As good as the reviews??? (St.Tropez)

Member Name: pandora peroxide

Product:	St.Tropez
Date:	08/07/03 (1782 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: nice body scrub, smells OK

Disadvantages: streaks, expensive, looks icky when first applied

As I am very pale my sister took sympathy on me and bought me a St Tropez gift set for my birthday. The set cost around £20 and contained a can of Whipped Bronze self tan mousse along with a small bottle of body scrub and a small bottle of moisturiser.

The instructions made it sound like a dream - you simply shower or bath use the body scrub all over, moisturise dry areas (heels, elbows etc) and then apply the mousse. It states that the mousse give a lighter effect than the original formula but is quicker to apply and will dry in 60 seconds.

So I showered and exfoliated. The body scrub is a bright blue in colour and smells fresh. It has rounded beads so they do not tear your skin. The moisturiser has L-Tyrosine in it to promote tanning.

To apply the product I used a tight fitting pair of latex gloves, St Tropez sell their own but ASDA's are cheaper! The product pumped out and was a deep reddish brown colour mousse. This spread over my body easily but left horrible streaks. I didn't panic as it says that the product will only tan to one level even if you overload or streak any areas. My body was a sort of deep chestnut splodgy colour. It took 5 mins or so to dry so they were a bit out on their promo leaflet. The product didn't smell too bad either!

After application you leave the product on for at least 3 hours although overnight is recommended. I got up the following morning still dark and splodgy and headed for the shower. It took a decent amount of shower gel to wash off the excess product to find the results.

My legs were awfully streaky - despite the product claiming not to streak. My face and arms looked great, a nice golden tan colour. My torso had places where the tan just hadn't taken at all. I e-mailed St Tropez and they said that the leg problem would be a result of shaving - it appears that you should not use St Tropez for at least 24 hours after shaving your legs. This seem

ed strange as other products say it is OK to shave as it is a good method of exfoliating the skin. They could come up with no reason as to why my body was patchy.

The tan lasted for about a week and, despite regular moisturising and exfoliation, faded more quickly in some areas than others leaving me so blotchy I had to use an instant tan product to blend the shades in.

I was very disappointed with the results of the St Tropez tan, especially considering th premium price you pay for it. I have had much better results with "budget" self tanners. In fact the Banana Boat Sunless Tanning Spray that I got from Poundland has given me consistently good results. Save your money folks and use a cheaper product - the results are as good as from the expensive ones!


THE UPDATE

After the last attempt with the St Tropez it sat on my shelf until yesterday when I decided it was skirt weather and whilst tanning my legs I should do the rest of me (may take the attention off the sunburned arms!!!). I applied as per the instructions, and earlier section, only this time I made sure I hadn't shave my legs. Washed it all off this morning to find patchy legs again. There are parts of me that look great - face and cleavage but my lower legs look like my 8yr old applied the product. I had my husband check for gaps and there weren't any. It looks like where the guide colour streaks the tan does what it claims not to and processes deeper. I'm gonna keep this for my face and use something else on my legs as it clearly isn't suited to mine!!! Oh, yeah - my tip for blending streaks is rimmel Sunshimmer in the glittery variety mixed with any body moisturiser(although Palmer's Cocoa Butter has a summery smell) and smoothed over. The glittery particles reflect the light amd help detract attention from the streaks!!!

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