Hello, this is Stevie and I am conducting the BATTLE OF THE SELF TANNERS. Here are the products I tried: Estee Lauder Spray On Self Tanner in Medium; Banana Boat Self Tanner in Dark/Extra Dark; Osmotics Self Tanner; Clarins Self Tanner; Origins Summer Vacation and Coppertone Self Tanner in Extra Dark; Estee Lauder Self Tanner for the Face in Medium and Dark, Bain de Soleil Spray On Self Tanner in Dark and Neutrogena Spray On Self Tanner in Dark, Very Dark.

With any self tanner, please make sure you exfoliate first, shave if you need to and moisturize the skin before applying the self tanner. Wear those icky plastic gloves so that your hands don’t get messed up or make sure you wash promptly and completely. Make sure you cover the broad areas first and then the tougher areas like knees, ankles and elbows last. As in soft areas first with most product, the hard areas las that need less. So make sure you do your prep work correctly and you will look tan and sleek and ready for summer. Also a note of caution, a self tanner does not mean that you don’t use sunblock. You need sunblock MORE than ever because your skin is not really tan. It still has no protection. So be forewarned here. I tried these products on both me and my SO who is fairer and burns easily and has oily skin where I am olive skinned, tan easily and have dry skin. So the assessments here are for a pretty balanced range of skin tones.

ESTEE LAUDER makes an excellent self tanning product line. It comes in various forms: spray and pump lotion and lots of different colors. ESTEE LAUDER SELF-ACTION SUNLESS SUPER TAN SPRAY in Medium is one of the products I used. I found the self tanner for the body to be a great spray. Easy to use even upside down and it does not require a lot of product to cover the body. I used this on one leg and it was even and smooth. Not sticky or runny, just work quickly. It works well at providing color that is just the right amount of bronze for a medium color. This one while economical for the money, it started to peel within a couple of days of me stopping the reapplication of the bronzer. That crackle effect is sort of unappealing on the skin. So keep that in mind; the frequencey with which you must re-apply does affect the cost factor.

RATING:

ESTEE LAUDER SELF-ACTION SUNLESS SUPER TAN SPRAY

EASE OF APPLICATION-- 4 ½ stars

DEPTH OF COLOR-- 4 stars

NATURAL COLOR-- 4 stars

LONGEVITY-- 2 ½ stars

EMOLLIENCE-- 3 stars

PRICE-- 3 stars

ESTEE LAUDER SELF ACTION SUNLESS SUPER TAN FOR FACE is an oil free formula in medium and dark. Both work really well and provide a natural looking color without streaks or orange-iness. Just smooth light bronze color that won’t irritate your face or make you break out. A winner of a product according to my SO who swears by this stuff. This lasts longer and looks better than the one for the body. But perhaps it is because of the formulation for the face is what makes it different? He has several of these and has used them over a whole year. It is one of his favorite products.

EASE OF APPLICATION-- 4 stars

DEPTH OF COLOR-- 4 stars

NATURAL COLOR-- 4 stars

LONGEVITY-- 4 stars

EMOLLIENCE-- not rated because emollience is not a feature in an oil free product.

PRICE-- 3 stars

BANANA BOAT SUNLESS TANNING CRÈME, DEEP DARK FORMULA is an excellent choice at a lower price point. It provides pretty good coverage and the color comes up quickly. The more color you want, the darker the color you want, the more you need to apply it. While this one costs less, to get the really dark bronze color that you want, you need to apply more. Putting on a reasonable amount with one coat a day, I got the virtually identical color as the Estee Lauder Spray Self Tanner. While Lauder costs more, I used less than the BANANA BOAT to get the same color. To get a deeper, darker shade, I would use at least 2 tubes of this stuff. But it was easy to apply and wore well and didn’t crackle later on in the week after I stopped applying it. It just faded gently away. That is a real plus here!! Who wants to look like they have some skin disease?

RATING:

BANANA BOAT SUNLESS TANNING CRÈME, DEEP DARK FORMULA

EASE OF APPLICATION-- 4 stars

DEPTH OF COLOR-- 3 1/2 stars

NATURAL COLOR-- 4 stars

LONGEVITY-- 3 ½ stars

EMOLLIENCE-- 31/2 stars

PRICE-- 5 stars

COPPERTONE MOISTURIZING SELF TANNER in VERY DARK was recommended to me last year before I went to Hawaii. I started off with another product and then switched to this and found this to be a superior product. So I am testing it again this year. Like the BANANA BOAT PRODUCT, this product requires more applications to get the depth of color that a person wants from a product labeled VERY DARK. But it does deliver that color if you apply it day and night and do it consistently and evenly. The package recommends applying every three- 4 hours if you want to deepen the color. Applied in thin layers, it is a smooth lotion without any kind of fragrance that I can tell. The color is natural looking and is more brown in tone than other self tanners listed here. It contains Vitamin E and Aloe in it for rich moisturizing base to the skin. Thus you need apply less lotion under the applications than is usual. It does last nicely, about the same amount of time as the BANANA BOAT product and does not crack but fades nicely. Make sure you exfoliate well though, or it make streak on you.

COPPERTONE MOISTURIZING SELF TANNER

EASE OF APPLICATION-- 4 stars

DEPTH OF COLOR-- 3 1/2 stars

NATURAL COLOR-- 4 stars

LONGEVITY-- 3 ½ stars

EMOLLIENCE-- 3 1/2 stars

PRICE-- 5 stars

COPPERTONE SPRAY ON SELF TANNER IN VERY DARK is another version of the self tanner rated above. It is easy to use and apply and you can even spray it upside down for reaching those difficult spots like your back. It is not emollient at all since it is a spray and it is a nice color just like the lotion and it spreads nicely. The color is natural looking too.

EASE OF APPLICATION-- 4 stars

DEPTH OF COLOR-- 4 stars

NATURAL COLOR-- 4 stars

LONGEVITY-- 4 stars

EMOLLIENCE-- not rated

PRICE -- 5 stars

CLARINS SELF TANNING GEL is a new self tanner from the company that has been known for having fabulous tanning products. The product has the special ingredients that give it a rich natural bronze color that is not found in many other products. The gel is light and oil free, and it smoothes on easily and without streaking. It develops within 2 hours and looks great. I tried this and my SO tried this and we both loved it. He used it on his face and it worked quite well despite his oily skin. What more can I say about a terrific tanning product? While the TANNING MILK from CLARINS has SPF 6, this has none so it gets dinged a bit. However it is also oil-free and that is a great bonus.

RATING:

CLARINS SELF TANNING GEL

EASE OF APPLICATION-- 4 stars

DEPTH OF COLOR-- 4 stars

NATURAL COLOR-- 4 1/2 stars

LONGEVITY-- 4 stars

EMOLLIENCE-- 4 ½ stars

PRICE -- 3 ½ stars

OSMOTICS EXTREMELY NATURAL SELF BRONZER. This bronzer is a bit different from some others that I have tried. I like bronzers for the summer. I like to use sunblock but I am tired of looking like the white sheet person, so I often use a bronzer. This one has lots of great ingredients to make it soothing to the skin and more effective in holding the color( according to Osmotics): Sunflower oil, Grape Seed extract, Jojoba oil, Hydrocotyl exrtract( what is that?? Beats me!!), Vitamin E, Corn oil, Vitamin A, Vitamin D3 and lots of other things. This was tricky to test because I didn’t want to have weird things happen if it didn’t work right. So I tested this against another bronzer I had. I did a test on the inner thigh a couple of inches wide and about 6 inches long: a nice thick streak. I rubbed in the non-smelly bronzer and it went on smoothly and evenly. I washed my hands quickly and it did not leave a residue. This is really important. Bronzers are often hard to work with and smell terrible. This product is very nice. It did develop a nice beige change of skin within a couple of hours. I did not apply enough product to test out getting really dark. It does work quickly, cleanly and left the skin with no streaks. I did exfoliate first and made sure the skin was clean and dry. So if you have the money for this product, I would suggest you get it. Nice bronzer, nice non-fragrant cream and it is easy to apply.

RATINGS:

OSMOTICS EXTREMELY NATURAL SELF BRONZER

EASE OF APPLICATION-- 4 stars

DEPTH OF COLOR-- 4 stars

NATURAL COLOR-- 4 ½ stars

LONGEVITY-- 4 stars

EMOLLIENCE-- 4 stars

PRICE-- 3 1/2 stars

Another product I was able to try was the BAIN DE SOLEIL SPRAY ON SELF TANNER IN VERY DARK. It was easy to spray on and was ok on the fragrance end. It sprayed upside down alright. But the color was not lasting and was not natural. First I could only try it on my lower body because it had chamomile derivative in it (why put that in a self tanner?). Then when both the SO and I tried it, the self tanner rinsed off in the shower hours later. HELLO??? What is a self tanner supposed to do when applied in the AM and you shower in the PM? It should have been dry by then. The entire product rinsed off in the shower. So this is NOT a good product to try as a spray. Maybe the lotion or gel is different. But I am returning this baby to the store for a refund.

RATINGS:

BAIN DE SOLEIL SPRAY ON SELF TANNER (One star ding because of the price and its limited availability)

EASE OF APPLICATION-- 4 stars

DEPTH OF COLOR-- 1 ½ stars

NATURAL COLOR-- 1 ½ stars

LONGEVITY-- 0 stars

EMOLLIENCE-- 1/2 stars

PRICE--2 stars—not worth it at any price really but this is an inexpensive product.

ORIGINS SUMMER VACATION is a nice smelling product and it has a nice lotion texture. It goes on easily and smoothly. That is the good news. The bad news is that one me, it turned distinctly orange. I did all the proper exfoliation and moisturizing and while the color turned up quickly in comparison to the other leg, it was orange and not natural looking at all. So unless you are a PPP and could handle this, I would take a pass. Perhaps it is because I have yellow toned skin that it turned orange but that should make NO difference in the product effectiveness

RATING:

ORIGINS SUMMER VACATION

EASE OF APPLICATION-- 4 stars

DEPTH OF COLOR-- 3 stars

NATURAL COLOR-- 1 ½ stars

LONGEVITY-- 3 stars

EMOLLIENCE-- 4 stars