I could barely get myself out the door in one piece before I had an infant. These days, my maquillage is suffering considerably. If any make up at all makes it’s way onto my face it’s a fancy day. So I’ve turned to an old favorite: self-tanner. With a bit of a healthy glow (faux or otherwise) it’s not written all over my face that I’ve had only five hours of sleep, even sans make up. I realize that by no means do I look glamorous in the above photo (on our first walk using the Ergo Baby! I love that thing). But I felt a little better about being out in the world because I was not pasty.
My go-to is Lancome Flash Bronzer. I’m not a beauty expert and I have not tried every tanning product out there. But Jean Godfrey-June is and has, so I usually do what she says. She’s the beauty editor at Lucky magazine, and she probably holds the world record in number of beauty products sampled in one lifetime. She also manages to write very entertainingly about them—her pages are my favorite part of Lucky, which is saying something because in every other fashion magazine I pretty much skip the beauty section. I’ve never been that big on make up aside from an unhealthy relationship with blue eyeshadow in the ’80s.
Anyhoozle, back to the self-tanner. Lancome makes a Flash Bronzer for legs and for face. The face one costs twice as much so I just use the leg version on my face (there’s a body version too, which I’m sure would also work just fine). I haven’t grown legs on my face or anything yet. And if I remember correctly, Ms. Godfrey-June says in her book Free Gift With Purchase that it’s just fine to do that. I have acne prone skin and it does not make me break out. In fact, It might be a bit drying, so keep that in mind if you have dry skin. You can’t use moisturizer when you apply it or it won’t work, but you can use it the next day–and you should to prolong your tan. At least that’s what the experts say. And if you happen to have a blemish or two, self-tanner tends to be a good camouflage, so you need less concealer. Having a little color also mercifully lessens the appearance under-eye circles and lines, which are the particular issues I happen to be combating at the moment.
While I’m pretty much sold on the Lancome, I’ll soon be testing out St. Tropez Self-Tan Bronzing Mousse, so stay tuned for deep thoughts on that!
