The best fake tan for you depends on a few factors. Skin tone, product type and budget all play a part, but more important still is whether you’re an experienced tanner, and how deep a glow you’re after.
Luckily for us, the tanning market is vast, catering for nervous tan novices who want to dip their toe into tanning for the first time, through to bronze-happy babes who can’t imagine leaving the house without a coating of ultra-deep mousse.
Do your research, both when it comes to the formula and the shade you’re choosing, as well as how to fake tan your body and how to self-tan your face – as the advice varies slightly for each. Laying the groundwork will help ensure the end result is a gorgeous, glowing, maybe-just-spent-two-weeks-in-the-Maldives radiance rather than a streaky faux pas.
Best self tans as reviewed by our experts
Between them, our experts have reviewed hundreds of self tan products on the market - from old faithfuls to smart, new technology-filled options.
Here we share our top three picks out of everything we've tried and a few excellent options for the face, as well as offering up a few options from our various guides for different skin needs and tanning preferences.
Our three top picks
RRP: £37 | Type: Foam
Reviewed by: Jess Beech
Ever since I had a bad tanning experience in my teens (streaks everywhere, had to call in sick to my Saturday job) I've exclusively worn tans that come with a guide colour. The logic is that if I can see exactly where I’ve applied the tan, and also therefore where I might have missed, then I'm not going to have any patchwork-like surprises when it develops. So, when I was presented with Tan Luxe’s clear mousse to try, I was more than a little nervous.
It’s an express mousse, which means it can be left on for between 30 minutes and 3 hours before showering off, depending on the intensity of colour you’re hoping for. Erring very much on the side of caution for my first application, I went for just 30 minutes of tan-based basting before hopping in the shower. By the morning, what had developed was a golden, very convincing tan that was noticeable enough for my colleagues to ask whether I'd caught the sun at the weekend, but not so tell-tale that it looked unnatural.
Since then, I’ve found my tanning sweet spot is an hour with this mousse, which gives me a glow that lasts for a whole week. As it doesn’t have a guide colour, it fades better than your average tan too, as you don’t have that residual colour on the skin which can go patchy – especially around the elbows and knees. The mousse texture makes it easy to apply with no drips too, just make sure you’re using a mitt to avoid stained palms and keep your skin well hydrated between applications.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Lasts for a whole week
- Fades evenly
Cons
- None - we love this!
RRP: £35 | Type: Mousse
Reviewed by: Jess Beech and Aleesha Badkar
Jess: St Tropez might just be the biggest name in sunless tanning and this new-gen developing tanner shows why they've held that position for over a decade. It's a classic mousse that develops in around four to eight hours, after which you rinse the guide colour and go. There is nothing particularly new about this protocol but what St Tropez has done is finessed every element of the experience. The mousse is ultra creamy and hydrating and doesn't dry out your skin, the guide colour is natural-looking enough to be worn through the day and thanks to an uplifting flower fragrance it smells like summer, not biscuits.
The longer you leave it on, the deeper the shade. This makes it a pleasingly customizable option for various skin tones and tanning desires. I found two to three hours ample for a natural-looking glow, but if you're nervous, then you can always start with an hour. It was originally launched as a limited edition product in collaboration with supermodel Ashley Graham, but as it's one of the best I've used, I'm thrilled that it's stayed a long-term part of the line.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Hydrating
- Classy fragrance
Cons
- A little bit pricey
RRP: £12 | Type: Lotion
Reviewed by: Jess Beech
Just the sight of this jumbo-sized orange bottle might be enough to trigger misty-eyed nostalgia in anyone who came of age during the early '00s tanning boom. Garnier Summer Body was an icon and OG of the gradual tanning world, and while the formula has been tweaked and perfected over the years I'm pleased to report that all the things we loved about it remain intact. Namely, its low price, easy texture, subtle results, and sunshiney fragrance.
This is so spreadable and gradual that it would actually be some achievement if you did manage to mess it up. It applies like a very light body lotion, sweeping over limbs efficiently and sinking in fast, then develops into a mild glow that can be built up as you like. There are light and deep shades, so you can adjust for skin tone and tanning desires. I personally found applying it two days on the trot built up my ideal colour, which could be maintained by reapplying every three days or so. Natural botanical oils keep limbs soft and offer skin-smoothing properties in ashy areas.
Pros
- Huge bottle is great value
- Light spreadable texture
- Smells like summer
- Two shades available
Cons
- None, we love this
Best fake tan for face
Our beauty experts have many of the best fake tans for the face, trying so many different formulas, from serums, to creams to drops.
In our guide to best fake tans for the face, we outline the very best picks on the market, plus offer advice on how to pick the best face tan for you. But if you want a quick pick, these are three of our experts' top products.
RRP: £19 | Type: Drops
Reviewed by: Charley Williams-Howitt and Aleesha Badkar
Charley: Spoiler - I blooming adore this. So much so that I am halfway through my second bottle and it’s not even officially summer, yet. As a beauty editor, I’ve always had a soft spot for Caudalie—their formulas never miss, and their French skincare sensibility has been delivering radiance for years. So when I got my hands on this skincare-meets-tanning hybrid, I couldn’t wait to try it. It promises that effortless sun-kissed glow and comes packed with antioxidant-rich organic grape water to brighten, hydrate, and protect. A win-win.
Application is refreshingly simple: just mix a few drops into your daily moisturiser or serum, and voilà—your glow begins to build, seamlessly and without fuss. The best part? It’s totally customisable. I reach for a few extra drops when I’m after a deeper bronze, or dial it back for just a whisper of warmth on no-makeup days. While my skin isn’t especially sensitive, I really appreciate that this formula is designed to be gentle—even those with reactive skin should find it non-irritating. Thanks to its natural-origin DHA, it doesn’t just tint; it hydrates and soothes too.
To me, this isn’t just a self-tanner—it’s a complexion pick-me-up that behaves like a sheer bronzer, giving skin that lit-from-within warmth. Effortless, glowy, and very French.
RRP: £42 | Type: Serum
Reviewed by: Charley Williams-Howitt
If your skin is drier, more sensitive or just wants a little glow-up without the drama, this is a brilliant. What makes it especially good for mature skin is the skincare payoff. This isn’t just fake tan; it’s a proper treatment serum. It’s loaded with HyaClear™ 7, a clever blend of hyaluronic acid molecules that hydrate on multiple levels. My skin drinks it up like a serum, and leaves it feeling smooth, juicy and calm. It also has Marine Bio-Retinol for firming, jojoba oil, and turmeric extract for antioxidant benefits. It’s doing your skincare and your tanning in one hit. Then glow develops gradually (think soft, healthy radiance rather than overnight Marbella), which means you’re in full control. I never worry about waking up too orange or blotchy. It builds gently over a few days and fades off just as gracefully. There’s no guide colour, which could be a negative, but this means it doesn’t sit in pores or exaggerate texture, or leave that telltale tan ‘tide mark’ around your hairline. The scent is subtle too—not biscuity or fruity—so you can wear your usual perfume without the two battling it out.
RRP: £37 | Type: Serum
Reviewed by: Fiona McKim
Sitting right in the sweet spot between self-tan and skincare, this clever serum would suit anyone who finds traditional tanners drying or pore-clogging. You can tell from the moment you drop the silky serum on that this is absolutely packed with hyaluronic acid. It's got that slippery, almost viscose texture typical of HA products, which means it's going to plump up your skin while also developing a nice bronze colour. And what a colour it is – subtle, glowy, and far from orange. It's no surprise this brand was founded by a Scottish entrepreneur. Take it from a Celtic writer: If you can bronze our complexions believably, you've got this tanning thing sewn up.
The other beauty of this product is how you can tailor it to your needs, use anything between two and 12 drops to determine how deeply the shade develops. You can use it neat or mix it in with your other skincare to create a glow-giving cocktail. It's great for travel too, allowing you to top up a natural glow or turn any face cream or body lotion into a gradual tanner.
Best gradual tans
Our beauty experts have tested dozens of gradual tans, trying all formulas from drops and mousses to mists and creams to nail down the very best ones.
In our guide to best gradual tans, we lay out the very best picks the market has to offer, plus offer advice on how to pick the best gradual tan for you. But if you want a quick pick, these are three of the top gradual tan products our experts reviewed.
RRP: £18 | Type: Lotion
Reviewed by: Sennen Prickett and Aleesha Badkar
With high levels of skin-loving ingredients, this lotion hydrates, protects, smoothes, soothes, and firms skin, while offering a slightly deeper finish than some of the other best gradual tan options on the market.
Best budget
RRP: £8.75 | Type: Lotion
Reviewed by: Sennen Prickett and Aleesha Badkar
An iconic product, this lotion is so easy to apply (despite not having a guide colour) and gives a seamless, streak-free finish with every use. It dries down fast and boasts a pretty affordable price tag.
RRP: £34 | Type: Lightweight cream
Reviewed by: Sennen Prickett
This lightweight tinted formula makes for easy and seamless application when applied with long, circular motions and delivers a believable lightly-bronzed radiant finish that looks as though you’ve just come back from holiday.
Best instant tans
Our beauty experts have tested most of the instant tans on market, looking out for quick and easy-to-apply formulas that gave a glowing, streak-free finish.
In our guide to best instant tans, we highlight the very best picks the market has to offer, plus offer advice on how to pick the best instant tan for you. But if you want a quick pick, these are three of the top instant tan products our experts reviewed.
RRP: £24 | Type: Lightweight cream
Reviewed by: Sennen Prickett
With the same consistency as body lotion, this wash-off formula is easy to spread around the skin. It's quick-drying and gives a bronze glow that looks like the result of a week in the sun.
RRP: £33 | Type: Lightweight, foamy cream
Reviewed by: Sennen Prickett
Offering robust longevity, this mousse-like formula glides over the skin for a streak-free finish, with an impressive glow-giving pigment that leaves skin looking immediately radiant and refreshed.
RRP: £15 | Type: Cream to powder
Reviewed by: Sennen Prickett
A higher coverage option, this super quick-drying formula means you can get dressed only minutes after applying - and it evens out the skin tone for a smooth finish.
Best tans for mature skin
Our beauty experts are passionate about making sure that everybody is using the right products for mature skin, so we tested an extensive range of self tans to identify which ones work the best for mature skin types.
In our guide to best fake tans for mature skin, we offer up the very best picks on the market, as well as advice on how to pick the fake tan for mature skin that will work best for you. But if you want a quick pick, these are three of the top fake tan products for mature skin our experts reviewed.
RRP: £35 | Type: Serum
Reviewed by: Lynne Hyland
A lightweight but moisturising serum, this clear formula gives a light golden glow that’s ideal if you’re looking for a boost rather than a huge shade shift.
RRP: £36 | Type: Facial tanning drops
Reviewed by: Lynne Hyland
Not only did the colour develop astonishingly fast with these straight-to-skin tanning drops, but skin looks healthy and feels soft and smooth after applying.
RRP: £25 | Type: Butter
Reviewed by: Lynne Hyland
A multi-tasker that moisturises, bronzes and adds radiance all at once, skin feels rich and smooth from the oils and looks glowy - even while you're waiting for the tan itself to develop.
Best tans for pale skin
Finding a self tan that will work for pale skin can be challenging, so our experts have done all the work for you.
In our guide to best fake tans for pale skin, we offer up the very best picks on the market, as well as advice on how to pick the fake tan for pale skin that will work best for you. But if you want a quick pick, these are three of the top fake tan products for pale skin our experts reviewed.
RRP: £20 for 200ml | Type: Mousse
Reviewed by: Jess Beech and Fiona McKim
A first-of-its-kind range designed around undertones as well as skin tone, this clever formula helps avoid those orange hues that can often come with tanning paler skin types, leaving a healthy-looking glow with no streaks or patches in its wake.
RRP: £26 for 200ml | Type: Foam
Reviewed by: Stephanie Maylor
With a green-grey pigment that neutralises any orange tones, this formula leaves a natural-looking tan with a subtle bronze glow.
Read our beauty contributor's full Coco & Eve tan review
RRP: £18.99 for 225ml | Type: Mousse
Reviewed by: Jess Beech
A whipped formula that boasts a beautiful coconut scent that, this tinted mousse is easy to apply, dries quickly, and leaves a subtle sunkissed glow.
How we tested the best self tans
A selection of the self tan products we tested for this guide
Tanners have come a long way since the drying, orange biscuit-scented formulas you might remember from the early days of DIY bronzing (the ones that had us questioning, is fake tan bad for your skin). From creamy mousses and the best gradual tan body lotions to the best instant tan and the best cream bronzers for the face, there's a huge variety of options – and we tested dozens of them for this guide.
To whittle down our edit of the best self-tans, we tried and tested each formula over the course of a few days (or one day, for instant self-tans) to see how well it developed. We took note of several factors including application ease, scent, colour and staying power. As with the best bronzers, our key criteria for self-tan is that it looks natural and believable, bestowing the sort of glow that will have friends asking why you didn't post your holiday snaps on social media.
How to pick the best fake tan for you
How to pinpoint the best self-tan for your needs? With our expert cheat sheet on the four main categories of tanning product available, that's how:
- Developing self-tans: The classic home tanning product. These usually come in mousse or liquid form and tend to give the deepest colour in one go. "These are created for the well-practised tanner at home, due to their long-lasting effects," says Harknett. "They're also ideal for a holiday, for those who don’t want to sunbathe but long for that sun-kissed glow. The benefits are colour that can last a good week with an aftercare regime. The downside is without correct skin preparation the tan can sometimes blotch, streak, and not develop evenly."
- Gradual tanning lotions: A great option for novices who are unsure of how to fake tan, these feel like body lotions but offer subtle bronzing so work particularly well as fake tan for pale skin. "These are great for a first-time self-tanner as it allows you to build your tan up," says Read. "The more you apply, the more golden your tan becomes. The first application will give you a weekend away look, and the second a darker tan. Go for a third application if you want to look like you’ve just spent two weeks in Barbados." We tend to apply these without a mitt, so hand washing post-application is essential. If you do forget read our guide on how to get fake tan off hands.
- Instant wash-off tanners: These can be applied speedily without any developing time and then washed off when you're done. "A non-commitment tan. Think body makeup to give an instant glow and even out imperfections such as dry skin on legs" explains Harknett. "These are ideal for that last-minute invites and nervous tanners as they dry in seconds and can be rinsed away fast if something goes wrong. The downside is all that work of applying a beautiful tan is washed away in one shower."
- Tanning drops and mists: These tend to be clear, gradual, and include a mixture of skincare ingredients and tan. "They're perfect for anyone who wants a self-tan that allows them to carry on using their favourite skincare and makeup," says Read. "Tanning drops are great for customizing your glow – the more you drop, the more you glow and people love that choice as it puts them in control. Mists are fuss-free, won’t transfer onto clothing or bedding, and are great over makeup, sunscreen, or moisturiser."
How to choose a fake tan shade
Just remember, whether you’re looking for the best fake tan for your face or body, there is one golden rule: “A fake tan which is a shade you would never achieve in the sun looks really outdated, and is just not flattering to the rest of your appearance,” advises spray tan guru to the stars James Harknett. “And if you’ve never self-tanned before, don’t choose the day before an occasion to try a new tan for the first time.”
Knowing your skin’s undertone is key to avoiding the dreaded fake tan giveaway—like looking too orange, too muddy, or just “off.” Self-tanners typically have a base tone (green, violet, red, or even blue), and if that base clashes with your undertone, the result can look unnatural. Matching your fake tan to your undertone helps the colour enhance your skin rather than fight it, giving you a glow that looks like it’s genuinely yours.
Cool undertones. Your skin has pink, red, or bluish hues, silver jewellery tends to look better on you than gold, and your veins (usually on your wrist) appear blue or purple. You would benefit from tans with a violet or cool/olive base (like the Utan Cool Undertone Spray) to neutralise redness and keep things looking golden, not orange.
Warm undertones. Your skin has yellow, peachy, or golden hues, gold jewellery flatters you more than silver, and your veins look green. Look best with green-based tans that enhance the warmth without going too sallow.
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