Fake tans are a must in San Francisco. It’s a lie we perpetuate to rotate out a chic four-season wardrobe.
Despite assumptions to the contrary, working on a tan in the deep freeze of a Bay Area summer is hard work, and that effort often goes unappreciated. The idea of lying supine in a carcinogenic tanning booth is out of the question. Do not even think about it! The far superior, safe, and at-home option is self-tanner.
The downside, however, is that self-tanner is the beauty equivalent of a spilled bottle of glitter. It gets everywhere. For early adopters, you had your fair share of runny orange formulas and splotchy body parts. For the love of all things not so well sun kissed, so much has changed since then.
The cardinal rule to applying self-tanner is prep, says Edyta Dunwood, department manager of cosmetics at Barneys. She, along with product specialist Vaughn Mouton, shared their foolproof self-tanning methods.
Exfoliation is key. Rough spots like knees, elbows, and ankles require extra attention. One of Vaughn’s favorites is nude’s Moisturizing Body Polish, which scrubs off dead skin while giving off the most fragrant mélange of gardenia, plumeria, and hibiscus. All through the day, your skin smells as if you are standing on the balcony of the Four Seasons in Maui.
Before using self-tanner, you should be completely dry. You may want to wear mitts, but if you find them hard to work in, like Vaughn does, protect your hands with a layer of regular lotion, paying extra attention to your knuckles, cuticles, palms, and wrists. When you’re ready to apply self-tanner, block out about half an hour to give yourself enough time to dry streak-free. A self-tanner buddy will ensure that you are as tan coming as you are going. For the anti-social, Mystic Tan’s Perfect Tan comes in a fine mist aerosol that reaches your back. If you prefer a lotion, Vaughn loves Kiehl’s Sun Free Self Tanning Formula for its easy spreadability and convincing glow. To prevent orange facial hair, Edyta supplies the obvious answer: avoid those areas altogether. Self-tanner for your face should only go on the areas where sun hits: your forehead, nose, and cheekbones.
Immediately after applying, Vaughn recommends aggressively washing your hands, not once, but twice. He leaves his most genius tip for last: once your hands are bone dry, run the back of your hands along your sides to catch some of the leftover self-tanner so that you are enchantingly golden everywhere.
If Vaughn and Edyta’s tips do not have you reaching for the self-tanner bottle, there is always bronzing makeup. T. LeClerc makes a gorgeous oversize compact the size of a salad plate or sunflower. With the aid of a fluffy brush, you could dust yourself to golden perfection. New for this summer is shu uemura’s UV Under Base Mousse Shimmer, which comes in a lightweight mousse, offering bronzing coverage, SPF 10 protection, and now includes subtle sparkles.
The best argument for self-tanning and bronzers is that they give you a glow without exposing you to the sun’s damaging UV rays. This leads us to this beauty story’s PSA on sun protection. Summer offers one of the few opportunities for beauty writers to pay it forward without appealing to your vanity. It’s the dreaded sunblock lecture that comes standard in our summer beauty coverage.
Summer or no summer, it’s crucial, says Andrea Navin, education executive for Kiehl’s, that you wear SPF on a daily basis. She warns that UV damage is cumulative. Very alarming (especially for vain lovelies) is that the UVA rays, which cause aging, are present rain or shine, 365 days of the year. “We might only get twenty to thirty minutes a day of sun,” she says, “but that’s equivalent to lying on the beach for six hours a day for six weeks straight.” That alone should shock you to SPF submission. Think of all the potential savings in treatments and procedures.
Andrea also deciphers the mysterious assignment of seemingly random SPF numbers. That number, whether it reads 18, 30, or 75, corresponds with the amount of time you can spend in the sun before burning. Our skin’s own defense mechanism, melatonin, protects us from sunburn. She calls it our “factory-installed” SPF. To find yours, time how long it takes for your skin to tingle when you’re out in direct sunlight. Multiple those minutes by the sunscreen’s SPF. That number is your threshold. Once those minutes are up, says Andrea, you are going to burn. For the beach, she recommends a water-resistant and higher SPF, at least 30.
The higher the SPF number, typically, the thicker the cream. At Kiehl’s, the laboratory has tinkered with the formula so that at SPF 23, the popular Abyssine Cream delivers the mineral-rich goodness and matches the consistency of the original.
And, one more rally for self-tanners brought to you inadvertently by Posh Spice. Have you noticed her base has gone down several notches from terracotta, circa 2007 at the height of the Dow Jones average, to her present, much more moderate sun-kissed complexion? She is like a barometer of our cultural values. Mrs. Beckham’s current complexion is buildable, and that’s a sign of forward-looking optimism. So go forth my lovelies, and slather it on.
Cheryl Locke says face your fear of the Mystic Tan.
