Bondi Sands: Is The Australian Wonder-Tan Really Worth The Hype?

I suffer from a horrible illness called #PaleGirlProblems. I don't tan. At all. I spent 10 days soaking up the rays on sunny Greek islands and left with no tan lines to show off. Because of my inability to go any other shade than 'pale white', I have often ventured into options which allow me to fake it; from spray tans at a salon, to moisturisers with built-in gradual tan. Spray tans have been the only option that have really made a difference to my skin tone, but I can't really afford to splash out on the luxury of having a golden glow for a few weeks when that money could pay the bills instead. As such, I picked up the new cult product, Bondi Sands home spray tan, in hope that this DIY option would be the solution I've been looking for.

This new Australian tanning brand have created a range of products which have proved incredibly popular amongst bloggers and beauty fanatics alike. From their self-tanning lotions, foams and mists, they've all proved to be winners, securing their fast-achieved status as one of the top high-street tanning brands. Out of curiosity (and in desperate need of a summer glow after Greece failed me), I picked up their self-tanning mist in 'Light to Medium'. This much-loved tan is supposed to give you a golden glow after 30 minutes; clean, exfoliate and prep skin, shake the can well, and spray the mist all over your body, making sure to hold the can about 30cm away when you do so. Once the tan has had half an hour to develop, simply wash the excess off in the shower, pat dry and voila! A perfectly natural tan!

I have used this a few times now (once a week to help build up the tan gradually and naturally) and, while at first barely noticed a change in colour, am now seeing a slight tan developing on my skin. Maybe I have been a bit scared about applying too much and going orange so have been holding back a bit, hence why it has taken so long for a tan to appear, but I am actually loving the slight tan I have going on. It isn't much, but I guess a dark tan wouldn't look natural on my skin anyway so it's perfect for me!

The tan blobs!

These tanning products have an incredibly strong (albeit delicious) tropical coconut scent, so make sure you keep the room ventilated when using this or it'll stink your room out all week! Aside from the tan that I am growing to like and the gorgeous scent, this product is a bit of a faff to use. Despite shaking the can vigorously before use, when I spray the mist onto my skin, I am often left with massive blobs of dark tan which end up staining my body; it seems no amount of shaking can prevent this. This is obviously annoying as by wiping off the tan blobs, you're wiping off a bit of the colour around or underneath it, meaning you're risking it going a bit patchy. No-one wants a patchy tan!

I did expect a stronger colour on my first application of this, and am starting to dread the nuisance of the tan blobs whenever I go to top up my tan. The Bondi Sands product is OK, but I wouldn't say it's any better than any other self-tanning mists out there, such as Sienna X (which I do adore). It's an interesting product to try out, but by no means perfect or worthy of such hype; definitely expect to get annoyed at the dark tan splodges that will appear all over your skin. Is it worth £15? Probably not, but it may be worth picking up when it's on promotion.