Cancun in a bottle
Written: Jul 26 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Light foam, easy to apply evenly, doesn't turn orange
Cons: Can be drying, no sunscreen
The Bottom Line: This inexpensive, easy-to-use foam disappears fast and tints my skin a nice, Cancun-ish color.
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| Penguinlady's Full Review: Neutrogena Sunless Tanning Lotion Medium |
It’s funny how attitudes toward tanning reflect social mores. Until about the 1940s or ‘50s, pale, white skin was prized, because a tan implied that you worked outdoors, and people who worked outdoors usually were doing manual labor. So the “upper” socioeconomic classes made sure that the sun never touched them. That changed about 60 years ago, though, when suddenly, a tan meant that you had the leisure to spend your days playing golf or lying by your pool or on your yacht, instead of laboring in an office or factory. Suddenly, a nice golden - and in some cases, a dark leathery - tan was a sign of prosperity. (Please note that these attitudes weren’t related to the more toxic biases against inherently darker skin tones. That’s a different issue entirely.)
I have the misfortune to be very pale and very sallow. My coloring has a definite yellow cast to it; you might not notice it at first, but when I’m with other people, it’s painfully evident. Even my Middle Eastern friends, who have lovely olive coloring, aren’t as yellow as I am. In pictures with my dearly beloved husband, the red-haired, light-skinned North German, we look like an peach and a banana.
Oddly, though, I tan very nicely. After an initial burn that I can’t avoid, regardless of how careful I am, I just get darker and darker and darker. But...
I also seem to have an uneven distribution of melanin in my skin. From the neck up, I tan in spots but remain dead pale in others. The center of my throat, for instance, never gets any color, although the rest of my neck and decolleté get nice and brown after a while. On my face, my cheeks, chin, and forehead tan nicely, but my upper lip, nose, and between my eyebrows just turn red. And stay that way.
So on those rare occasions when I’ve been in the sun enough to get some color, I look like a clown.
We spent most of June on the Yucatan Peninsula, partly on the east coast, the Mayan Riviera and partly in the interior. We spent a total of about five days on the beach, and despite the fact that I was slathered at all times with SPF 45 and sat in the shade all day, the sand is so white that I got burned and then tan merely from the reflection. By the time we came home, I was brown as a bug. At least, most of me was. My chin, upper lip, and nose still looked red, but the rest of me was dark enough that three people stopped me in my first two days back to ask where I’d gotten that lovely tan. A new experience for me - after my initial 3-year Beach Bunny phase when I first came to California 34 years ago, I’ve assiduously avoided the sun; I never have less than SPF 15 on all exposed parts of my body.
Of course, the inevitable happened within a few days; my lovely tan started peeling off my legs. And peeled and peeled and peeled. Regardless of how carefully I loofa-ed in the shower, my skin came off in bits and pieces. And in the next two weeks, I started fading until I’d lost most of my Cancun color.
Well, I’m foolish enough and vain enough to want to preserve my nice color; I have the rest of my life to be pale yellow, so when I get some color, I want to keep it as long as I can. I’d used self-tanners before but had never been happy with them. So when a friend recommended Neutrogena Sunless Tanning Foam, I trotted out and bought some. Neutrogena is known for its line of skin-care products. I don’t like most of what they produce, but was willing to give this a try. I’ve been using it for about two weeks, and want to tell you about it.
FEATURES AND HOW IT WORKS
• Sunless tanners, also known as self-tanners, work by reacting to the proteins found in the top layers of the skin to darken the skin in a few hours, without exposure to the sun.
• This is a light foam. After shaking, I pump it into my hand, rub my hands together, and spread it evenly over my skin.
• The container contains 4 fluid ounces, or 118 ml. I don’t use it daily, so it’s still pretty full. I suspect that it will last me the whole summer.
• It claims to be streak-free, natural-looking, fast-drying, oil-free, lightly fragranced, and non-comedogenic (won’t clog pores.) Since I’m very dry, oil-free isn’t a feature that I value, but a lot of people seek it out.
• The ingredient list includes:
water
dihydroxyacetone: primary amino-acid-reactive compound
pentylene glycol
glycerin: slip agent, water-binding agent
methyl gluceth-20
PPG-5 ceteth-20
erythrulose: similar to dihydroxyacetone, but takes longer to darken the skin
decyl polyglucose
methylpropanediol
cetyl hydroxyethylcellulose
sodium citrate
phenoxythanol: preservative
methylparaben: preservative
ethylparaben: preservative
propylparaben: preservative
butylparaben: preservative
isobutylparaben: preservative
citric acid: adjusts pH to prevent excessive alkalinity
fragrance
So if you don’t tan, at least you’ll be well-pickled!
• It comes in Light and Deep, so you can customize the degree of color you get from a single application. Some people apply the Light to their faces and the deeper shade to the rest of the body. I use Deep everywhere.
• It’s easy to use. Simply pump it into your hand and spread it evenly on your skin. Apply it very sparingly to your elbows, knees, and ankles, because it can gather in the creases in your skin and get too dark. Be sure to wait a while before getting dressed, as it can stain some fabrics, and wash your hands carefully after applying it, so as not to wind up with tan palms.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT IT
• Neutrogena does not use animal testing on their products or ingredients.
• I’ve used a lot of self-tanners over the years, and all but one of them turned me an interesting shade of orange. This one doesn’t. Maybe it’s because I’m applying it over partially tanned skin, but the Deep turned my skin a nice even tan, so I look the way I did when I returned from Cancun.
• I am extra careful around the crease areas, but so far, it hasn’t shown a tendency to turn orange in those areas.
• It’s light. The foam, which I rub down between my hands for smoother application, slips on very smoothly and easily.
• It absorbs nicely. I’ve used cream-style self-tanners that didn’t, and it took forever for my skin to feel dry enough for me to get dressed.
• It works fairly fast. I’m used to having to apply a self-tanner daily for two or three days to get my desired color. This one did it for me in a day. (But again, I was applying it over the remnants of my natural tan, so that probably has something to do with it.)
• It seems to last pretty well. Now that I’m the color I want to be, I use it twice a week to maintain it.
• It doesn’t streak. If I pay attention to what I’m doing, it applies smoothly and creates a smooth, even color.
• I usually try to avoid fragranced products, partly because I don't like the smell and partly because fragrances are, by their nature, drying. But this fragrance is so light that I don't notice it. No sneezing or tearing.
• The bottle pumps a good amount of foam. I pump once for each area of my upper body and twice for each leg and thigh. That gives me just the right amount of foam to cover evenly and completely.
WHAT I’D CHANGE IF I COULD
• The most important drawback is that it doesn’t contain a sunscreen. I know it doesn’t claim to protect against the sun, but a surprising number of people think that if their skin looks tan, they are protected. That’s not true, for two reasons: 1) a tan alone can’t protect your skin, and 2) with this product, your skin isn’t physiologically “tan.” A real tan occurs when the melanin in the deeper layers comes to the surface to protect the skin from the sun, and that isn’t happening when you use a self-tanner. All that’s happening is that the top layer of your skin is reacting with the chemicals in the product to darken, but the melanin isn’t involved, so there’s no protection from such a “tan.” So you’ve got a double-whammy here; a natural tan doesn’t really protect you, and you don’t even have that with a self-tanner. A bit of titanium dioxide, avobenzone or zinc oxide would protect your skin from the damaging UVAs.
Although I haven’t done an extensive survey of self-tanners, I don’t know of one that does provide sun protection. Nevertheless, this one doesn’t either, and that’s a drawback.
• It’s white; I’d tint it. I assume that it’s meant to be applied as a foam, which is how it comes out of the pump, but that’s hard to do. So I rub it between my hands before applying it, to get an even application. But it’s invisible, so it can be hard to tell where you’ve applied it. So I probably use more than I need to, just to be sure I’m completely covered. Other self-tanners are tinted so you can see where you’ve applied them - a clever idea. (But then again, you probably don’t use as much for each application... hmmm...)
• Nothing, but nothing, will ever impart color to the center of my throat, my chin, my upper lip, or my nose. Even this product doesn't seem to work there. I can't figure out why, but so far, no go. So maybe there's something weird about the surface of my skin, rather than the melanin, that prevents it from darkening.
• The bottle is a cylinder, which can be slippery to hold when you’ve got damp hands. I’d give it ribbing or some contour.
• Like all self-tanning products, it can be drying. I’ve found that, regardless of the product I’m using, they all dry me out. So I use coconut oil on my skin the day after I’ve used this product.
I’ve been using this product for about three weeks and have been very satisfied with the results. I don’t know what I’m going to look like as I let it fade in September - check back for an update! - but for now, this product rates four stars.
Recommended:
Yes
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Penguinlady
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