I have been self-tanning for 5 years, and I especially go ham with the tanner during the warm months. I usually opt for once a week, and it’s almost always on a Sunday evening to prep myself for the rest of the week. I feel like I need some sort of routine and schedule in place in order to keep doing the things around the house that I need to get done. Sundays are for relaxing, then self tanning. Monday is the day to get shiz done. Washing the bed sheets, the towels, the clothes, the grocery shop, the cleaning of the two bathrooms. That sort of thing. But I still create a list of what I need to do each day, because I love that satisfaction of scratching something off a to-do list. Who’s with me?

If you’ve watched my Snapchat last week, you would’ve seen me excitedly rip open a box of Rituals body products. I reached out to them in the first place, because I’ve heard great things about them — what I didn’t realize was that they also sell makeup. I lost one casualty there (a peachy blush, which looked SO pretty) but we’ll talk about the makeup in another post.

Prepping my skin for self-tanning is key for a flawless self-tan application.

• Hop in the shower and let the warm water soak into your skin for a few minutes
• Shave your legs and whatever else. Use a nice sharp razor for this! I don’t usually shave when I have my self tanner on for the week (because luckily my hair grows really slow. Side-note: I went to a spa last year and she suggested I didn’t do the leg/foot massage thing because the oils would irritate my freshly shaven skin. I was like: “Lady. I haven’t shaved in days!“)
• I like to double-team the exfoliator-game. I use a scrubby mitt along with a gritty body scrub as it works better with the mitt than just a regular body wash, then go to town all over your body. Not forgetting hands, toes, neck and under arms!
• After all that’s done, hope out of the shower and moisturize the most dry parts of your body. For me, that’s feet, knees, elbows and hands.

Rituals Sakura Body Scrub
It’s important to use a body scrub, as it helps prevent ingrown hairs, and really exfoliate any dead skin cells. I’m not sure if I forget what a sugar scrub acts like on my skin, but I’m pretty happy with the turn out after hopping out of the shower. I ended up exfoliating my skin before shaving, so you’d think the scrub would wash away and with the razor over my legs, it’d dry out. I love how soft and glowy my skin looks prior to self-tanning! It’s a gorgeous smelling product with scents of cherry blossom and organic rice (what?… I’m not sure what organic rice smells like) but I do love the scent and it’s not overpowering.

AHAVA rich body butter has the perfect amount of thickness. I always reach for a body butter when applying self-tanner since it doesn’t soak in as quickly as body lotion. That way the self-tanner almost acts as a gradual tanner and doesn’t apply as much to these areas. You want to make it look natural, not as if you’ve applied a tint to the skin! The scent I have in the AHAVA body butter is lemon & sage. It’s definitely not a scent I would ever reach for (it was sent to me from a PR company), because if there are a couple of scent I really dislike, it’s lemon, vanilla or anything food-related. Usually those scents are people’s favourites. But I prefer to reach for something more natural and clean smelling. Lemon and Sage smells like something I’d clean my house with, or reminds me of a fresh smelling kitchen. Lol! I’ll use it up though, I love the texture of it, and it doesn’t irritate my skin.

If you want to see how I self-tan and see before/after photos, go to this blog post!