My Life in Culture: Opera singer Niamh O’Sullivan
My Life in Culture: Opera singer Niamh O’Sullivan

Sarah Finnan

Women at the Helm: Leader of the Social Democrats, Holly Cairns
Women at the Helm: Leader of the Social Democrats, Holly Cairns

Sarah Gill

The Christmas party edit: What to wear this festive season
The Christmas party edit: What to wear this festive season

Sarah Finnan

IMAGE Business Club members on the small habits that have improved their productivity
IMAGE Business Club members on the small habits that have improved their productivity

Sarah Finnan

Tried & Tested: IMAGE staff shares their favourite hydration hero
Tried & Tested: IMAGE staff shares their favourite hydration hero

IMAGE

Weekend Guide: 9 of the best events happening across Ireland
Weekend Guide: 9 of the best events happening across Ireland

Sarah Gill

Co-founder of the Hygiene Hub Ciára Dalton: ‘I wanted to make a tangible difference’
Co-founder of the Hygiene Hub Ciára Dalton: ‘I wanted to make a tangible difference’

Sarah Finnan

Winter wreaths you can use year after year
Winter wreaths you can use year after year

Megan Burns

There’s a new hydration mist on the market, and it didn’t come to play
There’s a new hydration mist on the market, and it didn’t come to play

IMAGE

Long live Irish shopping: inside Irish boutiques
Long live Irish shopping: inside Irish boutiques

Sarah Finnan

Image / Beauty

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.

tan removers

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.

tan removers

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.

tan removers

Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Florale (launching in April)

€33 from cloud10beauty.com


Read more: The tan that works in just nine minutes

Read more: Future icon: The He-Shi instant tan flying under the radar

Read more: This is the secret to the perfect fake tan according to Ireland’s professional spray tanners

Photo by Lucrezia Carnelos on Unsplash