THE IN-SHOWER TAN VERDICT

Every now and again a product is released that makes the beauty industry go wild with excitement. This time round it’s the St Tropez Gradual Tan In Shower and I’m not going to lie, when I saw this I definitely raised an eyebrow.

So how does it work? You have a shower, cleanse your skin as normal, turn the shower off and apply the slightly foamy gel to your skin in circular motions. You have to attempt to cover all of the skin and leave your hands and feet until last. Then you rinse your hands and wait 3 minutes before washing it all off your skin. Over the next 24 hours the tan develops and leaves you with a natural sun kissed tan. The tube contains 200ml of product and costs £14.50.

So first of all let me talk about the cons of this product, because in my opinion there are quite a few. When using this, my first problem came when I attempted to rinse the product off my hands. In my shower it is impossible to turn the shower on without getting your body wet, so there I am creeping out the shower towards the sink… I’m dripping wet, pretty cold and it’s all a bit of a mess. Once I’m back in the shower I’m faced with a timing problem. When is 3 minutes up? If, like me, you don’t have a clock in your bathroom the only way to know when 3 minutes is up is to attempt to sing a whole song (they’re usually 3 minutes long right?) or count? Either way I was standing in my shower, cold and bored… it wasn’t the most enjoyable. St Tropez recommend doing a hair mask or brushing your teeth (!?) in this time, so I did a hair mask…. but it didn’t take me 3 minutes to apply. The gel is very slippery so I made sure not to move and break my neck in the shower, I spent most of the 3 minutes attempting to get that bit of my back that I can never seem to do by myself.

So the application for me was not at all easy and actually quite stressful. I found that it did develop and I was left with a nice natural, streak-free tan but natural is definitely the right word. The Kate Moss marketing image is quite misleading and for all the stress I’m not sure it’s a good enough tan to show off. If you’re very pale and scared of fake tan then yes, this might be perfect for you, but I found it was a bit too subtle on my slightly olive toned skin.

Streak-free? Yes. Natural? Yes. Easy to apply? Not so much.

I’ve had so many questions about this product so I hope this answers some of them! Have you tried the in-shower tan yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts.