If you're feeling inspired by Love Island remember fake tanning is much safer than tanning in the sun. Men are 3x more likely to get melanoma than women, so if you want to be brown make sure it comes out of a bottle.

Over a quarter of British men aged 16–24 have already tried self-tanning, so you’re in great company. Whether you’re looking to get beach ready or to give yourself an added confidence boost, a self-tan may be the best way forward.

Follow the step-by-step guide to achieve that even, golden glow.

Moisturise: get into the habit early
For the smoothest tan application, it’s best to moisturise regularly in the build-up to your tanning session. That goes for your face and your body – but it’s best to use separate products for each. Facial moisturisers are formulated to address your specific skin concerns, like oiliness or acne, while body lotions tend to be a bit too heavy for the face and can make you break out.

We recommend moisturising your face twice a day, every day, after you wash it. For your body, apply a body lotion all over every day after you’ve showered or bathed.

Trim: 24 hours before you tan
Top tip – if you shave your facial hair, make sure you do it before you apply your self-tan. This is crucial, as it means your tanning product – whether you go for a clear tanning water or a mousse – sticks to your skin properly.

Shaving 24 hours before tanning is the optimum time. But if you’ve got a last-minute night out you need to tan for, don’t worry – you can still tan even if you’ve just shaved.

Exfoliate: 24 hours before you tan
Exfoliating your face and body is the next step. If you’re new to exfoliating, don’t panic – it’s really straightforward. Men's skin is thicker than women’s skin, which means it can be a bit rougher in texture too. That’s why it’s so important to remove any dead skin, which can turn a different colour to the rest of your skin when you’re tanning, resulting in an uneven colour.

To exfoliate, you can use a body scrub with physical grains that’ll slough off that dead skin. Chemical exfoliants, meanwhile use skincare ingredients such as salicylic acid, lactic acid, and glycolic acid to get rid of dead skin on the surface of your skin and in your pores for smooth, soft skin that’s ready to be tanned. The latter is better for your face because scrubs can damage the more sensitive skin there.

After exfoliating, make sure you moisturise again and pay close attention to your hands, elbows, knees, and feet. These can be tricky areas to tan because the skin is even tougher here. This softens up these extra-tough areas even more for easier application and adhesion.

Dry and protect: immediately before tanning
Reduce potential streaking when you apply your tan by completely drying your body hair, stubble, hairline, and skin completely. Then, apply a thin coating of lip balm or Vaseline on your nails, eyebrows, and hairline to prevent the tan from staining or leaving weird streaks around these areas.

Apply your tan
Now it’s time for application. For sprays, apply a single, light coating all over your body from an arm’s length distance using a soft, circular motion. Once applied, take a dry towel and gently pat away any excess build-up on stubble or around your hairline.

When using mousse, a tanning mitt is the easiest way to apply the product without staining your hands. The ideal amount for a first coat is three pumps for each section of the body. After applying, use a clean, soft-textured face cloth over any hairier areas of the body to avoid any build-up at the hair follicles and to prevent the hair from changing colour.

The trick to successful self-tanning is that less is more. Start small and work your way up to a deeper tan. You can even build up a deeper tan over the course of a few days if you’re brand new to it and you want to take it slow. A bonus here is that you’ll look like you’re bronzing more naturally!

Source Tan-Luxe

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A former brand manager for L'Oreal has co-founded a new skincare company offering the first allergen-free moisturiser, serum and cleanser. Oodee is the only skincare brand to actively eliminate all known food and fragrance allergens from their products, giving consumers control and freedom with high-performance, nutrient-rich formulas that feed skin from the outside in.

Based in London, Oodee is a pioneering Allergen Neutral™ skincare range that is providing a new solution to the links between allergies, intolerances and skin flare-ups.

Left - Oodee - HALO Purifying Foaming Cleanser - £24, NOVA Illuminating Moisturiser - £55

The range is backed by science, kickstarting a revolution to offer worry-free skincare for people that suffer from unknown flare-ups – a group that is often overlooked by the beauty and cosmetics industry.

Karen Harwood and Victoria Tdydeman first started the company in 2018 and spent four years developing the product range that eliminates 14 food and 26 fragrance allergens. Its formulation focus on using a multivitamin complex of scientifically proven active ingredients called DermaRDE+.

Karen Harwood, co-founder of Oodee, says, “I spent a decade trying to figure out the cause of my flare-ups, whilst missing out on all the beautiful products I couldn’t use. To make it worse, there was no evidence or answers to point me in the right direction, so I was lost in this constant cycle of trial and error. My flare-ups were random and painful; often red and raw, especially around my eyes, which also meant I couldn’t use makeup to disguise them.

“At the time, people were becoming aware of allergens in their diet thanks to the free-from food movement, but nobody was linking the same triggering ingredients with skincare. I realised that if you wouldn’t eat something you’re intolerant or allergic to, then why would you put it on your skin?”

TheChicGeek says, “This is a great idea. My skin is particularly sensitive to gluten and dairy, when ingested, causing painful acne and flare-ups, so I was looking forward to seeing whether anything topical could make a difference. Or, by eliminating these factors, how my skin fared when compared with products I had used before.

I tried the HALO cleanser and the NOVA moisturiser from Oodee’s launch of 3 products.

The cleanser has a pump dispenser which gives the product extra froth, but it dissipates almost as quickly as it appears. It feels like using nothing at all, which in some respects is good, but on that satisfyingly-washing-your-face barometer it makes you feel like repeating it all over again. My face didn’t feel satisfyingly cleansed.

The NOVA moisturiser has a gelatinous texture and a light aroma. It is non-greasy and goes on easily. It just doesn’t have any richness. My skin didn’t look any different at all.

Could this product range be a case of stripping so much out nothing is left?”

www.oodee.com

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