James Read Gradual Tan – Medium  

Hello hello, here come my thoughts on the James Read Gradual Tan…. Firstly, it’s expensive. £18.50 for 50ml, which I reckon is about 10 or so applications on the face and neck, so if like me you use it a couple of times a week, its not a cheap tan. My “usual” fake tan was £8.00 from Marks and Spencer and that was a 200ml tube, but the reason I put usual in inverted commas is because as always happens to me, once I find my holy grail product, it gets discontinued. Boo.  

What I’m looking for in a tan for my face is that it’s not too dark (coz I is of the pasty casper kind), but also not a non-existent colour (which is what you’ll get if you buy the No7 gradual tan, nothing gradual about it, they should have called it “No tan, just really greasy moisturizer that’ll give you spots”). I’m strangely not too bothered by the usual biscuit tan smell, but I don’t want it to smell like old dust, which is what Fake Bake smells like to me.  

I of course don’t want it to break my skin out in spots, I don’t want it to feel sticky for ages, I’d like it to be a non orange hue and if it comes in an easy to use container and looks pretty then it gets brownie points :0) Oh, and of course no streaks allowed and it should fade evenly.

So, the James Read gradual tan, apart from being expensive, has impressed me a fair amount, though it’s by no means Holy Grail status. The container is fairly nice looking, and is an easy to use pump dispenser. So far so good. I applied it on my face & neck at night, it dried fairly quickly, and I woke up the next morning excited to see if I had the healthy glow I’m going for. Before getting out of bed, I had a feel of my face and I did notice it felt a little dry. When looking in the mirror, I was surprised with the amount of colour I could see considering it was a gradual tanner, and you could certainly see a difference. There were no streaks and no smell at all.

Once I’d put my makeup on, I looked again and it did seem like there was a slight orange tone to my face, but nothing too drastic.  Fast forward to the evening and once I’d taken my makeup off I found myself staring at a small but red spot. Coincidence? Perhaps, since I do have a pimple here and there for sure, but I just have a feeling it was related to the tan.

This is now day 2, and I do like that it’s not an undetectable amount of colour by any means, and the colour hasn’t faded one bit despite my ruthless cleaning regime, but neither is it natural looking and my conclusion is that this Medium one is just too dark for me.  

I certainly wouldn’t repurchase this gradual tan in medium, but I will use up the rest of the bottle but maybe mix it with my moisturizer to lighten it up. I’ll watch my skin and see if it reacts again and if it doesn’t, I might try the gradual tan in light and see how I get on.  

Don’t you just wish there was some way you could tan your scalp to match your face though!

Any recommendations Ladies, for a tan that may meet my near impossible requirements?!