We all have our prejudices when it comes to beauty; our horrors and our phobias.
Yours may be over-emphatic lip liner or painfully straightened hair, French manicures or power brows. Mine is tanning, whether real or fake. Always has been, always will be.
I sported my first and last fake tan on the day of Live Aid — satsuma-coloured, smelling of biscuits, a blight from knee to ankle. Club Tropicana by way of Birmingham.
My first and last grown-up tan came aged 20 — an experiment that left me feeling grubby. Everybody else loved it, me not so much.
My reasons for not wanting to get Tango’d are ideological, aesthetic, and sheer bloody laziness. Translation: nobody’s skin is the wrong colour. I dislike the appearance of a tan and — even if I didn’t — I can’t be bothered.
Hannah Betts shares a selection of the best products for a lasting fake tan without the smell of biscuit (file image)
Instead, I am advocating valuing what nature gave us — black, white or, in my case, a sort of pale green.
Still, I realise not everyone is happy looking like Morticia. (Boys at school used to follow me about clicking The Addams Family theme. In southern Italy, I’ve been trailed by youths shouting the words for ‘ghost’, ‘anaemia’, and even ‘leukaemia’.) And so, for years now, I have been deploying a crack tan-testing team of chic international jetsetters who also have an eye for a bargain.
St Tropez, as we all know, was the great glam game changer when it launched here 25 years ago, and it’s still the UK’s leading prestige tanning brand.
The double-digit boost St Tropez saw in sales this August, when Brits gave themselves a staycation bronze-over, is continuing into autumn as we cling to the last show of skin.
While the focus is shifting to its gradual tan and face wares, its Ashley Graham Limited Edition Ultimate Glow Kit (£38, uk.sttropeztan.com) continues to be the breakaway hit of 2021. The mousse and mit combo was crowned Amazon’s No 1bestselling faux glow.
And, yet, the tan experts in my life have moved beyond St Tropez in recent years and taken up with the genre’s disruptors. My friend Fitz, who maintains a gorgeously gleaming, year-round base tan, is an advocate of Tan-Luxe, and finds St T ‘a bit smelly and gloopy in comparison’.
Billed as the tailor-made tanning company, Tan-Luxe is based around drops you add into your moisturiser, serum or oil, creating a fabulous golden glimmer. Beauty insiders live for them, so they’ve won more awards than Taylor Swift.
Fitz adores the day version: Tan-Luxe The Face Illuminating Self-Tan Drops in Light/Medium (£35, tan-luxe.com). There’s also an overnight incarnation, Sleep Oil (£34), plus The Body (£42), which you can add to your body lotion.
Hannah (pictured) said everyone recommends Nars Bronzing Powder in Laguna
Using Tan-Luxe is simplicity itself: Two drops = radiant; four drops = sun-kissed; eight drops = golden; while 12 drops = bronzed/someone needs to take your bottle off you. Even I like the effect: it’s luminous, lustrous, your skin at its most splendid.
Of the other products I’ve thrown her way of late, Fitz also rates Dr Hauschka Translucent Bronzing Tint (£19, drhauschka.co.uk) for an instant, short-term complexion boost with eco cred.
She tells me: ‘It’s a revelation — it looks dark, but you just use a tiny bit on your face. It made my moisturiser go on better than ever and looked subtle but great. Definitely a keeper.’
Those who prefer their facial tan to be more of a base favour Chanel Les Beiges Sheer Healthy Glow Tinted Moisturiser (£40, chanel.com). It’s terrific for those with combination skin who are looking for a spot of coverage without the heaviness.
In terms of bronzers, everyone — truly, everyone — recommends Nars Bronzing Powder in Laguna (£31, narscosmetics.co.uk).
It may be 20 years old, but my friend Katy, another all-year beach babe, tells me: ‘Nars’s Laguna is iconic for a reason. It’s utterly incomparable. I have several on the go at any given moment — on my dressing table, in my make-up bag, in my handbag, in my desk.
‘I have to know I am within 6ft of one at all times. Finely milled, softly pigmented and only slightly shimmery, it’s buildable, meaning it’s almost impossible to over-layer. Everyone needs a little Laguna in their life.’
Everyone apart from me and Morticia, obviously.
RACE YOU TO IT!
Anastasia Soare may be Hollywood’s brow queen, but that doesn’t mean her beauty prowess can’t extend to other areas. Her first concealer, Anastasia Beverly Hills Magic Touch Concealer promises a ‘natural, second-skin finish’ and is my new must-have.
selfridges.com
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MY ICON OF THE WEEK
DAME ANNA WINTOUR
Dame Anna Wintour (pictured), who lives off protein and coffee ice cream, begins her day with tennis then a blow dry
Vogue’s Dame Anna Wintour has been in Italy sprinting to protect her signature bob during Dolce & Gabbana’s rain-drenched fashion show and dining with rumoured beau Bill Nighy, 71. Anna, also 71, looked so happy in the actor’s company, she shed her dark glasses. Her routine is legendary: up at 5.45am for tennis, then a blow dry. She lives off protein, largely meat, and the odd coffee ice cream.
COSMETIC CRAVING
I wasn’t even sure I liked British perfume house Miller Harris’s latest addition to its Private Collection at first, let alone craved it.
And, yet, I’ve found myself coming back to Oud Eclat time and again, curiously mesmerised.
Perfumer Emilie Bouge has played a blinder.
Featuring notes of oud offset by sugar and musk, the effect is all moss, warm wood, soft spice and leather.
Oud Eclat is smoky and addictive, at once edgy yet strangely comforting — the scent of early autumn.
millerharris.com
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SUMMER HAIR REHAB
Model Ines de la Fressange raves about this. It has been used by generations of Indian women to soften and strengthen hair.
amazon.co.uk
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This deeply conditioning mask locks in colour and boosts shine.
boots.com
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Justly famous, this protein-rich leave-in treatment protects against heat damage.
aveda.co.uk
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The legendary instant tamer for frizzy, curly, dry or damaged hair.
kiehls.co.uk
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The first pre-shampoo conditioning treatment, this was created for Audrey Hepburn.
philipkingsley.co.uk
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