St Tropez Gradual Tan Everyday Body Moisturiser Medium Dark

Hey everyone!
I am not usually one to fake tan - one disastrous spray-tan experience for my 18th birthday, which left me looking like I'd dipped myself in orange paint, put paid to that. But I picked up a sample of the St. Tropez Gradual Tan Everyday Body Moisturiser in Medium Dark (£14.39 full size)* -what a mouthful! - in both my ELLE and my Cosmo Blog Awards goody bag, so I thought I might as well give it a try.

I'll start by saying there are no before/after body shots because: one, it's far too cold to wear shorts and two: it's hard to take full body shots of yourself without a tripod. 

However, I have included a photo below of my face post-tan. I know it's not a facial tanner, but I couldn't let me face be a different colour to my body.

I like the packaging of this - minimal, sleek, and easy to use. The tanner has a very faint biscuit smell but it dies down straight away. The tan itself is like a white moisturiser that sinks in clear, and then develops into your tan colour. This differs from other tanners I've seen that go on dark and then wash off. 

In a way this means you can miss spots, but just try to apply all over and remember you can go over the areas each day as it's an everyday moisturiser.

Obviously, I'm very pale and this shade is probably not meant for me. In the future I'd probably go with light/medium. As it is, I mixed the tanner with a little bit of my La Roche Posay Lipikar Baume AP to thin it out before applying. I would always moisturise before fake tan anyway, but this lightened the colour for me.

I applied all over and waited till touch dry (for me, 10-15 minutes) before dressing. The colour is even, natural looking and non streaky, at least on me.

I feel like in my sallow winter months, this makes me look a lot healthier! I may be a fake tan convert. See the results below (I am not wearing makeup):

You could easily go darker if you felt like it, just don't mix with moisturiser! But given how pale I am normally this was a step in the right direction for me, and it's not so heavy that it looks fake.

Do you use fake tan? Which do you recommend?

S xx