I’m sure you know by now that I love being tanned all year long. I’ve even shared where I go to get a flawless spray tan since I don’t intentionally tan in the sun anymore. But when I’m on vacation and I’m unable to get a spray tan, I’ll usually bring a bottle of self-tan along if I can.
I’ve tried so many different self-tanners in my life, from drug store brands to high end. A few months back I ordered Loving Tan Ultra Dark from the Australian company but something happened in customs and sadly, it was returned. To be honest, I was a little upset that it didn’t make it because I had read so many good reviews from other bloggers who swore by it and I wanted to test it out.
As you know we’re on our annual family vacation in the states, and since I’m here I get to test out all the products I couldn’t get (as easily) back home. The first product I’m testing is Loving Tan’s 2 Hour Express in Dark, and their tanning mitt which I picked up from Ulta.
How to safely tan on vacation
After my usual shower routine (which I’m going to share more of later this month) and a good exfoliation using this mitt, I put a little lotion on dry areas of my body. If you’re going to self-tan you shouldn’t use a lotion on your body because it will prevent the tan from reaching your skin. Instead what you want to do is make sure to put a bit of lotion on your knees, elbows, feet, nails, and hands just places you don’t want a ton of tan sticking too because it will cling to dry skin and make you look scary.
Next, I grabbed the mitt which felt a lot nicer than other companies I’ve used (this amazon dupe is just as good) and pumped the mousse out to apply it. What surprised me about Loving Tan is the smell! It’s freaking amazing and smells like flowers. NOTHING compared to the other tanning products I’ve been using. Which happens to be one of Tony’s top complaints when I self-tan at home. He hates the smell and the stains it leaves on our sheets. Which is another reason I was impressed with this self-tanner! It doesn’t leave stains or streaks. I was fully dry within a minute or two, and I didn’t have that awful sticky dirty feeling. My skin felt hydrated and looked great.
The bottle says to leave it on for 2 hours and I’ve read questions asking if you can leave it on all night and you can. There is a max color you will get and even when you rinse the color guard off the tan will continue to develop for 24 hours.
The Con’s
Weirdly I’ve read other reviews before I got this product and some of them complained that it did not smell good. Which is weird because I wonder what self-tanner their using because most of the ones I’ve tried smell like copper.
The only thing is in my opinion if you want to get a really dark tan, you would probably want to try the ultra dark. This wasn’t the darkest tan I’ve ever had but it’s the most natural-looking.
The darkest self-tanner I’ve ever tried is this one.
End Thoughts
+ smells nice
+ easy to use
+ doesn’t stain
+ drys really fast
+ doesn’t leave a sticky residue
+ doesn’t get that dark
+ fades nicely
My final thoughts about Loving Tan’s 2 hr express in Dark is that I am really impressed with the product. I liked the way it smelt, the quick-drying and the fact that I don’t have to change the sheets every time I tanned at home which Tony’s going to love. Now that we’re starting to traveling a bit more I suspect this is going to my go-to self-tanner for times when I can’t see Tash. Plus I learned that in order to get it delivered in Canada you have to buy it through Ulta not from Loving Tan because it’s based in Australia and customs can be a bit of a hassle.
Let me know in the comments what product you’ve been dying to try but couldn’t get or haven’t had the chance to grab yet?
[…] history with being tanned, it’s resulted in over a decade of tanning beds, spray tans and using self-tanning products. I have tried just about every product on the market. And guess what? I’ve been every shade […]