Sunless Tanning Made Easy

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and Walmart. All opinions are mine alone.#MyJergensGlow #CollectiveBias

It all started with my Junior prom. I had a gorgeous pink dress and I needed a tan. I started hitting up the tanning bed. It became a yearly tradition. Every spring, I would start my tanning binge until I was a gorgeous, dark bronze. I’m partly Native American, with olive skin, so I tan pretty easily. When I was younger, I thought the darker the better.

throwback to 2010

I would literally turn the color of leather. That was until about the age of 23 when I realized, if I kept up that binge tanning, I was going to leave myself with a ton of wrinkles and possibly skin cancer. So I turned to sunless tanners to get my summer glow and took all of the safe sun precautions. Every spring, when shorts and dresses start to make their appearance in my wardrobe, I whip out a sunless tanner. I’ve tried many lotions and sprays at home and salon sprays over the years, but this year, I wanted to try something new; a mousse.

I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about mousse formulas; that they’re light, easy to use and have good coverage, so I figured why not. When I was in Walmart the other week, I picked up JERGENS® Natural Glow® Instant Sun® Sunless Tanning Mousse, as well as JERGENS® Natural Glow® Wet Skin® Moisturizer.

The two together sounded like a lasting tan combination. The JERGENS® Natural Glow® Wet Skin® Moisturizer was a shelf down from the JERGENS® Natural Glow® Instant Sun® Sunless Tanning Mousse, so look around if you don’t see it at first, they were both in the lotion aisle at my local Walmart. Walmart carries all of the JERGENS® Natural Glow® products, so both will be there! Each product comes in two shades, to fit a variety of skin tones; fair to medium and medium to tan for gradual products and light bronze or deep bronze for Instant Sun products, check them out and purchase online,  here.

Now, since I’m a veteran sunless tanner, there are a few tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years to get the best application. So I went to work, with my usual routine:

1. Exfoliate – Sunless tanners will absorb more into the dry areas of your skin, leaving you splotchy, so you must exfoliate and cleanse first. I apply sunless tanner before I go to bed, so the color will have plenty of time to develop. I just hop in the shower, shave my legs and give myself a good scrub with a sugar scrub before I apply.

2. Moisturize – On areas that tend to be a little drier, like my elbows, knees and feet, I add a light moisturizer. This makes it so the sunless tanner doesn’t absorb as much in those areas, making the tan even.

3. Apply – There are many great sunless tanner mitts available now that will keep your hand free of color, but you can also apply the mousse with your hands.

Apply the mouse to your entire body, in slow even downward strokes, avoiding your feet, ankles, wrists and face. If you want to apply color to your face, I recommend using JERGENS® Natural Glow® FACE Daily Moisturizer with Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 20, that’s a product you can use all over. Since I was using JERGENS® Natural Glow® Instant Sun® Sunless Tanning Mousse, I avoided my face. To blend into the areas I avoid, I put a pump in my hand and then apply it to a large area like my leg or arm and then whatever is left from that, I will lightly blend into an area like my ankle, wrist or neck. That way you get a little color, but not full on color. Before washing your hands, make sure all areas are fully blended in. If you want a more intense, darker color, you can wait five minutes and apply again. I only applied once.

If you’re like me and use your hand to apply, you’re going to need to scrub your hands immediately after application. JERGENS® makes an in shower scrub that is perfect for removing color from your palms, but I used a pumice stone to scrub my palms and all of the color came off. If you go the mitt route, you’re good to go!

4. Dry – Let your body dry completely before getting dressed. It’s best if you can wait 8 hours before showering, which is why I like to apply JERGENS® Natural Glow® Instant Sun® Sunless Tanning Mousse before bed. In the morning, the color will be developed and you can shower as usual! If you aren’t able to apply before bed, you just need to wait 4-5 hours before showering or getting wet. JERGENS® Natural Glow® Instant Sun® Sunless Tanning Mousse is a one day application, so after the color develops, you will have a nice natural tan. If you want a deeper color, you can apply again the next day. I really liked my color with one application, so I chose to maintain that shade.

5. Maintenance – To keep your tan going strong, you have to keep your skin moisturized! I chose to gradually deepen and sustain my tan by using JERGENS® Natural Glow® Wet Skin® Moisturizer. JERGENS® Natural Glow® Wet Skin® Moisturizer can be used to deepen your color in addition to JERGENS® Natural Glow® Instant Sun® Sunless Tanning Mousse or on its own, for gradual color. After showering, while your skin is still wet, apply the lotion, much like you do the mousse; all over but lightly on areas that tend to be dry, like your elbows and knees. Then you hop out of the shower and dry off. Toweling off is very important, so you don’t get any streaks. No need for any additional moisturizer, JERGENS® Natural Glow® Wet Skin® Moisturizer has it built in. This product will give you a nice color gradually and can be used daily to get a gorgeous, natural, color. Once you reach the color you want, you can apply it every other day, to maintain.

My results:

All in all I love #MyJergensGlow.  My tan was lasting and natural! Plus, I really like that the application to tan length is 1-2 days. To keep the glow going, all you have to do is apply JERGENS® Natural Glow® Instant Sun® Sunless Tanning Mousse once a week. It can be a little bit of a production to put on sunless tanner, so I like that JERGENS® Natural Glow® Instant Sun® Sunless Tanning Mousse, has quick results!

On my skin health side, I recently saw my dermatologist for my skin check and she said I had really beautiful skin, especially for my age. She said I didn’t have any sun damage and to keep doing what I was doing. So, I attribute that to realizing early on that I was doing my skin harm by using tanning beds and worshipping the sun. I’m grateful that I can use sunless tanners, to get my yearly spring glow, without skin damage!

How about you? Do you like to use sunless tanners?

– Brooke