Review: Fake Bake Natural Golden Glow Unisex Self-tan Bronzing Gel

Now I've started blogging again I'm absolutely loving it and I can't believe how well my last couple of posts have been received, I've had loads of amazing feedback on my post about approaching a beauty counter and it's been shared all over the world! As a write this post I can't believe 70,000 people have taken the time to read a little post I wrote!!!

Anyway I'm definitely going to continue blogging regularly and one of the topics I love to read about is different fake tan products, as I know I'm not alone in the constant search to find the perfect source of a natural golden glow.

If you've read my blog before you'll know I'm a huge fan of Fake Bake products, I've tried a lot of brands and so far their Flawless Self Tan Liquid (RRP £22.95) is my absolutely favourite, (get it here) so I thought I would try a different tan from them and see how it measured up.

I spotted this tan whilst having a nosy in TJ Hughes which is a discount store, sometimes they have the Fake Bake Flawless Self Tan Liquid for around £10 which is a massive saving of less than half price! So I was hunting for my usual fave but they didn't have it, and instead I spotted the Fake Bake Natural Golden Glow Unisex Self Tan Bronzing Gel (catchy name). It caught my eye because it claims to hydrate and tone the skin, and I often find fake tanning really dries my skin out. I bought it for £9.99 thinking I was getting a bargain, however this tan isn't on Fake Bake's website so I'm thinking it may have been discontinued.

I eagerly scurried home excited at the prospect of not looking like a little Swedish albino with my pale winter skin and got to work slapping the tan on. First of all I exfoliated my body and shaved my legs, yes I know you're not meant to tan freshly shaved legs but I didn't fancy going out looking like Bigfoot's slightly more tanned cousin so I went for it...with hindsight this was a terrible error. I popped the gloves on that were included with the tan, squeezed out a lovely dollop of the brown stuff and slapped it on my legs...and then genuinely thought I must've made a grave error and accidentally purchased acid and smeared it all over my poor pins. It stung like an absolute bitch!!! So much worse than any other tan I've applied to freshly shaved legs.
Then as I was rubbing the tan in I noticed that although it comes out as a brown gel, when rubbed into the skin that guide colour pretty much disappears so you have no idea where you're putting the tan...always risky.

Anyway let's have a look at what Fake Bake says about this particular tan,

"The ultimate self-tan bronzing gel gives an instant, natural bronzed tan suitable for men and women."

Hmm sounds good so far, it contains Fake Bake's unique, naturally-derived triple tan formula (DHA boosted by DHI and Erythrulose) to create an intense, longer-lasting tan. It contains vitamins C and E, and has a non-drying formula to give added moisture to skin, while toning and conditioning. Fake Bake call it a light, fast drying and non-sticky tan. It's also paraben free. All sounds very promising doesn't it?

The tan claims to have a 'unique scent', this is not a lie, it's certainly unique, in that it's weird and hard to describe and not particularly pleasant. I don't know why artificial scents are added to fake tan as it never hides the telltale 'biscuit smell' which to be honest I actually prefer over this 'unique scent'.

One thing I really didn't like about this tan is that although it claims not to be, it's extremely sticky for a long time after the application, I literally had to sleep like a starfish as my skin was just sticking together.

However when I woke up the next day I was quite impressed with the results, I wasn't mega brown but I could definitely tell a difference and when I showered it off it didn't all wash off down the plug hole, maybe due to not having a dark guide colour that can trick you into thinking you look like a Brazilian goddess until you come into contact with water.

So far so good! Although I was concerned when applying the tan as I couldn't see where I was putting it, it was actually really even and gave a lovely golden colour without any patchiness. Here's a photo of my tan on New Year's Eve, this is after one application the night before.

Another great thing about this tan is that it really does last a long time and doesn't go patchy and gross as it wears off. I saw my friend today and she commented on how brown I look, 5 days after is originally applied the tan!

Overall I would say this fake tan gives a great colour that really lasts, I don't think I would buy it again over my usual Flawless spray tan, as that one is easier to apply and dries a lot quicker, but colour wise I was impressed and for a tenner I can't really complain!

What do you think? Have you tried many Fake Bake products? What's your favourite fake tan?