A night with Dave

Are you often proven wrong by your first instincts? We're all attracted by packaging but does the  name of a product put you off purchasing it? Admit it, the name 'Dave' is not very glamourous, is it?  At some point in my life, there was this man called Dave I couldn't quite accept his name and  changed it to David. He didn't mind. Why would you need to call a tan 'Famous Dave'. Do you hear  lots of people talking about Famous Dave? In my small experience and pretty sheltered life really, no one  talks about Famous Dave but then as soon as you mention the name someone says 'Oh yeah, I know the  brand, they're really good'. Why don't people talk about it if it's good?



I will always remember the day I was approached by Famous Dave. They knew I loved my fake tan,  they approached me in a very friendly manner which at the same time oozed confidence and pride in  what they do. I was very excited. Both my friends Cat and Ellie were had been raving about it but  deep down I was thinking that there is no way that Famous Dave could be better than my Xen Tan. Xen  tan changed my tanning life, you see, I am emotionally attached to it. But I wanted to give Famous Dave, the gold edition a fair chance to impress me.






This is what they say about the product:

"Famous Dave's New Luxurious Gold Edition Tanning Mousse is a new and more refined version of our  original Tanning Mousse formula that quickly became our best-selling product and scored 5-star  ratings from the beauty industry. Developed as an all-natural luxury self tanning product that is  paraben-free and has no added fragrance, we use a carefully selected blend of anti-ageing  ingredients, natural antioxidants, moisturisers and EHA (a natural agent that tans a deeper layer  of the skin for a more realistic and longer-lasting tan that fades evenly) to deliver a self  tanning mousse works with all skin tones. The result? A flawless, natural looking tan that now  lasts even longer and cares even more for your skin"

I am so glad I went beyond my very quick judgemental first impressions (The font of the logo is a little bit too cartoonish and nothing good can come out with a relationship with a Dave) as I  would have definitely missed out on a great product. They were really not mincing out their words  when they described this gold edition product as a luxurious self tanning experience. Luxurious is  definitely the operative word here. The mousse was very light and an absolute dream to apply and I  couldn't even notice the scent. They did such an amazing job at locking out the smell of fake tan,  I am absolutely blown away.



Whenever I have tried self tan mousse before, I've always tended to be a little bit of a daredevil  and go for the dark version. The Famous Dave Gold Edition perplexed me as it only exists in one  colour and claims to adapt and work with all skin tones. I realised I worried for nothing and the following  morning (I usually apply my colour overnight you see) I woke  up to a perfect deep tan. No streaks  in sight, and I got even darker than with my Xen-Tan Luxe in dark. I am so overwhelmed, this stuff  is amazing! As far as durability, I found that it lived very well on my skin and faded out superbly.






So, will you ask, which one is better? Xen Tan or Famous Dave? Famous Dave lasts 5 days on me, Xen Tan around 7 days, but in return Famous Dave gives me a deeper tan. I find it hard to choose. I am all about emotions and feelings: Xen tan was the first one who rocked my boat (yes, Dave, turned out that you were not the first one after all) and I will never be able to forget the experience. Price wise, they are very similar but famous Dave wins the battle of accessibility. I love the fact that I can save up my boots advantage cards to get some Famous Dave, something which is not possible with Xen tan. You know how Boots discount all their left over Christmas gift sets on boxing day? Well, I am trying not to think about the possibility to have a Famous Dave Christmas Set discounted to half price because I will get too excited for words.


Price wise, they are roughly very similar and both Xen Tan and Famous Dave retail at £28.99 for a  big tube/bottle. Famous Dave however, for me, wins the accessibility card hand down. I love the  fact that I can go to my small local Boots and get some when I run out, something which I will  never get with Xen Tan. I love the fact that I can save up my boots advantage card for it.


Famous  Dave: your name might not the most exotic tropical sounding name out there (not as japanese feng  shui as Xen tan, not as Italian sounding as vita liberata, not as French Côte d’Azur as St  Tropez) but you have completely won me over.


what: Famous Dave Tanning Mousse Gold Edition, 200ml
how much: £24.50 (from online store, free delivery, kerching) or £28.99 at Boots
Disclosure: Product was offered for review purposes. Views expressed are my own.

Read more ...

The holy grail of fake tans?

You can take the girl out of the high street but you can't take the high street from the girl and if a product is not usually available in Boots or Superdrug I usually don't want to hear about it. I've never been a fan of 'glossy box' subscriptions services either as I would hate to fall in love with an expensive product and then not being able to afford the full size version. But something happened about a year ago (this review is a bit late, much?) which made me tip my toes in the world of premium beauty products: Xen-Tan, an upmarket brand of fake tan released a sample of one of their products in a glossy box. I had heard lots of praise about Xen-Tan products before but I never went ahead to buy some Xen Tan for three reasons:



1) For years I've made do with a £8 fake tan product from L’Oréal which gave me a streak free natural looking tan. Why spend more?
2) I only had read praise about Xen-Tan through beauty blogs and hadn't heard of anybody using it in the 'real world'. What if all the xen tan which was blogged about came from samples from the PR? 
3) If you hadn't already guessed, I am a bit of cheapskate really.


Thanks a very generous friend on twitter who was not too fussed about her glossy miniature sample, I soon became the proud owner of a Xen-Tan Deep Bronze Luxe', (30ml trial tube) and couldn't wait to see for myself if it lived up to its hype and more importantly to its £28.99 price tag for its full size version.





Don't ask me how they've done it but Xen tan managed to tame the god awful stinky beast of the DHA (the tanning ingredient) to create a product which hardly smell of fake tan. How on earth is that possible I've got no idea. Not only the smell of fake tan is barely noticeable but they added a delicate soft scent of vanilla on top. I had never experienced that before.


I usually apply my fake tan at night and sleep in it. I usually feel so sticky that I feel the need to quickly blast a hair dryer on my body to make it dry faster. Not with this: the product applied very smoothly and was super quickly absorbed. The colour is a bit unusual: like chocolate brown mixed with .. erm greeny bird poo but I was so impressed so far, I really wasn't bothered the slightest.







The following morning I woke up to the most gorgeous and natural looking tan which gave me lots of compliments. No orange tint in sight, no streaks, I was darker, a lovely shade of darker. I was scared before application that I would become too dark, this was after the 'dark' version but it was just perfect. I had never looked so tanned (from a tube/bottle) before. I was blown away, not realising that the best was yet to come…


There's more? Oh yes there is. I feel the ultimate strength of the xen tan deep bronze luxe is how it lives, lasts and evolves on your skin. I have never experienced a product which fades away so amazingly well. Usually when I apply a fake tan product, by day 5 {if it has lasted that long} I can't wait to give my skin a good scrub and start again. St Tropez, which I have also been able to try thanks to a friend, gives me a beautiful colour at first, but becomes patchy city towards the end of its 5-day life on me. For me, Xen tan blows St Tropez - and any other fake tan brands  - out of the water: I am able to get a good seven days out of my application and the products fades out very evenly. 





Any negative points at all? Yes. The first time I applied the fake tan, I underestimated how fast it would take to be absorbed by the skin so I spent too long rubbing the product in and it created some mini bobbles on top the skin.So my piece of advice for anyone who was new to xen tan deep bronze luxe and wanted to try it is to trust the product, trust that you've blended it enough, and resist the temptation to overblend and play with the product too much. No need to rush it, take your time to apply it, blend it but don’t overblend: leave it alone and let it do its magic. Also, I don't find Xen Tan easily accessible: I can't run to my nearest Boots or Superdrug to buy it and, if there isn't a fake tan salon near you who offers professional tans using Xen Tan, the only place to buy it, to my knowledge, is online.



How does the cheapskate in me reconcile with the fact that the product is £28.99 for a full size version? 30 quid man, that’s a lot of money! I didn't think I would ever say this but it doesn't phase me. Well, I did wait 6 months to buy it at a whopping 30% off, on the official website, (since Buyapowa would never list it!) but I was happy to spend the money as the product is of outstanding quality. Could I go back to buying a cheapo tan? No way. Now that I've experienced a practically scent free fake tan, with all the bonus perks, I don't want to go back. Hands down, this is the best fake tan product I have ever tried and it's going to take an exceptionally good product to beat it – if that is even possible.


What: Xen Tan Deep Bronze Luxe (Weekly Self Tan)
How much: £28.99 for 236 ml
Where: Xen Tan online store
Disclosure: the travel size (30ml) was gifted to be by Georgie on twitter and I bought the big fat one you see on the photos with my own money.

Read more ...

St. Tropez does Halloween

Inspired by upcoming Halloween, St. Tropez gives you 10% off each of 3 key products from their range:
- The Wash Off Mousse
- The Self Tan Mousse (120 ml)
- and the Skin Illuminator




Be quick. Offer starts today and ends until midnight on Sunday 31st October.
To get your discount, just type in in discount code MOONLIGHT10 at Step 5 of checkout.
More details on this limited time offer here or at http://www.st-tropez.com/moonlighttan

Read more ...

Halloween Tan? Why not? Piz Buin Lotion to the test

Contradiction much? October is upon us, le petit jardin gets a little  Halloween revamp and I want to blog about ... fake tan. Well, I love a fake  tan, and it instantly boosts my spirits, summer or winter or anytime in  between.  It has taken me forever to find a method and a product I was really happy with. Imagine my despair when I went to repurchase my beloved and trusty Sublime Bronze and they didn't sell the same version anymore. To be fair, I  loved everything about it, apart from the strong smell of chemical but I got  used to it, thinking that all fake tans products stink because of the active tanning ingredient in it.  Anyway, it was time to try a new product.





So I went home with 'Piz Buin' Self tanning tinted lotion,  which promised an  "instant natural looking colour" but most of all a "delicious summer scent".  I don't know if you can read the description on the photo below but basically Piz Buin  says they've cracked it and found an innovative formula which contains lower  level of self tanner one of the main causes of streaks, stain and smells' and  that the "sensual, lightweight & fast absorbing texture is  with a fabulous  fragrance makes it an absolute pleasure to use" for a natural looking  sunkissed in harmony with your skin tone.”






I have been using fake tan for years now so I was not afraid of using it for  the first time even though I had a big day the following day and that my face and arms (where I usually apply it) would be on show constantly. And I was right to blindly trust it: This product gave me a really really nice colour,  so natural, not a streak in sight and I didn't end up orange. It was perfect.  PERFECT.


Would i repurchase it? Not in a million years. I have used this product twice  and I've hated it. In fact, I only used it a second time because I had another special occasion and I hadn't had time to purchase another product. My first gripe with it was the texture. I am used to gel texture which feels like is absorbed  in the skin in a flash and this felt like it really needed a lot of rubbing  in. Then when it was time to take it off  in the morning (I usually do my tan overnight) it took absolutely forever to took it off. Whereas you would just need to rinse  it off if I had used a self tanning gel, again, this felt like it needed a lot  of rubbing. I was thinking that I was going to remove the actual tan if I carry on rubbing like this. This didn't make me comfortable at all and it already made me freak out that I would end up streaky and that the tan would  not stay as long. Well it didn't end up streaky, and it lasted as long as my  previous tans 3-4 tans max but the texture was a no no for me.


My biggest disappointment was the very thing Piz Buin banged about! It was the smell. Dear me! Delicious summer scent? As  if! Smell of burnt cookies more like. If you're going to do smell of burnt, Piz Buin, how about smell of burn toast? I admit it wasn't as bad the second time I used it but I think I'd rather stick to the traditional chemical smell I am  used to. What a shame! Gorgeous natural colour yes but not worth it for me.  So I am back to square 1, looking for my favourite fake tan. Let me know which  fake tan product, texture or formula etc rocks your boat. I'd love to hear. If  you're reviewed one that you really liked, feel free to leave your blogpost address, I don't mind :) Please tell me what I should try next :)

p.s hey, do you like my new banner? ^_^
This is where the makeup look comes from.

Read more ...