Tonturing with Cocoa Brown

Tontouring is everywhere atm, and as the brain child of Tanning guru Marissa Carter it seemed like a good idea to try i out! It can seem a bit daunting, mastering contouring is hard enough without trying it with something you cant immediately scrub off!!

I have to say....it's pretty easy to conquer, and is actually god fun! So, I've done up a quick step by step routine of how I achieved a ice, subtle look!

I used Gentle Bronze as a base to give my skin a natural looking glow.

I squirted out a blob of the 1 Hour tan (I used the dark shade) and using a flat contour brush I applied the tan to the hollow of my cheeks and blended. (If your brush is like mine it will absolutely hoover up the tan, so tread carefully!)

Then I used my fingers to gently blend the tan and ensure that there were no straight lines or tiger stripes.

And that's it! Once you take the plunge it's very simple. Just remember, it's easier to add than it is to remove, so start with small amounts of the darker tan and build on it!

                                                   

Tonturing is a nifty little skill to master. I just throw on a bit of powder, mascara and brow powder and I've a 2 minute full face!

The Tan by the 2 Jenns

Pretty much every feed I have has been clogged up with news and reviews of The Tan By the two Jenns, so after hunting it down in Couture Beauty in Tallaght I  couldn't wait to try it.

The Tan has been developed over 18 months by the two Jenns (of Vanity Room fame) and comes in a gel, spray and gradual tan format. The I opted for the gel and it set me back €19!

The Tan claims to be moisturising, quick drying, non sticky and stink free. But is it? Being the patient creature that i am, I gave myself a layer last night. While I was applying I very quickly noticed that Hey, this is just gliding on like a dream! It spreads and blends like a dream! The guide colour is subtle, but dark enough to avoid any missed spots! It dries almost immediately on the skin so there was absolutely no sticky feeling!

Before

I've noticed lately that every tan I use has left me FEELING like I'm coated in tan, but seconds after applying The Tan I felt ready to walk out the door!  And it actually left my skin feeling really soft and moisturised! I also didn't notice any discernable tan smell! Big bonus!

According to the bottle you can leave this tan on for 2-3 hours for a subtle colour. But if, like me, you have a go hard or go  home attitude to tanning, you can leave it on for 8 hours for a deeper colour. I left it on over night and love my colour this morning. It's deep , but natural looking even on my pale skin!

After!

I  think the proof is in the punch here! I'm normally a notorious bargain hunter, but I would happily pay €19 for this tan again! My only word of warning would be to only apply a small amount to your mitt at a time as the gel is a bit runny and a little blob goes a long away!

Well done to the two Jenns! They've created what I think will be a holy grail product for a lot of folk!

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 Glo Dark tanning liquid

The lovely folk at Wow Brown sent out some lucky Bloggers a little surprise of a bottle of their award winning Ready To Glo Dark tanning liquid. My little pressie arrived in a big purple sparkly envelope, with a full size bottle of tan and a little note thanking me for me previous review, which you can read here. How sweet!

Now initially I was a  bit wary of the word 'Dark' because I am whiter than white and was afraid that it just wouldn't suit me because I don't like to tan my face. I was in fear of the dreaded marshmallow head. I won't lie, I was in 2 minds about whether to apply it at all, would it be worth the hassle just to go a few shades too dark and have to scrub it all off? But I persevered! But Fran and Don were kind enough to send me a bottle, and even if it's too dark for me it may suit someone else down to the ground!

Same as my last bottle, the paraben free liquid comes in a handbag friendly sized bottle, perfect for holidays and weekends away. The spray cap gives you complete control of the amount of liquid you spritz onto your mitt. Remember though, a little bit of this condensed liquid goes a very long way. 1-2 sprays will do an entire arm! The packaging claims to contain enough product for 7-10 full body applications, and I'd definitely agree since I still have a good 1/4 of my first bottle left and have used it on my upper body countless times.

There's a lovely golden glow the second you apply the tan, and the next second you're dry as a bone. The liquid absorbs extremely quickly, making this an excellent 'tanning at the last minute' tan. The colour guide also makes it near impossible to leave you with streaks or missed patches. The 'boyfriend friendly' scent is lovely and floral, and doesn't change during development. I would be quite sensitive to that biscuity smell a lot of developing tans have and can always smell it off others, so I absolutely HATE being able to smell it off myself. But, being so impressed with my last bottle, I really wasn't expecting to smell like a digestive!

Now onto the colour! You're supposed to leave the tan on for 5 hours, then hop in the shower, or leave on longer for a more intense colour. I've never been known for my bravery, so I showered after the allotted time just in case. What I was left with was a lovely, naturally bronzed, streak free day time tan that's completely appropriate for the change of season! Tbh, I would have gotten away with leaving it on longer, and definitely will if I am wearing it for a night out!

I personally find the wear off of Ready To Glo products to be the best of any tan I've ever used, so I'm hoping it's the same with the darker liquid. I'm almost certain it will be, Fran and Don have never given me reason t doubt them! The tan retails at €21.99 and can be bought direct from the Wow Brown website.

Happy tanning guys :)

He-Shi gradual day to day tan

I want to preface this post by saying that I have little faith in gradual tanners. I have neither the skin, nor the patience for it to ever work out well. I have tried many, many gradual tanners (Dove,  Johnson's etc) and have always found fault, be it the smell, consistency or overall colour development.

Before heading along to a Slattery's communications blogger event yesterday I had only heard of the He-shi brand in passing, I knew little to nothing about it, other than it being an award winning irish brand, and had never used it. I used the gradual day to day tan today and my first experiences have me very curious to find out more.

I used the tan after showering, on dry skin. Initially, I was wary as there is no colour guide. You just have to trust your instincts when applying. I applied it as I would a moisturiser, and honestly it kicks my regular moisturiser in the ass. It has a lovely, creamy texture. It spreads very easily and dries very quickly on the skin. My skin is still,  hours later, silky smooth and moisturised. The paraben free formulation also has a gorgeous smell that lasts on your skin for hours after applying.

As for the colour, it's hard to judge after just one application. I'm not a bronzed goddess yet, but my skin has lost that ghostly pale blue tinge it usually has. I'm going to apply again before bed,  and again tomorrow so I will update this post with how my colour develops.

Another thing I love is that you get a grand big chunky tube, there is lot's and lot's of the product to play around with. It retails for approximately €16.50, honestly a little bit more than I'd be willing to pay for a gradual fake tan. However, if over the next few days im as pleased with the results as I am right now, I could be persuaded.

All in all, I am very intrigued by this tan, and am almost raging I didn't opt for the instant tan to see the immediate results.

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 :)