Self tan saviour: The buffing mitt from St. Tropez

As a beauty editor, my self-tan mantra, that I trotted out every time the sun shone, was “exfoliate, moisturise, barrier (apply vaseline to cuticles/hairline/eyebrows to stop them turning orange), tan.” Although I was personally never a full convert of the self tan in London (I had a whiter than white bathroom and a rather slap-dash approach), since moving to the country it is a necessity rather than a choice if I want to save the masses from my pallid, Celtic hue. I’ve been following my own advice and giving myself a good slough with one of those cheapy exfoliating gloves and a good nourishing shower cream; slathering myself generously in a generic body butter (esp. knees/elbows/ankles) and trying out these self-tan formulas with varying shades of success:

Little White Lie Tanning Mousse, £8.99 from Boots or Superdrug

Xen Tan Transform Luxe, £24.99, xen-tan.co.uk

Invisible Zinc Jet Set Tan, currently on sale at ASOS for £12.15

1/Little White Lie – a great one for pale skins – lightweight mousse, subtle colour and low-odour.

2/ Xen Tan gradual tanner – gave my skin an alarming green hue immediately. Nice vanilla fragrance and it did eventually develop into a good, realistic looking tan.

3/ Invisible Zinc – my absolute fav. A quick spritz on the legs and those hard to reach places when tanning solo (namely between the shoulder blades), it dried almost instantly and developed quickly. Great for a quick morning application if you want to be bronzed by lunch.

Finally, I have added a last stage to my mantra. BUFF. I picked up the St. Tropez buffing mitt in Boots last week as after 1,037 salon spray tans I’ve noticed that all professionals finish the application with a body buff. AND IT WORKS. It doesn’t matter how slap dash you are when you apply your self-tan, as long as you whip this mitt on and buff in big circles from your feet up I can almost guarantee you an even, stripe-/drip-free finish. Fool-proof and online for around £3. Who needs sunshine anyway?