Product Review: L'Oreal Sublime Bronze

Hello friends! It's been so long.... I've been battling car issues (DON'T get me started) and going to cottages and laying about on beaches and going to jazz shows! Not a whole lot of blogging got done in between all that, I'm afraid.

Let me take a quick moment to thank the lovely Emilie Claire Barlow for putting on an amazing show on Saturday. It's like she picked my brain and found my current favourite songs of hers and performed them all! EC is a jazz singer, quite possibly the best jazz singer in all of history. She's pretty much my favourite musician for ever and ever amen. She's local too, so I get to catch her gigs often, and I think that Saturday night's was the best I've seen yet. It was a warm night, the bar was packed, and the jazz was smokin'! I'd like to especially thank EC for finally hiring a young, goodlooking (and talented!) drummer. Not that I'm into that any more, of course. But it's nice to have nice things to look at, no?

Also! I saw Etta James in concert last night, and she is incredible! That voice hasn't lost any power over the years, and she remains a sassy and engaging entertainer. Plus, Etta looked damn good! She is the hippest, sexiest 70-yr old mamma ever and I envy her grandkids. I actually shed a couple tears (shh! don't tell!) when she sang "At Last". (Bonus: my mascara -- LashExact -- didn't run!)

Anyway, back to the review. Speaking of laying about on beaches, with beach season comes the fear of exposing one's legs and having them mistaken for flourescent light tubes. Fortunately, we now have all manner of self-tanning products to give our skin a healthy-looking glow. I've tried a few of those lotions where there's just a tiny bit of self tanner inside, and they're quite good at what they do (I think Cowgirl Warrior will be doing a review of a bunch of them soon!), but I was starting to miss the faster and more pronounced effects of a proper self tanner.

I've tried a few self tanners in the past... Sally Hansen (ewwww!), the Neutrogena foam (streaky AND stinky!), and the Body Shop's Fake It (alright, but not the best smelling, and pricey for what it is). On the recommendation of the most excellent Mrs. Badger, I picked up a tube of L'Oreal Sublime Bronze. She was careful to add that I wanted the tinted lotion version, not the gel, and not the one with SPF. And so that's what I got.




In a nutshell, this is the BEST self tanner I have tried. (I know this is old news to lots of people, but it's new for ME, so there ya go.) It goes on smoothly, and it's tinted this shimmery bronze colour, so it's clear where you applied it. Also, it means that you get a nice (if temporary) glow right away, if you're in a hurry. It gives great, even colour, and doesn't grab overly on dry skin (To try avoid dark spots, I use a good moisturizer just on my knees and ankles first, and then dab those areas again with a damp tissue after application). I grabbed the Medium-Deep version the first time as it was all the drugstore had, and to my surprise, I found that one application made me quite tan, but not too dark. After a day or two of regular exfoliation and shaving in the shower, it faded to a nice medium tan. I've since tried the Light-Medium, and it's pretty much the same performance-wise, just lighter in shade (duh).

The best part about this tanner is that the DHA-reek is NOT that evident! If I put it on before bed time, by next morning, it's quite subdued. I would say it's on-par with (or even a bit less stinky than) the Jergens Natural Glow lotion. If I put it on in the morning, I do find that it gets a bit smelly during the day, but it's no where NEAR the god-awful stank of the Sally Hansen stuff. I do find that it takes some time to dry ... it feels a bit sticky for the good part of an hour, so if you can arrange to be pants-free for a while after you put it on, all the better. For such an even, natural colour, I'm willing to put up with the slight smell and stickiness. Time to show off those gams!!