Despite how much I love the warm, relaxing environment of the tanning bed, I've decided for my health and my budget, I will forgo the urge to tan indoors. I wanted to try a spray tan at first because I thought I had a coupon for Planet Beach...but turns out, I could only use it for a massage (which I will certainly be getting after Casino Night). I briefly considered actually paying real money for a spray tan ($25 dollars at Planet Beach) but decided to go the self-tanner route.
I put a lot of research into deciding what product I wanted to use but Target's selection was surprisingly minimal, so I went with L'Oreal Sublime Bronze because it was only 8.50 and the other (albeit cheaper) variety looked sketchy.
As most magazines and beauty experts would tell you, there are two things you must do if you want to achieve a good at-home tan: exfoliate and moisturize.
My roommate/friend makes this awesome scrub from the Big Ass Book of Crafts and I think there's peppermint oil or something in it... Anyway, I scrubbed my whole body raw and removed a whole winter's worth of dead skin.
Afterward, I came to the conclusion that I probably hadn't moisturized my legs in a very long time. As Janelle said, "You should probably start a regular lotion routine" before attempting to self-tan.
I tried a quick fix by loading my legs up with Vaseline and then applied the Sublime Bronze.
This is what I got:
Streaky legs, bright orange hands and spots on my arms. I read somewhere that you can get rid of self-tanner stains by using rubbing alcohol so I sent out a mass text message. In hindsight, a bad idea. Most people assumed I was in some sort of medical crisis.
The rubbing alcohol didn't actually work. So I basically put on more self-tanner until the color was even and I think it turned out well. I'm supposed to apply it once or twice a week to maintain my glow.
You know you're completely codependent with your roommate when she's the person responsible for tanning your back.
