Green People Organic Formula Self Tan Lotion

I was given this to try by our resident organic champion at work. It contains 88.57% certified organically grown ingredients and works by sugar derivatives reacting with your skin to create pigments (basically the same as a "chemical" fake tan would). I googled and it seems to cost between £13-17 online.

It doesn’t look like fake tan – it’s a slightly yellow cream that looks a bit like cocoa butter and when you rub it into your skin it leaves a startling thick white residue that thankfully sinks in after 5-10 minutes. But other than the initial shock application is pretty straightforward (I did manage to mess up my ankles though, which I happen to do every single time I try any fake tannage!) and at least you can see where you’ve applied.

It also smells nothing like fake tan – it has a strong herbal scent (that’ll be the rosehip, geranium and sandalwood then) that stays even when the tan is developing, and you definitely don’t get that horrible biscuity smell that usually comes post–tan development. My boyfriend described me as “smelling like a lovely curry”, which I’m not sure is a good thing. I think the smell might be a bit much for some people.

The other thing about this tan is that it develops FAST, the colour was coming out in about 2 hours and fully developed after about 5. It gives a nice golden colour – quite subtle, but definitely still noticeable.

The con of this tan for me was it’s longevity - 2 showers later and you’d be hard pressed to tell I ever had tan on apart from a few little areas. But this also has a plus point as it means that you’re not ending up really patchy like with some other tans, but who wants to be reapplying tan every 2 days? I’m sporadic enough with tan application as it is!

If you want a quick developing tan that doesn’t stink or you're a bit scared of tan and want some where any mistakes aren't there for long, then this is the stuff for you! I have actually applied this just before work before, then left it to develop throughout my working day (no awful tan smell), then showered off when I got home and went out. I think I’ll be sticking with my L’Oreal Nutrisummer though– sorry colleague, your organic mission has failed on this occasion.