Skinerals Organic Self Tanner Mousse, Sunless Tanning Foam for Face & Body, Streak-Free, Quick-Drying, Long-Lasting Self Tan, 8 Oz, Californium

This is the best self-tanner I’ve tried. The smell is not bad. The smell of tanners usually bothers me. The color looks natural—I was able to blend it into my existing farmer’s tan on my arms.Tips that made my experience so positive:-use Vaseline on elbows, knees, fingers, toes, etc. to help those places blend-use a mitt to apply and a brush to blend (I love the Eco Tools brushes)The color faded on my face pretty quickly since I exfoliate there often, but it is buildable and easy to apply.Color tends to fade evenly. It lasted several days on the areas where I don’t exfoliate much, like my belly.Color did stick in all the little hair follicles on my legs. I’m not sure what to do about it. Planning on skipping my legs next time.

Yeah, I did my time in the evil tanning beds. I spent years in them before wising up. Since then I've been using sunless self tanners for about 10 years. As a woman in her 40's, I just can't risk high levels of sun exposure on my fair skin anymore.After trying several products, I landed (like most who use self tanners) on Jergens Natural Glow. The positives are: it works well, blends easily, and doesn't smell quite as bad as other brands. The cons? It still does very much have a smell, it takes a while to dry, and it can take a week of daily use to build up the level of tan I am happy with for summer months.Flash forward to Saturday last week. It's shorts weather here in Texas and my poor old lady legs are pasty white. I took to Amazon to order the tried and true Jergens, but quickly realized the sunless tanner market has really blown up. I think I read reviews on 12 different new products before settling on what is now my favorite tanner of all time (so much so I think I would have a breakdown if they closed shop).DRUM ROLL...........Skinerals Organic Skin Science - Californium Sunless BronzerThis attached photo of the single brown leg is one minute after application. No filters or editing have been applied to this photo (other than I cropped out my old lady knees).Y'all, this stuff is like a little miracle in a bottle.Why I Love It1) It is a foam in a pump (think foaming hand wash).2) It has almost no smell at all (if any it is just a light organic smell, but it isn't a bad smell at all!).3) It works INSTANTLY! Yes, you heard that right. As soon as you smear this stuff on, you are brown. It does develop and get darker over the following few hours. Other reviewers are saying they can go anywhere from 5-10 days between applications. UPDATE: I have found that to be true as long as I moisturize daily.4) It does NOT make you look orange and that is a big deal for us ivory skinned folk.5) It is completely dry within a few minutes. UPDATE: If you are sweaty or plan to get that way, do not apply right before bed or wear light colored clothing the same day. The color will wash out of fabric, but it will show in your clothes the first day.Skinerals as well as other reviewers recommend applying it using a sunless tanning mitten (which I ordered), but it hasn't arrived yet. So, I just put on some latex gloves and had at it. UPDATE: I got my mitten and it makes a world of difference. I also bought a lotion applicator for my back. It sorta looks like a back scrubber on a stick but is a foam pad instead.OK, I'll admit I really should have waited for the mitten. That said I was still able to apply the Skinerals evenly and over large areas at a time.Other reviewers recommended applying Vaseline to rough spots, toes, backs of knees etc., so I did (and I am glad!). I had no problem blending around the Vaseline. UPDATE: Apply Vaseline EVERYWHERE that you think the tanning solution might "stick", because it will.I also got a paper towel to "buff out" spots that seemed blotchy to me. The blotchiness is not a product defect. It was me being impatient and not waiting for that darned mitten. Nevertheless, it came out looking gorgeous in the end.I am not one to review products, but I just couldn't help but share the love on this. It is a great find and you really need to have some in your summer beauty stockpile!UPDATE: I had a brilliant idea to use this stuff on my eyebrows (photo attached). Dang, I didn't think this stuff could get any better!UPDATE 5/2/17: I've started using this as a contouring bronzer for my face. Saves me quite a bit of time during makeup application. Apply using a foundation sponge.UPDATE 4/18/17: My legs are still looking reasonably tan. I think tomorrow will be reapplication day (I think that puts 7-8 days between application). I have to add an additional praise; this stuff fades EVENLY. If you've used Jergens Natural Glow, you know that when it starts fading that it starts looking spotty. This Skinerals formula does not do that at all. I'm not spotty and the faded tan still looks even and nice!*NOTE: I paid full price for this item, I was not compensated for this review, and no one asked me to review the product. This is my own, unbiased opinion.

So first to know background: I am pale, blonde Irish but actually am able to have a nice tan and loved it when I used to gradually build up a tan a small amount at a time in the tanning bed and get an even, nice, healthy looking tan. unfortunately once the skin cancers started coming, that stopped so now at 40 y/o I am back to my white self and have been for many years. I have had good experience w/ professional high quality spray tans and semi good results w/ some DIY. here is what I did w/this one and got really good results.I used the mitten that they suggest so bought the set and LOVE it w/this product. will have to update my mitten review b/c used w/ a lotion (of different brand) before and was not impressed but w/the w/the moose it works great. I ALSO got the Bare Minerals body BRUSH. this is what i have found over the years works best for hands/wrists/feet/ankles.Application was super easy and fast w/the mitten. then i took it off and put a little on the brush and blended my wrists and hands and then feet and ankles and then blended up my neck. i used swirling motions so its a gradual blending out. i do NOT use product on my face. I do dermaplaning and chemical exfoliating on a routine basis and don't want these chemicals interacting nor do i want odd colors w/the other treatments so i skip the face.i was impressed that the neck blended right up to the face w/just a little difference noted but that is common anyway for people's faces to be a bit lighter. i used a blow drier on cool setting and remained w/o clothing for about 15 min and then put on loose fitting dark color sweat pants and a loose fitting tank top and went to bed. i did NOT notice any transfer to the sheets/bedding at all. the smell developed as the night went on as it always does. some people say coffee, some burnt toast. its not offensive but it IS the spray tan smell. although some are worse than others. this one is pretty mild but def noticed for sure! i think that is inevitable w/ these types of products. you can't have it all and the smell is just something that comes with this.no streaks, no orange and the foam/moose formula is very forgiving and super easy to apply. hands and feet are always tricky and while my little trick did work well i can tell in a few days i will have those little tell tale signs on hands and feet of it wearing off where one is left w/a little tan spot near knuckle areas, etc.***UPDATE*** changed rating to 5 stars. can't say enough good things about this. I have used now about 4 times I think. to NOT have bright white legs sticking out of shorts for the summer is lovely. Its subtle and actually wears off evenly each time so that was impressive. the smell that I mentioned before was gone in a day and I only noticed a very tiny bit when I sweat. I asked ladies that I know very well to come near me and sniff (LOL) and none were able to detect a smell at ALL. so no smell, no transfer to sheets or bedding. I also found a GREAT HACK for wrists/ankles even better than the previous brush. the small mitten did not work well for me at all. the brush was also very dense so instead I use an old MAC fluffy face powder brush that I had. b/c of the less dense and "fluffy" brush type it blends the areas of feet and wrists/hands really well. professional results now. amazing!my favorite part other than being so easy to apply and looking awesome is that for the same price of a WHOLE bottle of this that lasts many uses, I would have gotten only ONE professional spray tan. It would have lasted the same amount of days before wearing off, I would have had to schedule the appointment, undress for someone I did not know, then tip, etc. will continue to buy this over and over.