Review: Makebelieve Self Tan Lotion with bronzer

Another week, another tan but since it is all about donating my skin for the greater good (kinda). I don’t mind.

This week we have Makebelieve which is an Independent British Company providing the UK market with tanning products that ‘makes you feel better about yourelf [. . .] helping you to feel more confident to release your inner glow’ since 2005 by choosing ingredients that leave you with ‘beautifully tanned and moisturized skin’ without the fake tan smell or colour’. Now I just want to take a little time for THANKING the Makebelieve team for providing this for the ‘Tans for Women of Colour’ project as well as 2 other products from their product line which is INCREDIBLY nice of them because we had no clue they would do this.

The Makebelieve Self Tan Lotion with Bronzer comes with a 1-5 zone guide; where 1 is the lightest and 5 in the darkest, with great descriptions on the effects you should get when using a tan in that colour range.

Zone 1 – Provides a Subtle Glow

Zone 2 – For a  Warm Glowing look

Zone 3 – For a Medium Tanned look

Zone 4 – Provides a Golden Tanned look

Zone 5 – That very Dark Tanned look (which can be achieved by layering zone 4 twice)

I was sent the Zone 4 Self-tan lotion in Zone 4 (RRP £24.50), which is a light, moisturing lotion that is meant to bring a golden tan to the skin while still conditioning it and I LOVE the fragrance of this tan. It has a very warm, smell that reminds me of a mixture of pink oil lotion and pineapples.

I kid you not.

I was having throw back sessions to my childhood when I used this tan and I couldn’t resist sniffing my arm during the day. I just loved the smell! I didn’t really care what colour it turned my skin when I first slapped it on because the smell of this tan just won me over but alas I still have to do a review and stop obsessing about how nice it smells.

The Self tan comes in white packaging with a bright blue and gold colour, and comes with a pair of tanning gloves inside the box which is a really nice touch as it saves you having to go out and get a pair of mitts and gloves (top marks for that Makebelieve).  It does come out a creamy, dull brown colour which a lot of the bloggers on the project refer to as milk chocolate but honestly I don’t know what those girls were seeing because this doesn’t look milk chocolate to me loool.

Colour wise, I am not a fan of the colour this tan turns my skin as I think that it brings out the red tones in my skin and suppresses the yellow tones, which made my arm turn a weird orange shade that I wasn’t in love with, so I don’t know how golden your tan might be with this but mine was a lot more amber than gold. However, it does moisturize my skin very well but I do think that the fact that this tan has so much moisturizer in it makes this tan take a little while to dry.

I found that it didn’t last a week on my skin but about 2 or 3 days which is definitely not bad. Honestly I really love everything about this product except its colour but I think that a body bronzer on top of this would add more yellow tones to my skin and make this perfect

I’m off to sniff my arms some more but check out the other Makebelieve Self Tan Lotion reviews from the #TFWOC ladies.

Sophia Tattooed Tea Lady

Safiyah FrootiBeauty

Tass Une Tasse

Grace All That Slap

LaaLaa Dolce Vanity

Hafsa Muslimah Beauty

Yinka Vex in the City

Stephanie Nerd about Town

Dija Dija’s World

Lola LolaStar Heart

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Abi O's Beau Bronz #TFWOC summary post

As you know the TFWOC project has been live and kicking for two weeks now and we have managed to cover 3 brands in that time. Each week we will all test out and review the products on our individual blog and also link back to each others blog so it is easy for you to find a similar skin colour match and discover some new blogs in the process but I thought I should make it that much easier by doing a quick summary post on on all the blogger results here with a link so you can go onto that blogger's blog and read their opinions first-hand.

So these are the fabulous ladies working on the TFWOC project:-

Sophia Tattooed Tea Lady

Safiyah FrootiBeauty

Tass Une Tasse

Grace All That Slap

LaaLaa Dolce Vanity

Hafsa Muslimah Beauty

Yinka Vex in the City

Stephanie Nerd about Town

Dija Dija’s World

Lola LolaStar Heart

Abi O's Beau Bronz - W/B 10th Sept 2012

Dija gave an amazing event review on the Abi O Spray Tanning event. She certainly has a way with words and hopefully this project can fulfil every aim she has set out.

Image courtesy of Dija's World

Another great review of the ABI O event. Lola has an insightful view of the event and has also added lots of points that will help you get through the tanning process just that bit easier. Plus the pictures she took for the evening came out AMAZING, I am actually a bit jealous.

Image Courtesy of LolaStar Hearts

Sophia from Tattooed Tea Lady shows us how the Beau Bronz gradual tan and shimmer tan works on Olive skin tones, so ladies if you use a MAC foundation around a NC/NW30 then the gradual tan might just be what you need to get your skin tanned without looking orange.

Image Courtesy of Tattooed Tealady

Laalaa from Dolce Vanity is loving the Abi O products are ethical, green and cruelty free as this is a BIG ethics factor for her and her blog. I also loved that Laalaa showed how the product gave her hands the 'Midas Touch' so Ladies remember mitts and gloves!!!

Image Courtesy of Dolce Vanity

Dija from Dija's World is a bit anti-shimmer so she shows us the different ways she has experimented with using the shimmer tan, including mixing it with her daily moisturiser

Hafsa of Muslimah Beauty gives us a few tips on how to use this product to keep your holiday glow for just that bit longer.

Safiyah from Frootibeauty might not love the 'potato' like smell of this tan but she certainly loves the glistening gold effect

Image courtesy of Frootibeauty

Lola from Lolastar Hearts definitely loved the glow this product gave her. She even started using it on her legs almost every day after she received it.

The Shimmer that the Shimmer Tan gave Tass from Une Tasse is just amazing. While she is right to mention this product would not be strong enough to tan brown or black skin, it will give you a great shimmer.

I always love reading reviews from Grace of All That Slap. She loves the whole ethical and natural aspect of this product and while she might not use this that much right now because of the season, she would take this on holiday with her.

Last but not least, I give my little two-pence opinion on how the shimmer tan works on NW45 skin

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Review: Gosh Instant Tan Gel in Dark (#TFWOC )

Another Week. Another Tanning product for the ‘Tans for Women Of Colour’ Project.

First off I want to thank everyone for all the positive response we had have so far for the #TFWOC Blogger Project. If you are joining the show a bit late, The TFWOC involves 11 lovely olive, brown or black skinned bloggers who are showing everyone that dark-skinned girls CAN tan and FYI the results are absolutely amazing!

Last Week we kicked things off with reviews of Abi O’s Beau Bronz and I am going to post up a summary of all the posts later on today so you can scan through all the different reviews in one place, and this week we have a Cruelty Free High-street/Drugstore Tan from Gosh Cosmetics.

Containing Day Moist CLR and organic Gojiberry, the Gosh Instant Tan Gel in Dark (rep. £7.69) is a Wash Off, DHA free Tan with Sugar beet extract and corn starch. As DHA is the main ingredient used to tan the skin, I was quite interested to see the effects this tan would have on my dark skin. 

I'm always a sucker for gold and black packaging so that won me off aesthetically. Even though it is shaped a bit like an aerosol can, this comes in comes with a doe foot applicator and comes out with a very dark brown (almost black) formula on my tanning mitt (Yes, i have a Tanning mitt now. After a twitter discussion with Sophia of Tattoed Tealady on twitter and how this was difficult to take off, I went to Superdrug and grabbed a Tanning mitt)

Initially I was impressed. I love the shade of brown my arm went and I thought it had a light soapy fragrance, which wasn’t too bad as far as fragrances go. I showed my swatched arm to my sis and she remarked on how glowy and healthy my swatched arm looked compared to my unswatched arm which honestly when doing a tan project on dark skin is what you want to hear so initially I was pleased as punch . . . until the tingling  . . .and then the burning . . .then the nausea happened

I don’t know what the hell happened because I’ve talked to the other girls who have reviewed the Gosh Instant Tan Gel so far and no one got the symptoms I had but then I am allergic to certain sugars (honey, watermelon, ragweed etc. etc.) so I might have just reacted to the Sugar beet root extract so if you have sensitive skin like me I wouldn’t really recommend this product for you are you might be playing with sugar-flavored fire.

Regardless I was not very impressed with this product because after the 30 odd minutes of fanning my arm and the burning/tingling feeling subsided (FINALLY!), the tan only lasted 2/3 hours before it completely faded away! I made the mistake of tanning too far up my arms into my wrist and tanned the bottom of my palm a bit orangey brown and after 3 hours the tan on my palm wasn’t even visible and seeing as this is meant to last 6/8 hours, I think anyone buying this to use on a night out will be very unimpressed.

Overall I loved the two hours of colour and the shade this product gave me but ladies with sensitive skin I wouldn’t recommend this at all. I didn’t have a positive experience with this product and I doubt you would either. I’m not normally one to give a negative review for a product unless it is absolutely crap but all I have to say is Tingling . . .Burning. . Spent the rest of the day in bed with a raging headache.

If anyone is interested in trying out this product for themselves as maybe my slight allergic reaction to it, doesn’t paint it in the best light. Leave a comment below and I’ll pop it in the post to you.

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Glistening, Golden and Bronzed - Beau Bronz Shimmer Tan Boost Review

Paraben free, Cruelty free, Formaldehyde free, Sulfate free, Lanolin free, Alcohol Free, PABA free and UREA free with no Artificial Colours. We are starting off the Tans for Women of Colour project with the very ethical, green and organic Shimmer Tan Boost from Abi O’s Beau Bronz

Beau Bronz was started in 2004 by beauty TV presenter and Celebrity Tanning Specialist Abigail Oleck, who developed the brand with the ethos of being committed to using highest quality, organic ingredients but also being Paraben free.  Supplying products for every skin shade, regardless of if you are an English Rose, dark brown like yours truly or a skin shade reminiscent of a vampire, this holistic progressive tanning solution is available in spas and salons across the UK and we are so happy to have them involved with the TFWOC blogger project that is taking place over the next 5 weeks.

Abi O’s Shimmer Tan Boost is a golden tan that is meant to complement a variety of skin shades. On black and brown skin types the shimmer tan adds a yellow tone that recreates a glow that black/brown skin tones natural have when exposed to the sun. 

First off, I love the white and gold packaging to this. It looks really luxurious and very neat. Second, when I swatched this product I actually squeezed a bit too hard and got enough product to cover the length of my entire arm so a little goes a long way (don’t say I didn’t warn you). It’s very easy to work into the skin and leaves my skin with covered in gold particles

For some strange reason - my camera didn't pick up the shimmer that much (MUST REDO!!!)

As this tan only has 2.5% Ecocert DHA it is not enough to actually tan my skin, as I need a tan product with a DHA of 8% or over to make a darkening effect, I do love the glistening gold particles that this product deposits as my skin does tend to do something quite similar when I go on holiday to Africa or UAE so it gets top points for mimicking what my skin does naturally. My only negative comment would have to be the smell

I’m not sure if it is because I’ve never used a tan before and I am not used to the smell but I found that after 5 minutes of using this, my nose picked up a very unusual, musty, smell that can only be likened to freshly cut potatoes. I know that might sound a bit odd but the nose knows, you know.

I’m a big fan of looking glowy and sunkissed. I would definitely use the shimmer tan boost on my shoulders and legs on a night out to get that golden toned shimmer but I would probably soak my body in the strongest perfume I own to get rid of the musty potato smell (I really don’t love the smell)

You can get 25% off til the end of September by using the voucher code ‘LOVEABIO’ on the Beau Bronz Website

Read More Abi O Reviews from the TFWOC Bloggers 

Tattooed Tea Lady - Sophia's kicked our TFWOC project with the first and frankly amazing review of the Beau Bronz Gradual Tan & Shimmer Boost

Frootibeauty - After using the Shimmer Tan Boost for a few hours, Safiyah got a hint of colour with the Shimmer boost and lots of shimmer but I think she's very happy with the results

Dolce Vanity - Laalaa was given the Midas touch by the shimmer tan but it doesn't matter as her skin is GLOWING!

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