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| Image courtesy of Beautisol |
I had the pleasure of meeting Sinead Norenius in 2012 at Cosmoprof North America after missing her in 2011 and boy, am I glad I did. For starters, she's beautiful - and a true believer in her product. A native of South Africa, Sinead has very pale blue-tinted skin, and wanted a self tanning product that would change the way everyone looked at self tanners. I truly believe she did it.
Before getting into my experience, I have to rave that Beautisol is paraben free, propylene glycol free, sodium laureth/laurel sulfate free, cruelty free (PETA certified), vegan and gluten free. Sinead is a licensed aesthetician and used to work as the Director of Education - North America for St. Tropez Tan.
Now, I am pretty much anti-sun. As a teenager, I had a couple of bad sunburns that left me very miserable and as a 20-something, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and the medications I have been taking leave me very sun sensitive. (Just this past Labor Day, I burned my face terribly in just an hour - didn't realize it until my eyelids were peeling!) On top of that, I don't like self-tanners because I don't want to end up orange, I HATE the smell and I'm pretty lazy when it comes to do something "all the way." I once tried to give myself highlights and ended up with leopard print spots of bleach in my hair because I was too lazy to do it the right way.
So you can imagine how much hesitation I had going into Beautisol. Sinead tried to send me some for free, but I kept avoiding it because I didn't want to HAVE to do it, and HAVE to write about it and all that jazz. Plus what if it was horrible? I really hate writing negative reviews, but I'll do it when I have a bad product.
You're probably wondering why I bought it then. Well, on my husband's birthday this May, he wanted to go to a theme park and it was blistering hot. I didn't really think ahead and long story short, I burned pretty badly. This left me with tan lines that I was really irritated about having because this summer I had a lot of traveling plans going on. When it came time to figure out what I was going to where for Cosmoprof North America 2013, I had settled on several skirts/short dresses and then realized not only do I have terrible tan lines up top, but my legs are pasty white. Even though I live in South Texas where we have months of triple digits temperatures, I tend to stay inside and pretty much always wear jeans. I don't go to the beach or tanning so my legs were as pale as can be.
One night, after seeing that Sinead would be on HSN, I decided to tune in and watch. I was really shocked to see normally tanned Sinead with only one tanned arm and leg, and the other was her natural skin! It literally motivated me to buy.
Now, the special on HSN was pretty fantastic, but it wasn't for the Summer Glow Dark Self-Tanning Lotion for body, so I went straight to the Beautisol website and picked the Summer Glow One Time Purchase which is $39 for the 8 oz bottle and 2 packs of latex gloves (for each application), but then I also added in the Hammam Deep Exfoliating Mitt ($12) and another application mitt ($8). I had received their e-newsletter which had a coupon code for $15 off so over all it was $55.35 with shipping.
I did have a little slip up with shipping. I was using my iPhone to purchase everything and their website is not mobile optimized and I hit a 404 error after purchasing. However, I reached out over social media and it was corrected and sent out in time for my trip.
I was really nervous about the claim of "Pure Scent Odor Eliminating Technology" but spoiler alert - I knew it couldn't smell THAT bad because I had tried the Beautisol Wash-Off Body Bronzer with Tea Extracts before thanks to an iFabbo Shop perk that I had received and my husband asked me what my new perfume was because he loved it. I am not making that up. I laughed for a few minutes after that one especially because he didn't believe that I was wearing self tanner!
Back to the process. First I showered and used the Hammam Deep Exfoliating Mitt which, she's not kidding when she says that it really does work. You look at it and think "Eh, whatever" but then you scrub and it's powerful. After my shower, I decided to use the latex gloves instead of my application mitt, and following the application guide that is included with all kits, I put a big blob on my leg.
So far so good. Make sure you rub it in completely - the tint of product shows you exactly where you have applied product.
I had put a bit much on my thigh but I was able to rub it in.
I finished both legs and took a quick picture.
The difference is slightly there but this is also RIGHT after application. For best results, you are supposed to let the product set in for 8 hours, so this is preferably done at night, which I did. I slept in yoga pants and an oversized t-shirt to protect my bed and didn't have any issues of product transfer.
I also used the product on my arms, stomach, back, neck, feet and chest.
After the first day, I was happy but I wanted to be EVEN DARKER (lol), so I did a second application of Beautisol. I decided to do a before and after that really blew me away. On the left is no product at all. On the right is after 2 applications that have been set in (so 8+ hours after application).
Are you convinced now? Because I am. I didn't have any side effects and the tan slowly faded over the next several weeks as I did not want to take it on vacation with me. You should apply one a week to keep the tan consistent.
Overall, I'm really glad I ordered. This product did exactly what I needed, when I needed, with no issues whatsoever in smell, or application. I'm a very happy customer.
