A Bit of Bronze

I'm one of those people who's never burned a day in my life.  I'm waiting for the pain-free hours of lying out in the sun to catch up with me, but until that day, I've always been able to tan easily and not worry about burning, peeling or maintaining.  If anything, my skin tone is one of those that won't let the colour go -- I never go back to the level of paleness that I was.  I joke regularly with my friends that my skin colour is an amalgamation of a lifetime of sun exposure.

That said, when I heard about Caudalie's Divine Legs Body Moisturizer*, I had to see what it was all about.  Since I'm no longer privileged enough to have summers off, I'm much paler than I've ever been.  I didn't realize how pale my legs start off!

My other issue with self-tanner is that they're often a weird colour.  Even extremely famous versions that are famed for leaving you properly bronzed go a little wonky on me.  My skin is quite olive so I tan a strange taupe-y gray colour, and Caudalie's Divine Legs is the perfect marriage between the colour I would like to be and a colour I can pull off naturally.

The product takes your legs down a few shades, but you can definitely control the depth of your tan by putting more on.  I've also used this on my stomach whenever I wear a crop top -- instant abs.  It's marketed as a body moisturizer so it leaves your skin feeling soft and hydrated.

I enlisted Tod's help for this post -- she's much lighter than me so she's tried a number of self-tanners.  Here's what she had to say:

"It's a pleasant consistency.  I find a lot of them gross -- like, greasy.  At least the ones I've used in the past.  It's one of the more natural-looking fake tans I've had in a while.  It's kind of nice that it's not permanent, that it washes off in the shower.  It's less of a commitment; in case you make a mistake or something.  The other ones that are more permanent that last a few days, if you forget to avoid your knees, then you're stuck with dark knees for four days.  At least if you mess this one up, it's only one day."

For the swatch below, I took one single pump of the product and rubbed it into my thigh -- please bear in mind that I'm 5'10 and my thighs are longer than most people's.

Left: One pump of Caudalie Divine Bronze, Right: bare skin

*PR Sample