Norvell Tanning Mousse: A Great Product For Pale Gals!

I have only ever dabbled with fake tans once or twice before. Whilst many rely on them for that bronzed goddess look on a weekly basis, I have reached for fake tan just a handful of times in my life! For ages, I have been so scared of putting on too much and having to go into work the next day looking orange that I have just avoided tan altogether. My first experiences involved some of the first gradual tans that smelt funny and definitely left you a bit tangoed (rather than providing a natural colour like they claimed), and I think it put me off!

As someone who is also very pale, I always assumed that if I fake tanned it would look obviously fake. Everyone is so used to me being so pasty, so to walk in one day looking like I've spent a month in the Caribbean just wasn't the 'natural' look I'd want. Another thing to add to the growing list of things putting me off was application. The couple of times I had tried mists and sprays left me with patchy results- I am hopeless at applying tans that barely made a difference to my complexion and still managed to mess that up...so to go in with something darker with my lack of skills filled me with dread. There was an awful long list of why I should not use fake tan, and too many boxes that my perfect one should tick.

When I won a Norvell Tanning giveaway a while ago, the products sat in the jiffy bag for a good few months before I finally plucked up the courage to try them out. I had a long weekend, so if I messed up at least I had a few days to try and scrub it off/hope it faded in time for work on Monday! I researched application tips online, and having prepped as per instructions (gentle exfoliation, a light moisturiser then extra moisturiser on the areas that go patchy), I was ready to try out the scary tanning products.

The Norvell products I won included a tanning mousse, tan prolonging shower gel, exfoliating mitt for pre-application, body exfoliator and a pH balancer for spritzing on before you go in with the tan. Whilst I didn't use the mitt, and haven't used the shower gel or exfoliator (which I am 100% trying next time), the other two products completely changed my mind about tanning. I used a wash cloth to apply the mousse (instead of a mitt- it worked fine) in gentle circular motions. There were no streaks, no patches...just an even colour that looked so natural. I was surprised that it didn't turn out orange, especially as the brand is the one who provides the tanning on Strictly Come Dancing and they all look super bronzed! Although it was probably far too subtle for most people, it just added the hint of colour I needed! In fact, I think next time I will go in with more tan to make it slightly darker (I know, I'm feeling brave now).

The tanning mousse itself costs £24.99- which seems quite a lot but I think you could get 3 or 4 uses out of it. The other pre and post application products ranged between £5.99 and £19.99, but I am dubious as to how much they actually help- I found the tan did fade quite quickly without using these so I will have to try them out next time and report back! Overall, I'm super impressed with this tan. If you're looking for something really dark and bronzing, this probably isn't for you. But for pale gals like me who just want to look like they've been in the sun a bit and caught a natural tan, this is perfect!