Hi!! I recently discovered this community and wanted to share my own routine. I literally have this already saved in my notes because I have had many family members and friends ask for it because I don’t have patches or streaks or orange tints (unless I mess this up, which does happen sometimes lol). So just thought it might be helpful to share!

(Don’t shave the day of this routine, otherwise the tan will settle into your open pores and create dots).

Exfoliate:

- Bath Method: This is the best way to exfoliate, but the most effort and most time consuming. I don’t do this every single time, but I do try and do it if I’m fake tanning before an event or something important (it’ll make it last longer and really ensure no patchy spots).

You’ll take a bath for about an hour, with water as warm as you can deal with. I try and do this with clean skin already, so I’ll usually do a normal shower in the morning without putting any lotion on afterwards, then take this bath in the evening.

Once you’ve soaked in the bath, drain it, and towel dry yourself off.

Get back in the tub, and use an exfoliation mitt to scrub the shiz out of your skin. You have to scrub hard and for a while. The mitt should be damp, and the friction against your dry skin is what makes all of the dead skin come off. Focus heavily on ankles, knees, wrists, and elbows.

After this is done all over, take a quick shower to rinse any other dead skin off - and you can use soap here.
This mitt can be thrown in the washer and reused for quite a few times.

- Shower Method: I do this when I’m short on time or don’t feel like putting in all of the effort of the bath.

Take as long of a shower as you can. Near the end of it, use the same mitt mentioned above to scrub your skin while in and out of the water. I’ll usually use soap on it while in the water, then step out of the flow of the water and scrub more. Focus heavily on ankles, knees, wrists, and elbows.

This should remove a lot of the dead skin, just not as well as the bath. This means your tan could potentially fade faster or get patchy in some areas, but if you scrub well enough it’ll most likely be fine.

Moisturize:

Use a light moisturizer all over your body, and use a thick one on your ankles, knees, and elbows.

I like to let this set in for a couple of hours as long as I’ve showered/taken a bath early enough. If I don’t have the time to let it set in, I’ve noticed similar results skipping this step and going straight into the tanning step.

Tan:

Use a tanning mitt and the tanner below. I start this portion of the process after I’ve washed my face and everything, so that way I can go straight to bed without having any sort of water dripping on my arms and hands and messing it up.

Use about 2-3 pumps of the tanner and one pump of a light lotion, and start on your legs first. Go in circular motions on your calves/shins and thighs, while avoiding your knees and ankles/feet. Once this is done, use the mitt very lightly on your knees. It has leftover product on it that will tan your knees without being too heavy.

Do this same process on your arms, while avoiding elbows until the end (or, you can go over your elbows, but then take a damp cloth to wipe off the tan on them).

Do any other portion of your body you want (stomach, chest, etc.). When doing your neck area, make sure to extend it to your ears, behind your ears, armpits, etc.

Once this is done, take the thick lotion and rub it into your knees and elbows.

Then get dressed, and sit on the floor. Use the thick lotion to extend a little of what’s on your legs and cover your feet with it. Your feet absorb fake tan very quickly, so you only need this small amount. The lotion will help it blend. If you don’t see enough tan extending to your feet, you can put a very small (like a 1/3) pump of the tan to rub in with the thick lotion. Put socks on.

If you want to put it on your face, do it at this step. This tanner doesn’t break out my skin but your mileage may vary. I put about a half pump to one pump of the tanner on my hands and mix it with my normal face lotion. This is done after I’ve already done my normal night routine, so I’ve already put lotion on my face once, and this becomes a sort of second layer. I just rub it on my face, making sure to push it into my hairline and ears. Usually your face will look kinda crazy overnight but when you rinse it off in the morning it’ll be normal.

Then you’ll do the same with your hands. Make sure this is your final step of the night so you don’t have to get water or products on your hands again! I like to use a lighter lotion for the hands because I don’t like going to bed with sticky hands. Rub light lotion all over your hands extending whatever tan is on your lower forearms and wrists. Similar to feet, you can add a very very small pump of the tanner to mix with the light lotion.

Sleep in all of this (it’ll probably leave marks on your sheets but it’ll wash out!). Wake up and shower like normal. Make sure to moisturize your body every day if you can, because this will keep the tan from fading too quickly and from becoming patchy.

All done!! I’ve noticed this brand of tanning lotion fades pretty evenly over time, to the point where I can add another layer after about a week without having to do this whole routine again. After two to three times though, I let it fade all the way (about two weeks), and do the routine again.

TLDR: Mix your tanner with a light lotion and apply to your whole body except knees and elbows. Use a thick lotion on your knees and elbows to blend the leftover tanner on the mitt/surrounding areas. Use a light lotion to do the same knee/elbow method for your feet and hands.

Products:
Exfoliation Mitt (from Target)
Tanning Foam (from Ulta)
Tanning Mitt (you can get one of these almost anywhere but this is just an old one I have and still use)
Light Lotion
Thick Lotion

Last night I cut my finger and finger nail with a knife while chopping some herbs. This is what it looks like this morning after being wrapped up all night. Still very painful, but honestly unsure if they could even do stitches right here or anything. I’d rather avoid the time and copay if I can because I don’t have a car right now.