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Evening Standard

Lifestyle

Rose Beer

The art of the best fake tan: your guide to a hassle-free grown-up glow

James Harknett Von Hep

The IT kit spans mousses, moisturisers and exfoliators - (Three Warriors)

In the 17 years I’ve been a beauty editor, I have tried fake-tanning in all its forms. I’ve been sprayed professionally in pop-up cubicles everywhere from Los Angeles to my London kitchen, slept in the deepest mousses (a frightening prospect for both my bed linen and my translucent skin) and sheepishly boarded flights trailing that dreaded fake-tan smell. I’ve tried waters, washes, drops, express formulas — the lot.

And while I can’t pretend I’ve ever much enjoyed the process — why would you? — I love the results. There is something about being bronzed that bolsters my confidence in a thrilling way. I feel instantly polished and pulled-together, which in turn lifts my mood. As I have grown older — and a bit softer — I’ve also noticed that a hint of warmth makes me look firmer and more toned, too.

Despite my wide-ranging experimentation, I almost always come back to gradual tanners. Not just out of laziness — although they are certainly more forgiving, making the success rate of a hasty pre-bed application infinitely higher — but because the best modern formulas are intelligent, sophisticated and skincare-led, slipping seamlessly into your routine by treating, hydrating and tanning in one go. As such the finish is excellent: subtle, believable, glowy and buildable if you do want something more high-impact.

So if you usually resist this category, I’d urge you to reconsider with the following advice in mind. What better time than now, when many of us are showing more skin and perhaps feeling rather ambivalent about it?

An expert guide to self tanning

Choose the right colour

“A good fake tan should look real,” says beauty expert and tanning maestro Jules Von Hep. “You want people to say you look healthy — not compliment your fake tan.” Which is perhaps why gradual formulas are preferred by those in the know. James Read, pro tanner and founder of Self Glow, describes this as the “skinification,” of tanning. The formulas you want are those highly adaptable to enhance skin rather than mask it.

Check the ingredients

One of the reasons modern self-tan feels more appealing is because it increasingly behaves like skincare. Look out for formulas incorporating hyaluronic acid, glycerine, pentavitin, olive oil and peptides that nourish, support and enhance the skin to keep it plump and luminous rather than flat. “That’s the difference between glowing and looking brown,” says A-list tanner James Harknett.

Be careful with your face

For the face particularly, less is more. Von Hep recommends tanning drops mixed into a moisturiser, or a facial mist layered over several nights. Facial milks, drops and serum-mists are far more forgiving for nervous users too.

Less is more

Harknett recently tanned Daisy Edgar-Jones for the Cannes Film Festival, giving her a dewy glow that stayed faithful to her fair complexion, and has had countless requests to replicate it since. “What sets a grown-up tan apart is the finish,” he tells me. “Think effortlessly sunkissed and barely-there.” The secret is — you’ve guessed it — “less pigment, more skincare”.

Moisterise your knees

Preparation is key. Exfoliate 24 hours before tanning and moisturise dry areas such as knees and elbows before so much as looking at a tanning tube. “Moisturiser acts as a barrier and stops tan overdeveloping,” says Von Hep. For best results, apply tan in long, sweeping motions with a mitt, rather than rubbing in circles.

Be careful with your hands

Experts agree that hands expose everything so exercise restraint, using residual product left on the mitt and blending it carefully over knuckles and wrists. No one to do your back? “Pop a mitt on a wooden spoon, tie a band around the bottom of the mitt, then stand sideways in front of a mirror to apply,” says Harknett.