Institut Esthederm Uv in Cellium Bronzant

I was first introduced to Institut Esthederm as a brand, when I was working for Space NK, where we stocked a range of their sun care products. They have a different philosophy to the norm - instead of having sun protection with SPF in it, they have a star rating which works with your own skin to provide you adequate protection - 2 star for European sun, 3 star for tropical sun... while giving you a great tan at the same time.

As well as actual sun protection, they also have pre and after tanning products. Uv in Cellium Bronzant is their pre tanner which works by boosting your melanin to make your skin sun-ready, less likely to burn, and giving you a lovely tan quicker than usual. You spray over your face and body every day for two weeks before you are due to go on holiday which is a very painless process - it doesn't have a smell or leave any kind of residue or weird feeling to your skin; it's just a case of spraying, letting it dry (which takes under a minute), then you're good to go.

I have to admit, when I was first told about it, I was a little skeptical, and at £42.50 for 150mls it wasn't cheap enough to give it a go on a whim, but I kept an open mind. Over my time working for Space NK, I ended up selling so many bottles of this, to customers which swore by it, as well as their sun protection - telling me they got the best tans of their lives while using it and they just have to use it now. As a naturally pasty little thing, each customer that came with a good story to tell about it, pushed me a little more, until eventually, I was sold.

Two weeks before my holiday to Crete, which I have just returned from, I started applying it to clean skin - I still had some left so I continued to use it for the first few days of my holiday until it ran out... and here is what happened.

The first photo is me at the end of July, my natural skin colour, with no fake tan. The second photo is the colour of my tan after a week in Ibiza last summer (without using the Bronzant - i.e. my usual tan), and the third photo is me after a week in Crete (using the Bronzant).

As you can tell, I am a LOT browner than my natural skin colour, and considerably darker than the colour I usually go on holiday.

If I am completely honest with you, I normally have a spray tan the day I get back from holiday, just so it looks like I've been away (can't believe I've just admitted that but hey ho, I want to get my point across!). I wondered if I would head the same way this time, as day one came and went with only a tiny hint of colour, however at the end of day two an amazing thing happened, I had a tan - a real life proper tan!

I absolutely love this stuff and am sure my tan is due to it - I have never (naturally) gone this colour before and I totally recommend it to anyone who normally finds it hard to tan. Now I just need to find a way to stop it from fading!

If you'd like to give it a go, you can get it from Space NK here.

Have you tried any Institut Esthederm products before? What do you think of them?