A nice colour - for you and your white clothes! (Johnson's Holiday Skin Body Lotion)

Member Name: Dooyaa

Product:	Johnson's Holiday Skin Body Lotion
Date:	20/03/08 (344 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good idea, no chavvy effect

Disadvantages: Smelly and staining

**INTRODUCTION**

If you walk around the shops at the minute you would be forgiven for thinking that it was summer time. Of course, stepping outside to the freezing cold, gale force winds and floods you know that this is not true, but the shops are filled with the strappy tops, mini skirts and sandals that make up the summer collections.

It gets me thinking. I am very, very pale. I mean, I look dead in most photos taken of me. I was once asked by a friend, who was looking at a picture of me on halloween, if I had painted my face white. Well no, actually, that's just my natural skin colour.

So of course, the thought of all those skin revealing clothes with pasty limbs is a nightmare to me. I don't tan (and of course, we all know tanning isn't good for you anyway) and so i rely on fake tanners in the summer to make me look just a little less ill and anaemic.

The problem with fake tans, though, is that they are all too easily associated with those orange coloured chavs you see walking around. Its true that unless you splash out bucketloads for something posh like St Tropez or my favourite, Fake bake (which i also have a review on!) then you are more likely to end up with orange streaks than a bronzed glow. Plus, fake tans are wellm just so damn tricky to use! They take skills, and precision, and many oh-my-god-i-cant-go-out-in-public mistakes before you get them to be just right.

These problems are, supposedly, solved by using a gradually tanning moisturiser like this one. Johnson's Holiday Skin, one of the first of its kind to pop up on the market and one which has since gained a mass following. It is a simple moisturiser, applied like your regular body creams, but with the difference that it contains a hint of self tan that should build up over time from a very faint colour into something deeper, but still not too extreme, and supposedly pretty foolproof.

**BUYING THE STUFF**

My initial impression of this was wow, what a hideous bottle. Its bright yellow plastic which is definitely distinctive and easy to find in the shop but I personally think its awful. It comes in 2 different size bottles and as usual the larger one is better value for money than the smaller one.

It cost around £4.99 for the smaller bottle and can be found in most places that sell body lotions like boots and superdrug, and some places sell it a bit cheaper like home bargains and savers.

**THERE ARE A RANGE OF PRODUCTS**

It comes in a formula for fair skin and one for darker skin. They also have some new products in this range such as the night lotion, firming lotion and holiday skin for use on your face. Just brought out, as well, is their new lightest formula yet, which I can only assume is made for people like me, who look like they've been tangoed if they apply ivory foundation.

**THE APPLICATION**

Well, i got the stuff home, and popped open its lid, and squeezed out its yellowy creamy goo stuff. The moisturiser smells foul, and it has an odd, almost gritty texture to it that feels more like a cheap body cream I bought when I was 12 than the latest innovative product.

Applying is I must say, very very easy. Whilst you still have to be careful not to miss any bits, generally you don't have to be to worried about making it even or getting any streaks, you can just slap the stuff on like a cream, making sure you rub it in well. A bonus is that, with normal fake tans, you are usually advised to apply moisturiser to parts of the body that absorb more tan, such as elbows, knees, and any scars. With this however, you don't need to do that, the moisturiser is built in with it!

I find that it is quite greasy having just applied it, and you certainly stink of the stuff, that horrible fake tan smell that everyone despises just wafts right off your skin. It takes quite a while to dry completely, so if you're in a rush in the morning don't decide to do it then! I did sometimes apply it before bed, but then my skin felt all sticky all night and it was horrible!

You do need, in order to get the maximum results, to apply this every day. The first few days are just to build up the colour gradually, as it gets stronger with each application. After a few days, however, it has reached its maximum intensity and any application is just to maintain the colour. I find that its fine if you don't want to apply it every day after those first few days, and just apply it every other day instead. This maintains the colour fine and also saves a lot of money buying bottle after bottle!

**THE RESULTS-WAS I PLEASED?**

After trying the lighter formula on my pale skin for a few days I was really pleased with the result, it was easy to apply because of the moisturiser which had the added bonus of soft skin, and built up a light streak free golden tan that looked really natural and not orange at all. It takes quite a while to absorb completely though and your skin feels quite sticky until it does. It irritates my skin slightly with an odd but quite mild stinging, although my skin is very sensitive to a lot of body lotions.

After a couple more applications I started to get more problems. The tanner started accumulating on dry patches of skin, especially around my ankles and it looked horrible. The moisturiser itself turned lumpy and smelled off, but the worst was that I noticed it was starting to come off on my clothes. T shirts especially got brown rubbed off on them around the neck. I had to throw at least two white bras away because of horrible orangey brown having rubbed off on them, and it didn't come off in the wash either.

This wasn't too dramatic but I was still put off by it.

Its cheaper than the alternative products around now but I wouldn't really rate it very highly, it gives a fairly nice colour but as a moisturiser I think it's a bit rubbish and staining your clothes isn't on really.

**MY OVERALL VERDICT**

*Good points*

- Fairly cheap, especially for a fake tan
- Builds up gradually - no sudden orange colour
- Easy to apply - pretty streak free
- Some moisturising for skin too!

*Bad points*

- Smelled very, very bad
- Was very sticky and slow absorbing
- Came off on clothes
- Left patches in dry areas
- Runs out pretty quickly
- The bottle is horrible

Well there you go, the bad points apparently outweigh the good ones! The verdict is in, I won't be buying this again!

Summary: I will keep looking for another gradual tanning moisturiser