Unfortunately, I would class my skin as ‘fair’. When I say fair, what I actually mean is that I am genuinely so pale naturally, that even if I booked a two week all-inclusive package holiday to Mercury I still wouldn’t get a lasting tan. Sunbeds scare the living daylights out of me nowadays, so my only option is finding a decent fake tan.

I don’t mean to sound terribly ‘un-Essex’ but I just do not rate St Tropez. Sorry, but I don’t. I’ve tried both the standard tan and their gradual tan, and neither really did it for me. I’d heard about Skinny Tan through their Facebook. After feeling slightly mugged off that Facebook’s advertisement targeting obviously picked me out as someone white enough to need to use it, I got over myself and popped to Superdrug.

You can buy it online, but you can also get it in Superdrug, which is handy, if, like me, you like the peace and quiet of mooching around chops because no one is giving you aggro about someone not turning up for their shift or a ‘do follow’ link on a blog you wrote about six years ago.

I went for the gradual tanner because to be honest everything in my life is such a rush I liked the idea of something at least being gradual. I learned my lesson long ago that you still use a tanning mitt or gloves with a gradual tanner. The first thing I noticed, was that it smelled like coconut, not biscuits. Seriously I don’t know why but all fake tan companies obviously have a convention yearly and conspire to make 80% of the population of 18 to 30 year old woman in the UK smell like custard creams.

Skinny Tan actually smells quite pleasant. Let’s face it everyone equates smelling like coconut to ‘smelling like holiday’ for some unknown reason so the smell brings up pleasant, warm, summery memories. The tan itself is quite a bit thicker than usual tan, which probably helps with the ‘skinny’ side of things as you really have to rub it in.

The gradual tanner can be used as and when, but because I was going out on the Friday night I was on an absolute mission and did it daily. I even popped home on my lunch break to tan Friday, what dedication!

I absolutely LOVE the way Skinny Tan comes out. It is quite considerably brown, but it also comes out more or less streak free so you can get away with looking like you’ve actually been on holiday to somewhere other than Boots.

Here’s a before and after, think you’ll agree I need to continue using it, lest I look like one of the Cullens.