Beauty: The great British fake off 

No foreign holiday doesn’t have to mean no tan with these fabulous faux glows 

 Well, it’s as good a time as any to start perfecting your faux tan. It’s not as though we’ll be jetting off to sunnier climes any time soon for the real thing (always mindfully and with SPF). So to help the faking process along I’ve narrowed down my favourite five new self-tan launches.

1 St Tropez Purity Vitamins Bronzing Water Mist (£31, boots.com) is a clear variety of tanner, which is much easier to apply than you might imagine as you can still tell and feel where you have applied it. This comes with skincare benefits, including vitamin C – which is great for skin clarity – and hyaluronic acid. It also delivers a lovely bronze hue which develops over four to six hours. It’s vegan too – as are all of these products.

2 New to our shores is Australian Glow – a brand with a conscience as bottles are refillable. I like the Self Tan Mousse (£15.99, superdrug.com), which comes out of the tube a shade of brown. The texture is light and easy to spread as you can see where you’ve placed it. It takes four to six hours to develop.

3 St Moriz Advanced Pro Formula Spray Tan in a Can (£12.99, superdrug.com) is another colour-free application process. This has an aerosol nozzle which I found took a little mastering but it’s better to be emphatic rather than pussy-foot around and it delivers a fairly deep tan.

4 If you want to go for the softly, softly route towards building your tan then I recommend the Tan-Luxe Super Glow Body Hyaluronic Self-Tan Serum (£35, spacenk.com). This is a body version of its already much-trusted face self-tanning serum in terms of the texture, easy application and the very natural sun-kissed look it gives. Rub a few pumps into your skin and the colour will develop in four to six hours. It’s light enough that you can apply it daily and comes with hyaluronic acid so can also act as your moisturiser.

5 Bare by Vogue Williams Self Tan Lotion (£21.25, barebyvogue.com) is great if you prefer to see where you are applying. It comes out dark – almost worryingly tar-like – and I’d use sparingly as a small amount really goes far. It rubs in easily and develops into a gorgeously deep golden tan.

With all of these I found using a mitt to rub in the tan made a difference for the better (most brands have their own). Regardless of how and what you apply make sure you wash your hands well afterwards or you will have orange palms.

 And two bronzing legends  

Some beauty products acquire such legendary status that you feel they should be a part of life. So it was for me when it came to Guerlain’s Terracotta Powder, one of the most famous and long-standing bronzer lines in the business. Created in 1984, there’s no doubt that Terracotta deserves its accolades as one of the most natural – and luxurious – bronzing powders. I have dabbled with it and when I was younger the slight shimmer to the formula didn’t bother me much, though it was never my favourite aspect. Since bronzer is an everyday basic for me I’m pretty pernickety about it. So as soon as I discovered Jean Paul Gaultier’s matte bronzer I was hooked. Sadly, it has long since become that ultimate golden offering: toast.

Then my bronzer journey went super luxe: Tom Ford arrived on the scene with his Soleil Gold Bronzer in Terra (below) in an elegant white and gold palette and as marvellously matte as you could wish for (£43.20, johnlewis.com). Now, finally, I’ve come full circle back to Guerlain. Not because I’ve changed my mind about shimmer but because it has introduced a Terracotta Matte (bottom) in three shades (£38, debenhams.com). Hurrah! This comes after it offered a limited edition matte version in a collection in 2017 and realised that demand for such a thing was high. So here it is, back – and permanently so. And Terracotta is finally my own ultimate bronzing classic.