Tan removers and oil: The reason my skin is softer than ever this week

By Aisling Keenan
25th Mar 2020

Tan removers and oil: The reason my skin is softer than ever this week

Tan removers never really were my ‘thing’ for whatever reason. But this past fortnight? I’ve discovered their beauty, and my skin feels like silk after I tried a new process…

I wear tan pretty much constantly. Now, to clarify, I actually love being pale. But what I do not love is being multicoloured. I have red bits, brown bits, spackled bits, white bits, patchy bits… I don’t have that beautiful, alabaster and even complexion that some people are blessed with. I am pale and not interesting in the least.

So with that in mind, I use a light shade of fake tan regularly just to even myself out. Just so I’m vaguely the same shade. So it’s been a long time, in truth, since I’ve seen my natural skin colour in all its patchwork quilt-y glory.

This past fortnight, having been in self-isolation, I’ve stopped caring about the patchwork. I wanted to unveil, to myself, my natural colour once again. So, I turned to tan erasers to help.

Iconic Bronze Self Tan Eraser

€14 from boots.ie

I also looked to exfoliators to remove the really deeply set-in pieces of tan. Elbows, knees, ankles, wrists. In spite of my tan not being very dark, it still gathers at those bits. I asked for recommendations and got so many back for Tough Stuff from Cocoa Brown. So that’s what I used. I scrubbed the hell out of my crustier parts with the bright pink mixture and watched the leftover tan fade away.

Cocoa Brown Tough Stuff

€7.99 from cocoabrown.ie

The last step in embracing my real skin? Softening it. I have keratosis pilaris pretty much everywhere, so maybe three or four days a year do I feel like, hey, my skin is good today.

After all the scrubbing and dissolving done by the tan remover and scrub, I absolutely slathered on layers of this new Nuxe oil. It’s a floral take on the original, and it can be used on skin, hair and face. It’s got a stunning but really subtle floral aroma too which I went to bed smelling like. Dreamy.

Since then, I’ve avoided tanning and kept oiling. It’s made my skin so soft and smooth, and I am finally getting back used to the patchy but reliable nature of my own skin.