To Tan or not to Tan

It's SPRING!!!  

And, if you're anything like me, the months of March and April are the times of the year when I sigh to myself noticing all the tanned girls coming back from spring break in Cabo, or Tampa, or Mexico - or WHEREVER!  I convince myself that I'm fine with my paleness, look at a few celebs who are constant pale and beautiful (um, Amanda Seyfried) and go on with my life telling myself   I.  Will.  Not.  Tan.

......Then May rolls around and I inevitably cough up that $60 for a month of baking in a tanning bed and join the world of tanned skinned ladies feeling good about my tan but extremely conflicted - well no more!!!

After many years of grappling back and forth with my "to tan or not to tan" complex and failing miserably every time, I am officially saying N-O this year to a real tan. 

I have been noticing lines around my eyes that go down towards my cheeks and every time I see them I want to yell "Noooooooo!!!"

But, alas, those lines are from years of tanning and, well, smoking but I have kicked the gross smoking habit and now, I will kick the tanning!

So save yourselves early twenty-somethings and bust out the secret weapon, a great self-tanner!!!

I never used self tanner before because I thought it was time consuming, I would come out looking orange or streaky and I would get the stuff all over the inside of my clothes. 

But! - I come bearing good news!

I have found (after MANY trial and errors!) the best of the best of self tanners and have used them myself with great success (and lots of compliments!)

This summer, you will find me happily tucked under my wide brimmed hat and umbrella at the beach with my perfectly sun-kissed skin.  HA! I will watch all those baking in the sun and think of how my skin will be beautiful and wrinkle free late into my life! One up! I win!

So....

Here are the winners, in my humble opinion, followed by a few tips I learned (the hard way) while trying them out.

**They are listed least expensive to most expensive, and yes I bought them all -- shhh! don't tell my husband.

Tips!!  Yay!

1. Whatever you do, DON'T believe the bottle when it tells you that you can put the tanner on with your bare hands as long as you wash them every 5 minutes - WRONG!  I went to work with orange hands and no pumice stone or loofah could scrub it off. It faded in about 3 days, whoops!

2. Don't over-rub.  The directions tell you to rub lotion on in circles, which works great but over rubbing it in, I found out is what leaves your body streaky, the key is practice and putting it on quickly and evenly the first time. It's not hard once you get the hang of it.

3. Don't let you dog lick your leg (yup, that happened) or your cat rub against you (yep, that too)while you are drying!  Not a good look, and hard to fix.

4. Anything that says it is tinted or has makeup in it so you can see where you put it WILL come off on your clothes, as it is the part of the product that stays on top of your skin. Wear dark colored, loose clothing even after you are dry.

Granted self-tanning lotion IS more time consuming then laying in a warm bed for 10 minutes and walking out more tan than you were before but being nice to your skin takes dedication!  A dedication that I am finally going to, well - dedicate myself to!

*The lotions can be found here and here and HERE!

Happy Tanning!