25/07/2018

Loving Tan Review


After lusting for so long over this products Instagram I can't explain how excited I was to receive this package! The brand is Australian but they do ship worldwide. When I opened the box the tan was wrapped in the most cute packaging and had some Australian chocolates in with it also, such a lovely treat! I wanted to put it on my skin straight away and I have to say, it was well worth the wait! Below are my honest thoughts on it and how I used it, I would highly recommend this tan to anyone who wants a natural looking tan.





I chose the shade ultra dark for my tanning needs. Living in England all we seem to have is cold miserable weather with no chance of catching a tan so I swear by fake tan to give me a nice healthy glow in the cold months, we have been quite lucky this summer though so you could use it to enrich your golden glow. Usually in any tan I have purchased in the past have chosen either medium or dark shades but from the posts I had seen of Loving Tans Ultra Dark mousse on Instagram I couldn't not go for the darkest as I thought the colour pay off looked amazing, and I wasn't wrong. The packaging is simple yet girly and by far stands out from any other plain white bottles I have seen before! Their mousses hold a maximum professional strength of tan and contain Aloe Vera and Walnut Extracts. They contain no parabens or alcohol as it is all natural. The scent of this tan is so lovely and fresh compared to smelling like a biscuit which I usually find with other tans and it is the only fake tan I have ever used that moisturises your skin at the same time, when I was applying it to my skin it just went on so softly and smooth it was like a dream in a bottle. I would only recommend the Ultra Dark shade I got for experienced tanners, not first timers as it is very dark but is easy when you have had practice with tanning before but all of the other shades I would highly recommend to experienced AND first time tanners as they give an easy streak free application!


The application mitt I received with it is my new holy grail! I have never in all my years had a fake tanning mitt this good and I keep making people feel how soft it is! Usually when I had had fake tanning mitts they are kind of a foam material and get really shabby really quickly and if you don't wear a glove inside of them the tan will leak through onto your hand, and nobody likes a tanned palm, however this mitt is totally different. It has a soft sort of fluffy material to it and the inside is thick enough that you will never have to worry about the tan leaking through onto your palm. It is so easy to take care of also just simply give it a wash after you've used it and its back to the freshness of when you first opened it ready for the next time you apply the tan! This mitt is one I would recommend to any tanners to own as it gives a perfect application and will last you a hell of a long time! In Loving Tans accessories collection which the mitt is part of they also do an easy to reach back applicator which I think is a genius idea and I'm always having to bend my arm into crazy positions to get my back tanned but with this life would be a lot easier! They also do a tan removing glove which saves a lot of time as the worst part of fake tanning is having to rub your skin raw with exfoliators trying to get the last bits of tan off ready for a fresh application! 





BEAUTY TRICK ALERT:
A friend of mine taught me this little trick, apply fake tan on your face with a brush. It can be any big fluffy brush this is just a little one from boots you don't have to spend a lot at all and keep this aside for each time you tan. Your face will look extremely dark when you first put it on as you're getting a thicker layer than applying it with a mitt but this just means it will be even all over your face and you won't miss a section of your face either. I do this by squirting a small amount onto my brush then use it in circular motions around my face really working the tan into the skin. After you have tried this I promise you will never look back but I do HIGHLY recommend using a mitt for the rest of your body.


My fake tanning routine tips:

DO NOT apply straight after shaving and exfoliating, the tan will not sit well on your legs at all and may streak. Give around 24 hours after then apply the tan for a smooth application this allows the skin to calm down and for any cuts to heal 

Make sure you are prepared, when it comes to tanning make sure you have everything you need around you so you can do it all in one go.

Moisturise before but not straight before, it needs to have time to soak into your skin. I would say moisturise then leave it a few hours before tanning. I will usually do this in the morning then apply the tan at night.

Try to avoid deodorant before use so your under arms are smooth with no product on for a streak free tan.

DO NOT apply straight after a bath or shower. Again wait an hour or so after so your skin is dry to apply the tan. I'd also recommend after a hot shower or bath you blast your body with cold water, it might not feel that nice but your tan will benefit as it will shrink your pores.

Make sure you do it in front of a mirror so you can see where you're applying it too at all angles.

DO NOT do it in a dark room. You will not see patches you have missed, make sure its in good lighting so you can see the tan going onto your skin.

Take your time! Don't rush it, give yourself enough time to do it for the best results. Id say you'd only need a maximum of 20 minutes for new tanners and less time for experienced tanners!

If you have an even DO NOT tan that morning or the day before. Do it 2 days before so that the colour will be sitting nicely for the event and if you wanted to go darker you have enough time to apply a second coat.

Start at the ankles and work your way up! Do it over the body in sweeping motions but I would recommend doing it in circular motions on the face with a brush.

MOISTURISE! The most important places to focus on moisturising prier to tanning are any areas that get dry such ash elbows, knees and ankles and the face, I suffer from little dry patches on my face at times so I make sure these are well moisturised to prevent the tan clogging on them. I'd say moisturise all over a few hours before but just before application apply a small amount on these areas to make sure the tan doesn't go darker in these areas, no one likes super brown knees that stand out, you want it too look as natural as possible!

CHECK! Make sure when you think you have finished applying it all over the body you check in a mirror for any missed spots. Lift up your arms and make sure its all around them as its easy to miss patches on the back of the arms if not careful.

Make sure you don't put clothes on straight away. Air it for as long as possible, with Loving Tan it dried quickly so you won't have to wait around for ages and make sure the clothing you put on is dark and loose fitting!

Try not to get water on your skin while you're waiting for it to develop! This will leave little white blotches and thats not a good look! Thats why I recommend doing it before you sleep then theres no risk of having to wash your hands during the night or getting caught in the rain. You'll be asleep and the tan will work itself!

Sleeping with tan tip- Make sure you're not too warm! Now I know everyone likes a cosy night sleep but for the nights when tanning I make sure I know I won't get too warm in the night as if you're roasting in your sleep, you will sweat (it's normal, everyone sweats) and your tan might run. Don't sleep with the heating on for that night or an electric blanket if you have one. 

When tanning make sure theres nothing around you that can get damaged. So many times when I've been happily tanning singing along to music having a little dance some mousse will fly off my mitt and fall onto something, and it will stain. So learn from my mistake and make sure you're doing it in a space with no damage risk and be more careful than I have been in the past!

When you rinse your tan off after it has developed DO NOT scrub it. Simply let the water run the tan excess tan off and when you get out the shower pat yourself dry to make sure the tan stays even all over.

The days after you have your beautiful glowing tan moisturise daily to keep your tan even and prolong the colour!

If you don't want it to stain your hair...especially light colours apply some vaseline to these areas! If you have blonde eyebrows or hair it can easily be stained when applying fake tan if you aren't careful so applying a little bit of vaseline to these areas before tanning will prevent that from happening. 

DO NOT apply a fresh coat of fake tan a few days after applying the first one if the tan is patchy. This will just clog and make your skin look patchy. Make sure you exfoliate it ALL off and start a fresh when it's patchy. I find the best way to do this is to soak in the bath then do it.


If you put in the effort with your tanning routine including preparation of the skin and looking after it once the tan is on it will really be worth while.






Here is a before and after of me using the Loving Tan Ultra Dark Mousse. I was beyond impressed with the results and I am writing this a few days after as I wanted to see how it lasted days after it. My tan is still intact and even and I have such a lovely healthy colour I feel like I've been in the Caribbean for two weeks as it is really natural looking. It was an easy tan to apply and with the amazing mitt it created the best even colour pay off. I don't ever see myself going back to my old fake tans now as this is by far the best I have used and it is well worth the money you will pay for it. Below is a comparison of my arm one ay after compared to my boyfriends, you can really see how lovely the colour looks here! In real life it is the perfect tone of bronzed colour, some tans give you a reddish brown colour pay off and some an orange toned but Loving Tan has given me golden bronzed skin and if I wore this regularly never properly revealing my natural skin tone I believe people would think it was a natural tan.




You can buy Loving Tan here in a various range of colours and remember they ship worldwide! 


If you have any of your own fake tanning tips I would love to hear about them and add them to my routine, just leave a comment below


Thankyou for reading and I hope you have a nice day!

xxxxx

                                                        InstagramTwitterFacebook
SHARE:

The face of mental health.



LISTEN. LOVE. LEARN

IF WE LISTEN TO THOSE AROUND US, SHOW PEOPLE AROUND US LOVE AT ALL TIMES  AND LEARN ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH THEN WE CAN HELP BANISH THE STIGMA ATTACHED TO IT. 




The face of mental health. The face of depression. The face of anxiety. The face of PTSD. The face of any mental health illness. What is it?
Truth be told they don't have faces, they don't have a set expression on each persons face. Some people hide it well, some people let it show. Both are normal, both are ok. When people think of 'the face' of mental health people imagine tears streaming down a face. This isn't always the case and I wanted to share mine to encourage others to open up and share theirs or talk about it. 

My face can be blank, my face can be the strongest smile, my face can be red raw eyes from flood of tears, my face can be exhausted eyes. They're all different and that's the scariest thing. You could be the smiliest happiest person but behind closed doors your other faces come out and nobody knows them, nobody knows your struggles as you're so well at hiding it. That is me, I'm always smiling around people, I'm always trying to lift people up but at home where I'm comfortable I have my darkest days and anyone outside wouldn't know meaning they can't help you. This is why it's important if you hide your faces or even wear them proud, tell people, talk to people about how you feel behind closed doors.

Here's me and my faces, vulnerable to the world, not hiding anymore. 








I was ok, I was ok for years. After losing my dad to suicide I was ok, or so I thought. I was ok in the sense I was a pro at hiding it, a pro at bottling it up. My family all went to counselling to help and guide them but not me, at the time I thought I didn't need it and it would make me worse. I continued this mind frame for years. I never really had extremely low points until around 2016.

When I met my partner Martyn it was great, it was great to be happy and still is, but allowing myself to love someone and let my feelings run free opened up the space for the negative feelings I had bottled up for years to run free along side the good ones.

In 2016 I did my Mental Health First Aid course which is one of the best things I've ever done and a main accomplishment in my life but this effect me in both good and bad ways. I would strongly advise anyone going for this course to make sure your head is in the right place first but 100% do it, it will do yourself and the world so much good. It allowed me to understand more how to deal myself with mental health and to help others. Key things to look out for. But with learning the key things to look out for when we got to the subjects of anxiety and depression I saw myself in the powerpoint. I saw the descriptions fitting me and that scared me, that scared me so much and opened up a can of worms with my mental health and the extremely low days started.

Id sit in a dark room, I'd sit in a dark room either numb or in floods of tears. I'd sit in that dark room with my dark mind not wanting to be here anymore. I have scars on my legs from it, I have scars in my mind about it. But as soon as I stepped outside of that dark room nobody would know. Only my boyfriend who I lived with would know and would help me as much as he could. He would help me when I had a handful of pills, he would help me when I had a sharp item in my hand ready to self harm again. If it wasn't for him helping me and listening to me when I needed to talk I really don't think I'd be alive today. I have only just started to tell my family now 2 years on about how low I got now I'm stronger. But I do know for sure if I had gone through it all alone, if I was living alone it wouldn't be me writing this now, it would be someone writing it in memory of me and that is petrifying. Talking helps, talking saves lives. A few weeks passed and I was feeling in a much better place, I saw it as if you have a chest infection all the bad stuff needs to come out of your body before you're feeling better again and with my mental health at this stage that was happening. Everything I had bottled up for years about my dads suicide and feeling the same way as him came up and out and it had to get worse before it got better. It was hell, I felt like I was living in a prison in my mind. At the end of it it made me want to help others even harder because I couldn't imagine feeling what I did for most days of my life and wanting live on and the sad case is so many people do feel this low for so many days of their life. I want to help those people.

Now 2 years on I don't self harm, I get the feeling sometimes to do it when I'm really low and those negative thoughts come creeping back in but I do everything in my will to not let it happen. I'm ok most of the time now I would say it's more anxiety that gets me now rather than depression. It can be something so tiny that sets me off now, I can be ok for ages them BAM something small happens and I feel like the worlds crumbling around me but I know my way out now and I know how to help myself.


I am writing this and sharing my own struggles to show it's ok to open up. I have certain people I feel comfortable talking to my own struggles about, not everybody, but you just have to find the people you feel comfortable with talking to about it because boy oh boy it really helps. I know now if I ever got so low like I was in 2016 I can go and seek some help at my local GP and I wouldn't hesitate to either but for some people this is the scariest thing and they put it off until it's too late and to be honest I don't blame them and I understand. There is still a stigma around it, I have seen it improving in the last two years but sadly it is still there and it does hold people back from getting help and this is NOT right.

Please be mindful, please talk, please listen. You never know what somebody is facing behind closed doors.

Thankyou.

LISTEN. LOVE. LEARN

IF WE LISTEN TO THOSE AROUND US, SHOW PEOPLE AROUND US LOVE AT ALL TIMES  AND LEARN ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH THEN WE CAN HELP BANISH THE STIGMA ATTACHED TO IT. 



Below are a collection of videos I have researched watching them all one by one and that I feel could help people learn about mental illnesses and also help people with certain mental illnesses know they aren't alone and can be a 'pick me up' on their worst days with tips of how people going through the same as them cope. Just simply click on the title of the video and it will open it up on a new page for you. I have put them into sections of genres so they're easy for you to access when needed. Please remember these are always here, you could even bookmark this page so if you ever need to hear words from someone who is going through the same as you you can listen to them whenever you need to. 


Mental Health awareness, general videos and ones that could help people learn

Buzzfeed
JacksGap

Vice-Mental health in children

Whatmiadidnext
Katimorton
Edensparadise



Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Whatmiadidnext

Meghanrienks

Zoella



ADHD-Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder


Buzzfeed




Bipolar 



Body Dysmorphia

Shane

Howcast

Savannahbrown



BPD- Borderline Personality Disorder



Depression



Eating Disorders



OCD- Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder 


Postpartum/Postnatal Depression



PTSD- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder



SAD-Seasonal Affective Disorder



Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder



Suicide prevention/awareness and dealing with a loss

Mayoclinic

Buzzfeed

Watchwellcast

Tedtalks


Also, if you're ever feeling alone and need to talk or want to find support for someone you know here are a number of charities and help lines who's job it is to help anyone in your situation. Please don't be afraid to reach out, it isn't a sign of weakness. If you had a problem with your car you would call a mechanic for advice and help so the same principal should apply to mental health. Any help is good.



Anxiety UK
Charity providing support if you've been diagnosed with an anxiety condition.
Phone: 08444 775 774 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am-5.30pm)

Bipolar UK
A charity helping people living with manic depression or bipolar disorder.

CALM
CALM is the Campaign Against Living Miserably, for men aged 15-35.

Depression Alliance
Charity for sufferers of depression. Has a network of self-help groups.

Mental Health Foundation
Provides information and support for anyone with mental health problems or learning disabilities.

Mind
Promotes the views and needs of people with mental health problems.
Phone: 0300 123 3393 (Mon-Fri, 9am-6pm)
Website: www.mind.org.uk

OCD Action
Support for people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Includes information on treatment and online resources.
Phone: 0845 390 6232 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am-5pm)

OCD UK
A charity run by people with OCD, for people with OCD. Includes facts, news and treatments.
Phone: 0845 120 3778 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm)
Website: www.ocduk.org 

No Panic
Voluntary charity offering support for sufferers of panic attacks and OCD. Offers a course to help overcome your phobia/OCD. Includes a helpline.
Phone: 0844 967 4848 (daily, 10am-10pm)

PAPYRUS
Young suicide prevention society.
Phone: HOPElineUK 0800 068 4141 (Mon-Fri,10am-5pm & 7-10pm. Weekends 2-5pm)

Rethink Mental Illness
Support and advice for people living with mental illness.
Phone: 0300 5000 927 (Mon-Fri, 10am-2pm)
Website: www.rethink.org

Samaritans
Confidential support for people experiencing feelings of distress or despair.
Phone: 116 123 (free 24-hour helpline)

Sane
Charity offering support and carrying out research into mental illness. 
Phone: 0845 767 8000 (daily, 6-11pm)
SANEmail email: sanemail@org.uk
Website: www.sane.org.uk

YoungMinds
Information on child and adolescent mental health. Services for parents and professionals.
Phone: Parents' helpline 0808 802 5544 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am-4pm)

SHARE:
© Turquoise Trouble. All rights reserved.
MINIMAL BLOGGER TEMPLATES BY pipdig