a waft of digestive biscuits....and I'm just not able. I have so much trust in Cocoa Brown that when I was promised a biscuit free healthy glow, I fully expected to get it. And I did!

The lotion itself goes on silky smooth and dries really quickly. My skin was left feeling really soft and moisturoised and I noticed an even, streak free colour developing after just a couple of hours. There's even a very subtle colour guide so you can see if you miss anywhere. Neither myself, or my hyper sensitive mammy, got any smell (other than Cocoa Brown's signature floral scent) from the lotion.

I love Gentle bronze, I find it much handier than a full on tan! I love the fact that it eliminates my Irish blue hue, without me needing to adjust my make up routine to blend everything together! The colour I achieve after 1-2 days is absolutely perfect for every day wear!

It's a lovely addition to my Cocoa Brown collection, and I have a feeling it will be my most regularly used! Gentle Bronze retails at around €5.50 and can be found anywhere that sells the CB range!

Happy (gradual) tanning!

St Tropez Bronzing Mousse

When you think of fake tans there's one brand that would rush to the front of most people's minds- St Tropez! From what I can gather the general opinion is, or was, that it's the holy grail of faking it. However, it's always sat very far outside my price range so I never really gave it a second thought. Sure why would I with so many reasonably priced options available that promise to do the exact same thing? But I found a 500ml bottle of St Tropez Bronzing mousse for €16.50 and I thought now was as good a time as any to try. I'm not a believer of only having a healthy glow during the summer months, if you do it right you can adapt your tan all year round.

I have used this tan twice since I bought it, both times my impressions have been distinctly...... meh. I'll start with the good points-

The mousse formula is super easy to apply.

It's a huge big bottle (which I've seen on sale elsewhere for a whopping €55) so you do get a fair bang for your buck.

It has a good colour guide so streaks and blotches are easily avoided.

I haven't yet encountered the dreaded biscuit smell.

It does develop into a really lovely golden colour, actually one of the nicest I've ever come across.

BUT!!!!!

It has no staying power whatsoever. The bottle says to avoid getting wet for 8 hours. Ok, that's a bit of a pain but I can live with it. You may as well wash it all off immediately for all the good those 8 hours do. I woke up with a beautiful colour, washed my hands and then only from my wrists up had any colour. When I showered I lost any hint of colour, I was my natural white self.

It's totally unreliable. If someone accidentally spills something on you on a night out call a taxi, cos your night is over!  Like, this is worse than Sun Shimmer when threatened with moisture, it just gives up and goes home.

The bottle says to reapply every day or so, but unless you spend your days in a bubble, or in a world void of liquid, you'll be applying new tan over a blotchy mess, or you'll just be reapplying to clean skin and won't be building any colour at all.

I know people who absolutely swear by St Tropez and wouldn't hear of any other tan, I can't see why. I know I only paid €16.50, a bargain on the St Tropez price scale, but from a more realistic point of view that's 2 bottles of Cocoa Brown, a much better and more wearable tan in every way! Maybe this new breed of affordable tans have spoiled me and I just expect too much from all fake tans now.

My verdict- if I could I'd go get my money back! And then go buy some Cocoa Brown because it's everything St Tropez wants to be but isn't.

Streaks the hound left me (10 hours after application)

Wow Brown Ready To Glow Tanning liquid

Hi everyone!

I'm so sorry I couldn't keep up with the JuneBBC challenge, there was a lot of personal stuff going on over the last few weeks, and I just didn't have the time to devote to it. Rather than bombard you with half assed posts, I thought it would be better to just bow out. I still read what I could, and you guys did an amazing job!

I've been meaning  to do a review on Ready to glo for quite a while, since I first tried it about a month ago. Honestly, I had heard very little about it before winning a bottle in a Facebook competition. I had been religiously using Cocoa Brown, and you can read what I thought of it here but who doesn't like a change from time to time. I won't lie, the bottle did sit on a shelf untouched for a few weeks while I plucked up the courage to look past the fact that it said DARK tanning liquid on the bottle, but don't let that put you off!

So I applied it as per my usual tanning routine and I was so, so impressed. The colour was beautiful. I was genuinely afraid that it would be far too dark for me, but even as it was developing it never made me look like I was wearing tan. I just had a very healthy glow. You're supposed to leave it on for 5 hours (or longer for a deeper colour) then shower, but on multiple occasions I've completely forgotten to wash it off because there's just no smell off it at all! It doesn't have the pretty floral scent that Cocoa Brown has, but we can make up for tat with a quick spritz of perfume.

My favourite things about Ready To Glo are

1. It's very difficult to mess up. It's a paraben free liquid formula that dries very quickly, but is still extremely blendable. It goes on with a lovely golden colour straight away, so you can be sure that you got absolutely everywhere.
2. There's no smell of it at all!
3. The bottle is small enough to carry around with you should you need to, and the packaging is simple but very pretty
4. It's very long lasting! I'm on my 4th full body application and I'd say my bottle is still just under 3/4's full.
5. I have found, and this almost beggars belief, that even in areas with dry skin the tan doesn't cake nearly as bad as a lot of other tans. I have often ended up with filthy looking elbows, even after moisturoising regularly, but Ready To Glo really minimizes that!
6. There's a little logo on the bottle letting you know that it's plane friendly, and I just think that's the cutest thing ever!
7. Fran and Don are very interactive on Twitter. Any time I've mentioned Wow Brown I've gotten feedback from them. For me, good customer service like that really endears me to a brand or product.

While I didn't pay for my first bottle of Ready To Glo, more came across it by accident, I'll definitely be a repeat customer. My current bottle is getting packed away to jet off to Tenerife in 2 weeks and I'll be depending on it heavily so my pasty white skin doesn't stick out too much. I'll certainly be raising a cocktail to Fran, Don and Ready To Glow on my holidays :)

Cocoa Brown Lovely Lady Lunch- Dublin- Saturday 27th April

About 3 weeks ago I got a message from the creator of my favourite tan Cocoa Brown inviting me to a lunch in a very swanky Dublin hotel. Knowing there was a new tan in the pipe line, I naturally assumed it'd just be an event to fill some bloggers in on the merits of the new tan, and went hoping to maybe nab myself a free sample (and a few nibbles) What was waiting for us lucky few on arrival was an astounding display of generousity from both Marissa and the Cocoa Brown brand. We were treated to a 3 course meal (with wine!) in a beautifully decorated private room. Along the back wall stood a line of goody bags, quite large goody bags at that! Surely that big ole bag couldn't just contain one bottle of tan!? OH NO IT DIDN'T! When I peered into the bag you could have knocked me over with a feather. There was a bottle of the old reliable 1 hour tan, accompanied by a bottle of the new Night and Day tan (which won't even be in the shops for another 2 weeks!) a tanning mitt AND a €50 Penney's voucher.

Now, a lot of brands will invite customers out to events, give them a few itsy bitsy samples and put on some finger food, but never before have I seen a brand go so far to thank and reward their customers. I was genuinely overwhelmed. For me, it makes it a lot easier to part with my money when I know the brand will go to great lengths to prove you are a valued customer. I can't thank Marissa, Sarah and Cocoa Brown for a lovely afternoon and such a generous gift.

Now on to the good stuff! I had planned to rush home and try the new tan as soon as I finished chatting to all the other bloggers at the lunch. Unfortunately  the chances of me leaving town with a €50 Penneys gift card in my back pocket were slim to...... it just wasn't going to happen. Then the pub got involved and lets just say by the time I arrived home tanning was the last thing on my mind!

So, before going market hopping on Sunday I sat myself down, opened my shiney new mitt and got moussey. The tan itself is generally everything you'd expect from Cocoa Brown. It smells divine going on and stays smelling divine! It goes on quite dark, darker than the 1 hour tan, but even at that it STILL wasn't too dark for my ghostly complexion. It's still fool proof, there wasn't a steak in sight and my skin was so soft and silky. I was ready to go literally 5 minutes after applying the tan, which is practically unheard of for an instant tan. It absorbed instantly into my skin so could dress and run out the door without worrying about smudges or blotches.

Cocoa Brown Night and Day really takes the hassle out of tanning. You don't have to plan ahead and think 'well I better not do my hair now because I have to shower my tan off'. Being buffed and bronzed can now be a last minute decision!

The Night and Day tan will be out in shops in about 2 weeks and will retail for the same price as the original. I'll definitely be buying a bottle when mine runs out!

Cocoa Brown 1 hour Tan

Let me start by saying that I was cursed with skin so pale it's almost translucent. It also doesn't take to tan very well, so no matter what tan i used, i ended up blotchy, streaky and porous  Not a good look! I had essentially given up on a golden glow and was settling into my pasty life, but my Twitter feed was clogged up with rave reviews for Cocoa Brown. For €7.99 what had I to lose?

Cocoa Brown, €7.99 in pharmacies nationwide 

I didn't go in to this experiment with very high expectations. I've been told to try so many different tans that were meant to be FANTASTIC, but left me looking like a half painted oompa loompa. I followed the instructions on the bottle, even the handy little tanning tips! The tan comes out as a mousse, and couldn't be easier to apply. There's a slight colour when you first put it on, so you can see exactly where you got and missed, but rest assured that you will get darker! 1 point to Cocoa Brown!

 As for the smell... WHAT SMELL???? It's fantastic! A developing tan that doesn't leave you smelling like a soggy digestive biscuit! There's actually quite a pleasant, mildly fruity smell off it. So you can apply it and go about your business without being self conscious about any smells! Point number 2!

The only down side to this tan is that in my opinion it shouldn't be advertised as a 1 hour tan. Yes, after 1 hour you definitely have a colour, but it's quite light, even for the palest of the pale. I found leaving it on for 2-3 hours gives you gorgeous, natural golden tan. As far as downsides go, it's pretty minor!

This took to my skin like a dream. My tan was even, streak free, natural looking and faded evenly. It's essentially fool proof. From my experience you would have to go out of your way to botch this up.Also, im going in to my 4th all over body tan from the same bottle, so it's unbelievable value!

Cocoa brown has definitely converted me. It's one of the best, most affordable tans on the market. It's just €7.99 from pharmacies nationwide, and is heaps better than some of the more expensive tans on the market. I would, and definitely will, buy this tan again. It's a pale girls new best friend!