Product Review: Bare by Vogue

Welcome back lovelies,

As you can tell by the title of this post today I am going to be reviewing the Bare by Vogue fake tan as it won my Instagram poll last weekend but there was actually a huge interest in the St. Tropez purity water so I will compare the Bare by Vogue to that one. The Bare by Vogue tan has recently gone on the market and is sold in Penney’s and I actually bought my bottle of it in Lloyd’s Pharmacy and they also have it in Collins' Pharmacy in Kinsale so I would imagine that it will be easier to find in pharmacies around the country for the coming months. I have tried out the tanning mouse from this range in the medium shade. I have been using this tan for about 5 weeks in total and I have been reapplying about once a week and I still have about half a bottle left which is pretty good.

I was really excited about trying this tan for quite awhile before it actually came out and so as soon as it came out I immediately picked up a bottle of it. I had just finished bottle of the St. Tropez Purity water mousse which is a gradual tan and I was absolutely loving that, so the bar was raised extremely high for the Bare by Vogue to live up to.

I will be the first to admit that I am not the best at applying fake tan. My patience is limited with it and so I need a tan that is easy to use and just works well otherwise I end up a streaky mess, that is why I LOVED the St. Tropez purity mousse as it was such an easy tan to apply and so low maintenance. Upon first impression of buying the Bare by Vogue tan I don’t think I had fully prepped myself very well that I was applying a totally different type of tan, so my first use of it wasn’t the smoothest sailing tan experience. I had showered and shaved and applied a thick moisturiser to my skin before applying the tan. I think that this was my first mistake, the tan doesn’t really work that well if you have applied a thick body moisturiser or body butter all over, I didn’t leave enough time for my moisturiser to sink into my skin either before applying the tan which wasn’t my finest move either. I applied the tan way too heavy handedly to begin with as I was used to using the purity mousse and put on loose light clothing and went off to bed for the night.

When I woke up in the morning the tan and the moisturiser had mixed and formed an awful smell and my tan was way too dark. I was so orange and it had clung to my ankles and hands so badly. So my first experience with the tan was pretty bad. However, this bad experience was predominantly my fault, I am not great at applying tan anyways and when I eventually read the directions on how to use it, applying moisturiser isn't recommended directly before, which is the same with most tans...(OOPS) SO I tried again a few days later when the tan had come off. I exfoliated a small bit in the shower and when I got out I applied a light moisturiser to my skin and waited about an hour before applying my tan (in the meantime I just blow dried my hair and plucked my eyebrows to pass the time). I then applied the mouse on to the mitt only using about 1 pump per limb and applying it not half as generously as the first time around only applying it to my elbows knees and ankles when the mitt felt dry. I went off to bed and woke up in the morning absolutely thrilled with the results. The colour was so nice, it was not a super orange shade of tan which happens very easily on my pinky skin tone and it wasn't a super green olivey shade of tan either, it just looked like I had actually been on a sun holiday and managed to get a golden tan. I was so impressed. I also didn't have that awful biscuit smell this time and every time I have used this tan since I find that the fake tan smell is very minimal compared to most tans on the market.

I'm almost finished my first bottle of this tan and I'm slightly gutted that I didn't stock up on it before I came over here to California because I would love to repurchase it again. So as soon as I come home in August I will be definitely picking up another bottle.

If I was to rate all aspects of this tan out of ten it would go as follows:

-Ease of application: 7/10. Once you do it the way it is meant to be applied it is actually very easy and makes a lot more sense.

-Colour- 8/10. It is darker then I expected but it actually gives a gorgeous glow to your skin without making you look orange or green. I think it would be nice on most skin types.

- Smell- 6.5/10. I find it really hard to find a fake tan that doesn't have a super offensive smell but this one really is not bad at all. I barely notice it at all which is so rare for me.

-Wearing power- 8/10. It's not the type of tan that you HAVE to wash off the first layer but I find that when I do, it lasts much longer and stays much more even for longer so I would recommend it if you want to get longer out of your tan.

-Transfer- 5.5/10 As most of you probably know it is so hard to find an instant tan that doesn't transfer at all and doesn't wreck your clothes and bed sheets and I'm not going to lie and tell you that this one is totally transfer proof because it's definitely not. However, this tan doesn't transfer as badly as a lot of other tans that I have tried. You won't ideally want to wear your white top two days in a row with this tan but if you have to you will definitely get away with it. It also doesn't transfer that pink tone that some tans transfer as which absolutely wrecks my clothes, the Bare by Vogue transfers normally and is very easy to get off your clothes in the wash too.

Overall Experience: 7.5/10. I am so fussy about fake tans I would prefer to wear no tan at all then to wear one that I don't like and I must admit I do really like this tan. It is very long wearing and gives a gorgeous colour. I don't feel that I look like I am wearing fake tan when I have it on either which is such a pet peeve of mine, I hate when girls look fake tanned, not actually tanned. I know I have been guilty of it at times before anyone starts coming at me ;) But yeah I really have enjoyed this tan and would definitely recommend it to absolutely anyone. I can't wait to try more from her line when I get home from San Diego in August.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and that it is helpful for you in deciding where to spend your hard earned money. I enjoyed this tan and I personally would recommend it and I hope sharing my mistakes allows for an easier application for any of you who tries it. The pictures I have inserted are of me actually wearing this tan so hopefully you will be able to get a god idea about the colours and tones because for those of you that know me, will know that I am pasty white in person.

All my Love from Los Angeles,

Robyn x