This is how I tan

In my last blogpost I was parading in my Holy She bathing suit and I promised my next blogpost would be about how I get my skin ready for summer in just a few minutes. I used to sunbath hours and hours to get my see-through skin slightly darker, but since 5 years I got used to a faster, more effective and healthier way to get that summer-skin.

Like I wrote in my last blogpost, my skin is naturally so white it almost glows in the dark. This doesn't need to be a problem of course and I solute women who feel perfectly fine and beautiful being fair skinned.

So let's start by saying it's all good and embracing yourself for who you are is what makes all of us beautiful.

Nevertheless, I have always longed for skin that tans easily, instead of turning red the second it sees a hint of sunshine. As a teenager, I used to sunbath for hours; sweating away, checking my tan-lines, occasionally putting on sunscreen and basically waisting my time. By the end of the vacation, I would have a sun-kissed skin, but one can wonder if this is the healthiest and most fun way to get there 😐

At one point, I stopped my unhealthy sunbathing radically, since it's so bad for the skin and even dangerous. I'm always using high SPF sunscreen products and stay in the shade when the sun is at its strongest. However, I'm still not ready to just be super white and I don't think I'll ever be. I simply feel so much prettier with a nice tan 😅, so I started looking for alternative ways to get that summer-skin. 

If you have a fair skin like I do, you can probably relate to the hassle that comes with using self-tan products. I've tried many of them, but the off-putting smell, the orange color and the uneven result always disappointed me. This was until a friend of mine suggested YUCEE, already 5 years ago.

YUCEE is honestly the best spray tan I know, so I was super excited to collaborate with them and make this blogpost happen.

WHAT'S SO YUCEE?

THE USE AND THE COLOR

YUCEE is a spray tan, which is easy to use. You can see where you've applied the product, because the product itself has a brown color. That being said, many self-tan products contain caroteen, which often makes for an orange color. The active ingredient in YUCEE is DHA, a natural ingredient. "DHA is a colorless sugar which cross-links with the top layer of your skin (the stratum corneum) to create a darkening of the skin." (http://www.bostonmagazine.com/health/blog/2014/01/14/are-spray-tans-safe/).

Hence, not this 🍊 but this🍫 (I don't know if you want to look like a chocolate bar, but you know what I mean 😂)

THE SCENT

I think it depends on the way your body reacts to fake-tan products and whether you're easily annoyed by funky smells, but the typical scent of self-tan products isn't a nice one, if you ask me. Often, self-tan products have a heavy perfume to them to mask this smell and when the product starts reacting with the skin, it creates a really off-putting smell.

Let's not say YUCEE is scent-less, but the perfume in the product is very subtle and after applying the product, this doesn't change as much as in other products. Big YAY!!

THE RESULT

As long as you follow the instructions, it's super easy to get an even and natural looking tan, which gets darker if you repeat the treatment the next day. This means you can spray yourself, have a good night sleep, take a shower and start the day with a gorgeous summer-skin.

This mean you can head to the beach, simply keep using that high SPF sunscreen and spend your time relaxing, instead of stressing over getting that desired tan ☺️.

SO HERE'S HOW IT WORKS FOR ME

PREPARE

• Give your skin a nice scrub, especially those parts of the skin that are generally drier, like knees and elbows. This scrub will make sure that your dead skin cells are being removed. Now, when you put on the product, you will get a more even and longer lasting result.
• You want to avoid drier parts of the body to turn darker than the rest of your body. Take a body lotion (any body lotion, the greasier, the better) and apply a generous amount on your knees, elbows, fingernails and -knuckles, toenails and -knuckles, the heel of your foot and the top of your foot where the tongues of your shoes may have caused to roughen the skin. The spray tan will not stick very firmly on the parts where you're applying the body lotion, so this will avoid an uneven color in the end.

TIME TO SPRAY

• Now that you've covered yourself in bodylotion, put on some lycra gloves. This is absolutely not mandatory, but you want to avoid to touch the product with the palms of your hand. The product will get really dark on your palms, which looks funny, because the palms of your hands usually don't tan 😁
• YUCEE also sent me a mitt, which can be used to rub the product evenly onto the skin. I find this mitt super handy, but if you don't have a mitt at hand, you can easily stick your hands into a plastic bag. Just make sure it's a material that doesn't suck up the spray. Whatever you do: don't use your bare hands to rub the product!
• In theory, YUCEE is a spray tan, so you're supposed to spray the product onto your body from about a 30cm distance. This will create a mist and make sure the product is evenly spread. However, every time I tried this method, I ended up with a tanned skin, but with a tanned bathroom too. This is why I always choose to spray the product from about a 10cm distance to the skin and then immediately blend it out with the mitt. 
• Start from the top, so your cleavage and arms first, and work your way down. If you're spraying from the same distance as I am, spray smaller parts of your body, so you'll have time to divide the product evenly with your mitt. For example: spray your upper arm, use the mitt, spray you lower arm, use the mitt, etcetera.
• Pay special attention to the parts where you've applied the lotion and only use a tiny little spray tan around these areas.
• If you want to use the product on your face, you can spray is onto the face from about a 30cm distance. However, you can also spray a bit of product onto your mitt and then apply is to your face. 
• There's not much use in applying more spray, since it will not get you a darker tan. If you want to get darker, it's better to apply YUCEE two days in a row.

Before and After. The lighting in these pictures is horrible 😱, but I hope you'll get the picture 😉

THEN WHAT?

• Let the product dry for 10 minutes. I like to use the product before I go to sleep, so after this, I just put on long pyjamas made of an airy fabric and that's it. Stains can occur, but are easily washed out of your bedsheets.
• In the morning I take a nice shower and voila! Usually, this tan stays for 5 to 7 days, so in summer time, I'll put it on on a Thursday or Friday night and be ready for the weekend and week to come 🌞

What's your opinion on sunbathing and spray tans? If you're into spray tans, then this is a great product to use! Of course you can visit the shop to find this 'Tan in a Can'!

Lots of love, X

Mieke