Scared of the Dark?

I was.... Xen Tan Dark Lotion that is... The Dark lotion was one of those products that I always wished I had the guts to try but never really quite had the chutzpah, what with being
a. Paler than milk. As in I have to tan to go from gray to white.
b. No Expert at tanning.
c. Scared of looking like this;

d. Or this;

But fate intervened and the lovely people at Xen Tan decided to call my bluff and send me a bottle.  

I looked at it for a couple of weeks, sat there in the bathroom, judging me. "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough", it seemed to mock.

One night, fuelled by a glass of cider and a good weigh in an Slimming World, I finally took the plunge.

I decided to test this baby to the max. So dedicated was I that I decided to forego the tanning mit. After all, I knew people would want to know about whether it stained my palms. Don't say I never do anything for you.

So, after exfoliating the night before, and washing off any body lotion (oil in body lotion acts as a barrier to fake tan and can leave it looking streaky) on my legs, I went for it.

The actual product itself looks like melted chocolate. Which is a good start.

It applies fine, I used about three pumps on each calf and about four on each thigh, and basically smoothed it over the skin as evenly as possible.

This is one of those tanning products that seem to work on me as long as I have a fairly even coating everywhere. I certainly didn't apply it perfectly, and there were visible streaks in my application. I usually only do my legs when I fake tan...

Again - I wanted to test this to the max, so I just did the best I could - I'm sure more experienced tanners could apply perfectly streak free layers. More power to ya!

This tan develops in three hours so you can either put it on and leave it overnight, or you can give yourself a nice big window of time when you can sit about the house looking like a mucky pup for three hours.

Because you will look like a mucky pup. You look kinda like you had a mud wrestle, and then just dried out.

Its attractive.

At this point the Mister just looked at me quizzically and said "Ronseal"?

I'm always telling him he should give up the day job and go into stand up comedy full time. He loves it when I suggest that. Anyway. I digress.

Like I mentioned before I used my hands for the application - when I first tried to wash it off with hand wash I had a minor panic as it was still very obviously stained. Then I picked up an ordinary bar of white soap, and that removed it in a flash - amazing! So as a result I had no issues - just make sure you have an actual bar of soap on hand!

Off we popped to bed, and I woke up the next day and showered eagerly in anticipation...
A LOT of brown coloured water went down the drain, which was just basically excess product from my legs. When I dried off I was left with a lovely golden tan. No streaking, no orange. I think this is one of those tans that seems to work with your natural skin tone to give a more realistic tan.

I tested my theory by doing another application the next night, just to see exactly HOW dark I could go. I was smashing personal boundaries here...

Again, the product impressed me - I was left with the same even tan, but darker. It still looked realistic. Maybe just a wee bit dark for this time of year though. So I'll probably only use one layer in the winter, but two in the summer... Even The Mister was impressed. Well, he looked and said "very nice". For him that's akin to taking out a front page ad saying "look at my bronzed babe of a girlfriend".



I often get requests to do pictures of the tan when I do fake tan reviews, but there are a couple of reasons I won't do that... Firstly, I'm not really keen on my own body so I'm hardly going to flaunt it over my blog. Secondly I have a vascular rash (I've had it for ages, and it's not aggravated by any lotions/potions/fake tans etc), which makes my legs look blotchy and would make the tan look streaky, so it would reflect badly on the product.

So unfortunately, you'll all just have to trust me when I say it was good.
Oh alright then...

(Picture Shamelessly borrowed from HERE)

The tan is meant to be a weekly treatment - on my skin it definitely lasted a week before I noticed any patchiness etc.

Scent wise, this has a pleasant almondy scent when you apply it. It does have a fake tan smell as it develops, for sure, which I why I'd only ever apply this or any other fake tan as an overnight treatment. On rinsing it off the next day the smell all disappeared anyway, so no biggie!

Fake tan tip for foot application too - apply a body lotion to the heels and around the edges of your feet using a disposable cosmetic sponge, then us the same sponge to blend the tan down across your foot, Start at the ankle so you have more lotion on the sponge, and that will mean less tan "takes" around the ankle, so you are less likely to get the dreaded orange ankle...

I'd definitely repurchase this tan. It costs £25.95 and on the XEN-TAN website, they are currently giving a free bottle of scrub with orders. (Correct at time of publishing). You can also buy it in Selfridges, House of Fraser, and online in various other beauty stores...

Small Print - This was provided by PR as stated in the post. The review is honest, I wasn't paid bribed or tortured into saying anything good, bad or ugly about it.