Looking at my pathetic white legs the other day made me finally spring to buy a sunless tanner. I’ve never used a sunless tanner before, mostly because of the fear of orange palms and streak marks. As trial and error has progressed, it seems that sunless tanners are getting better at lessening a beginner’s chances of messing things up. Call it Sunless Tanning for Dummies, if you will.

After looking through the plethora of sunless tanners one evening, my very impatient self chose Neutrogena’s MicroMist Sunless Spray Medium Shade, which makes your skin 2 shades darker than you current skin tone. My reasons for choosing a spray was that there was less of a chance I would miss a spot making it blatantly obvious to others that I got a tan the fake way. Also? Spraying was faster than slapping on a lotion. The only downside was that the directions stated your tan would only show up 2-4 hours after application.

So I hit the shower first, making sure to wash off all my lotion and also exfoliate my skin. Exfoliating makes it less likely your sunless tanner will streak and helps slough off the dead skin cells, which tend to soak up the tanner and create dark spots.

I felt very strange positioning a bottle resembling a small can of hairspray at my legs. However, application was very easy and the tanner went on without feeling greasy. Prior to spraying and being a sunless tanner virgin, I was a little nervous about whether or not the spray would puddle or drip off my leg. However, just as hairspray does…it stayed put. It only took about 2 minutes to dry completely, feeling a little tacky at first. The scent reminded me of floral scented hairspray, as well. The scent wasn’t bad, however I do advise you not to spray it without having the windows open first. I unintentionally got quite the aerosole high.

When I didn’t notice any difference in two hours, I sprayed on another coat (I am very impatient). At that point I decided what the heck, and also sprayed my arms, shoulders, and back. For tanning your face, you just spray it into your hands and rub on. I was worried again, that I would look like a Sunkist, but the spray quickly absorbed and with washing my hands right away, it did not change the color of my palms.

Upon waking the next morning I quickly ran to the bathroom to get a look at myself and was very happy to see a lovely bronze color on my skin. My legs were no longer snow white and there was absolutely no evidence to the untrained eye that I used a sunless tanner.

It’s been about 5 days since I sprayed on the MicroMist and my tan still shows nicely. I’d say it was well worth the money.

Neutrogena MicroMist Tanning Sunless Spray: $10.99 (save 8%) at drugstore.com

Find more self-tanners.


Tags: sunless tanner, Neutrogena MicroMist, spray on tan, self-tanner