Beauty Wednesday: St. Tropez Self Tanning Kit

Hello again everyone! I am back with another beauty product review! This Wednesday, I am going to talk about my experience and overall review of the St. Tropez Self Tan Starter Kit!

St. Tropez Starter Kit

I did a lot of research, mainly through YouTube, about what the best self tanning mousse is out there, and I kept seeing St. Tropez pop up. One video spoke about this starter kit, so I went to Ulta, I found it and picked it up to try it out for myself. I have had experiences with other self tanning items in the past, but most of them would make me turn orange, and I didn't want to pay $40 for a one time spray tan that would only last for two weeks before I needed another one.

When I heard about St. Tropez, I heard about it being compared to another product that I had been using already...the Jergens Natural Glow Instant Sun Mousse. I had been having issues with this product blending on my hands and feet, which I found out was a problem for everyone who's used, which is why I decided to look for something new.

This Starter Kit comes with four products:
- Body Polish
- Body Lotion
- Classic Tan Mousse
- Tanning Mitt

This product sells for $25, and I thought that was a really good price for someone who's just trying out a new tanning option. The full-sized bottles of the mousse go for about $40-$44...and that's just for the mousse! Since I was just starting to experiment with using new self tanner options, there was no way I was going to toss up over $50 for a mousse and mitt with the fear that it wouldn't work for me, so $25 for everything you need to get enough experience with the product to know whether you like it or not was a huge deal!

Let's start this off with the Body Polish, since this is the first step in your self tanning routine.

St. Tropez Body Polish

The Body Polish is an exfoliating scrub to use in the shower to get all the dead skin off your body before you tan. The directions suggest doing this, at maximum, 24 hours before you tan. I, personally, shower and tan almost immediately after my shower and after I've taken care of my hair. I also think this step is optional. When you shave, you exfoliate. I happen to shave my legs, my arms, and sometimes my stomach (if I'm going to the beach or something). That doesn't leave many areas, that I can reach anyways, left to be exfoliated. Of course, not everyone does all that so the Body Polish, or any exfoliating body scrub, would work to make sure your skin is nice and smooth before getting out of the shower and tanning.




The next step I take care of in my tanning routine is moisturizing my joints, such as my elbows, knees, and ankles. I also moisturize my hands and all over my feet because these areas tend to dry faster than the rest of your body, which can leave your tan looking patchy or uneven. This is where I'll get into the St. Tropez Prep and Maintain Body Lotion.

There isn't actually too much to say about this lotion. It's very hydrating and moisturizing, and it goes on smoothly, but any lotion will do the trick for this step. You don't absolutely HAVE to use the St. Tropez lotion to moisturize the dry areas in order to get your tan to look right. I've used my Bath and Body Works lotion before, and I got the same even results. I would have to say that the only reason I would use this over my other lotion again would be to not have a weird scent later. All self tanning products have a strange scent when they start developing, so mixing that weird scent with something fruity just doesn't make anything better. This lotion doesn't have much of a scent, and the little that it does have smells like the mousse anyways. Because of that, when the tan starts to develop, the scent just smells normal.



Now for my favorite step of this routine...applying the tanning mousse!

You definitely need to use the mitt, or some sort of glove that doesn't let moisture through, to apply a tanner. The mitt helps blend the tanning product evenly on your skin so you're not left with streaks or spots. The St. Tropez mitt does a great job with blending out the mousse and keeping things even, but I would honestly recommend a double-sided mitt overall. This mitt likes to spin around my hand while applying the tan, which can case possible scratches from the sides going through the mousse. No matter how I positioned my hand in the mitt, it would spin around while I applied my tanner.

The mousse, however, gives a wonderful color! It doesn't get patchy on your joints, hands or feet after it dries (given that it's been applied correctly)! I usually shower and tan early Saturday mornings when I have nothing to do, sit around letting it develop, and I rinse everything off about 6-8 hours later. I would suggest applying at night and letting it develop overnight...this just works best for my schedule and gives me a reason to relax on the weekend. :) I've never had a self tanner give me such a natural and bronze glow before! As I said earlier, a lot of them just turned me orange. -_-

I did use this once for my face, and I loved the way it turned out, but I wash my face twice a day and found that there wasn't a point to self tanning my face to begin with. I can just use my makeup to make everything look natural!

I haven't been able to try out the dark tanning mousse yet, but I do plan to at some point. That seems to be the most popular shade for St. Tropez even for people with skin as fair as mine. I honestly get scared to try dark tanners because I have fair skin, but we shall see how it works out at some point!

As for my rating, I would rate the Starter Kit itself a 10/10 because it comes with everything you need for when you're just starting to self tan for the first time ever, or if you're just trying out the brand's products for the the first time. It's a good price to pay for something that you may not be sure about committing to yet.

I would rank the individual products as:
- Body Polish: 10/10 - it may be optional, but it is a really good body scrub and exfoliates very well
- Body Lotion: 10/10 - also an optional lotion choice, but it does its job well
- Tanning Mousse: 10/10 - leaves a very natural and blended finish to your skin
- Tanning Mitt: 7/10 - my only product in this kit that I wasn't thrilled with because it spun around my hand a lot when applying the product

That's my review for St. Tropez! I love their brand and their tanning products, and I would highlight recommend them to anyone! Their products are sold at Ulta and Sephora so check em out if you're interested! :)

I have another self tanner that I've heard many good things about that I'm about to test this weekend, I'll be posting results on my Instagram (@ktparte) when I do so don't worry! :) Until then, make sure you follow me there so you don't miss any other exciting updates and mini-reviews on products! I just go my Boxy Charm yesterday and posted quite a bit so check it out! :)

I hope everyone has a great Wednesday! 💋