The Only Way is Essex! Lauren's Way Fake Tan

If you have watched The Only Way Is Essex, you will know that all the girls are completely tanned, glam and made up at all times, and if you haven't, frankly, you're missing out! As Season 2 drew to a close, the news came out that one of the stars of the show, Lauren Goodger, was bringing out her own line of fake tan.

Her tanning range, Lauren's Way, consists of a mousse or lotion, both in one shade 'dark', and boy, is it dark!

I was very kindly sent a bottle of Lauren's Way Tanning Lotion to test out. As you can see from the photo above, the lotion itself is a rather scary very very dark brown colour. This acts well as a colour guide, but I was a bit worried I'd end up waking up with a case of oompa-loompa-itus.

Before applying the tan I put some moisturiser on the bits of my body I know get dry, and wouldn't want them to pick up any extra tan than the rest of my body - so knees, elbows, the tops of my feet, and also did around my hairline so I wouldn't get a noticeable line!

I used a mitt to apply the lotion and was pleasantly surprised at the smell. Rather than eau de burnt biscuit so common with fake tans, Lauren's Way smells of watermelons... although sadly as it was developing I did notice that had disappeared and was replaced with the smell of a sunbed shop!

Because of the colour guide, it is easy to apply. The consistency of the lotion seems just right, not runny but not so thick that it doesn't blend in - a bit like a suntan lotion. As soon as you put it on, you look very dark and 'muddy' - here is a photo of my hand with the tanning lotion on...

I left it to touch-dry which only took a couple of minutes, before putting on some loose pyjamas and getting in to bed, wondering how much of this colour would rinse off in the morning!

I had purposely left my skin totally free of fake tan for a week or so before trialling this product, so here you get to see my 'before' legs in all their pasty glory

Please note, I do not usually wear such short shorts - this was merely for the purposes of showing you as much leg as possible! And yes, that is a huge bruise on my thigh - beware the dangers of babygates! Can you believe, I took an actual colour swatch from my leg to make the bar at the bottom, and it says my skin is grey?! Good job I'm testing out a fake tan then, ey!?

Morning came, and wow, I was brown, very brown, with maybe a slight tint of orange. Uh-oh. I got in the bath, and washed my body using a bath-puff thing (is that the correct name?!), and just from looking at the murky water, I knew I would no longer be quite so dark.

After one application of Lauren's Way tan I had a nice hint of colour without looking fake-tanned. All traces of orangeness were gone, in my opinion it gave me a nice, natural sun kissed colour. You may have noticed, the colour swatch taken from my leg has gone from grey to very pale brown, hurrah!

As you can see from the photo, some of my drier patches were picked up by the tan (the top of my foot and some nicks I had on my legs). I decided to keep using it for a few more nights to see how the colour developed as it built up, but made sure I applied more moisturiser over the dry patches and exfoliated them well in the shower.

The more I applied it, the browner I became, but at no point did I look orange. It's not the thing I would immediately turn to if I needed to be brown the very next day, but as far as a gradual tan, it's excellent. I for one, have gone from dead looking to human using it!

Right, you're going to have to excuse the silly pictures coming up, but I noticed something when downloading some photos from my compact camera.

The photo on the left (excuse my moodiness - I was unhappy with my new hair colour and was trying to take a pic to show it to my hairdresser!) is before any tan. The photo on the right is after 3 applications of Lauren's Way tanning lotion.

Looking brown, huh?! It's quite a noticeable difference. I love how the photos have ended up looking like brown-me is pointing at grey-me laughing at my paleness!

To be honest, I was a little dubious about trying this tan out - as much as I wanted to,  as it wasn't a product that had been around for long, and made by a reality tv star, I did have my doubts as to how good it would be. I totally take back any of those thoughts as I am thoroughly impressed and will definitely continue to use Lauren's Way tanning lotion throughout the summer.

Have you tried Lauren's Way tan? What's the mousse like - I am intrigued to know?

If you don't own any yet, Lauren's Way Fake Tan can be bought here, There's a special offer of both the lotion and mousse for only £25 at the moment - happy shopping!