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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Neil Shaw

Pale woman looked like Shrek when fake tan turned her green

A mental health support worker claims she was transformed from a pale ghost into Shrek when her skin turned green after using dark fake tan.

Devon Birkett decided to treat herself to an at-home pamper session by putting on some fake tan to give her pale skin a golden glow.

The 25-year-old, who admits she looks pale 'like a ghost', slapped on one layer of St Moriz mousse in shade Darker than Dark and settled down to watch a murder documentary.

But after two hours Devon glanced down and noticed her freshly-tanned feet were khaki-coloured and, alarmed, leapt up to look in the mirror.

Devon was horrified to discover her face, hands, arms, legs and feet were an ogre-green colour, which left pals bursting out laughing and comparing her to Shrek when she video-called them.

After being laughed at by her friends, she jumped in the shower and hosed it off, thankfully leaving her with a fairly 'normal tan' though she admits 'there was still a tinge of green' to it.

Devon, from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, said: "I'm naturally quite pale - like a ghost.

"I like to fake tan as it makes me feel more confident with it on, I like getting a bit of a golden glow.

"I go through stages of tanning, sometimes I won't tan for a little while but the majority of the time I'll tan once a week.

"I was going out the next day with friends and I wanted to look nice - instead I ended up green."

After doing her pre-tanning ritual of exfoliating and moisturising, Devon applied one layer of tanning product to her body before settling down to watch TV.

Devon said: "When I put the tan on I did everything that I normally do - exfoliating and moisturising - before applying St Moriz Darker than Dark mousse.

"I usually put one layer on, sleep in it and then wash it off the next day.

"When it squirted out as a mousse it was the normal brown [colour] but when it was on my skin it just started turning green.

"I only put one layer on. I didn't even put much on my face, just a little bit.

"I put it on at about 6pm and was just sat on my sofa watching a murder documentary.

"I had my feet up on the coffee table and when I looked down at my feet they were really, really green.

"I jumped up and looked in the mirror and that's when I noticed how green my face was, I looked like Shrek.

"I was bright green, it was even worse in person."

Shocked Devon video-called a few of her friends to show them her fake tan fail from a brand-new, in-date bottle, before jumping in the shower for 20 minutes to scrub it off.

Devon said: "I was just in shock I couldn't believe it.

"I videoed it to document it because I found it funny. I video-called a couple of my friends and they all found it hilarious as you can imagine.

"I've used it for years and it's never ever done that before. The more it was developing the greener and greener it was going.

"The tan was in date, I checked. I was in the shower for about 20 minutes scrubbing it off.

"It came off ok. I was a normal tan [colour] but there was still a tinge of green under it, but it wasn't as bad [as it had been]."

St Moriz declined to comment.

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