Sally Hansen Airbrush Tan--My Thoughts and Experience.

EDIT:  I saw on emilynoel83's youtube channel that you can just mix this stuff in your hand with cheap Hempz lotion and then it works perfectly!!!  Doh!!!!  Hopefully this entry at least provides some laughs.

LOL.  The title of this alone is making me laugh because it not only sounds so serious, but in recent years I was FERVENTLY OPPOSED TO SPRAY TANNING IN ANY SHAPE, SIZE, OR FORM.

And now, lalala, I've got myself a bottle of spray tan.  That's essentially what this stuff is, I think.  They did sell this stuff as, 'Leg Makeup, Airbrush Legs', rather than spray tan, and that's part of what sold me.

I would not have bought this if they hadn't come out with the new, lightest shade, called Fairest Glow.  My fellow pale ladies, this is NOT the fairest glow.  But if you have a slight tan, you can pull it off very naturally.  I know it will match a lot of people who are of medium-fair skin, perfectly.  If you are anywhere around NC10/NW10...any of the 10s--This could easily be too dark for you if you aren't careful, although it could work if you are good at sheering it out and applying lightly--I think it MIGHT work...maybe, due to the fact that it's more of a sheer product and not really a high-coverage foundation.  But I do think N15s, and especially 20's, can pull it off more seamlessly if you don't get carried away with it.  I am an NW15, for reference, with my light suntan I got this summer :)



WHY I decided to buy it:  A few things pushed me over the edge.  I am inherently iron-deficient at all times--I bruise VERY easily, and I am also a mondo clutz.  I have also been busy as HECK lately and I've been hurting myself, namely my legs, all of the time because I'm running back and forth so much, overwhelmed and forgetful of the fact that, haha, large pieces of furniture are in my way.  Also my legs have been vein-ier (for lack of wanting to use a better word) lately.  And the other day, I ran into my boyfriend's cabinet he built when he was 12 (it is VERY sturdy and it was VERY painful.  In my angry tears I called it firewood...lol (I take it back now)), and got this gigando welt on the side of my leg.  Not even a bruise, but a rainbow colored black, blue, red and white lump.  So, with that and a combo of sales and coupons, and the fact that I saw the new lightest shade--I ran over to the store and grabbed two of these.

(Am I being thorough enough for you??  PHEW.  I'm trying to work on being more concise, but hopefully this is a good read.)

THE Application:  Because I'm a newb and I don't know what I'm doing with this, I put on some loose shorts and went on the back deck and had my boyfriend help apply it (I felt very classy...but I'd never used a product like this before and was worried about it staining the house).  I just used my bare hands, like a caveman (LMAO) and we followed the directions on the bottle, first applying a small pool of it in the palm and then blending it into the skin very quickly.  It has an absolutely beautiful fine mica in it that looks fantastic on the legs...kind of a silvery shimmer.  If you don't shake the bottle enough you will just get the shimmer, which can be wonderful on some parts of the legs (the upper thighs) and absolutely terrible on other parts (the knees, the feet), so you really do have to shake it well before each time you spray it.  The formula dries EXTREMELY fast.  Crazy fast.  You must forget all pre-notions of how a lady should daintily apply her beauty products and BLEND.  BLEND FAST.  BLEND like a damn mad-woman, rubbing the formula into the skin and buffing it out roughly in order for it to not set in patches.  I thought it would be a fun, slow activity, but because the stuff dries so fast, you truly do feel like you're in some kind of sculpture-building contest, chaffing and buffing as fast as you possibly can in order to disallow the product from drying into patches.  You do NOT feel like a lady when you apply this stuff.  If you feel like a lady while applying this stuff-YOU ARE NOT DOING IT RIGHT!!  LOL.

It, truthfully, was kind of fun, aside from the fact that my boyfriend and I disagreed on the best way to apply it.  He thought following the directions was the best way (spraying into the hand and then applying it), but I felt that shaking it aggressively and then spraying a fine mist, 12 inches away from the skin was the best way, because you would get a lighter mist and you wouldn't have to worry as much about blending perfectly because a lighter, more sheer amount of product would be applied each time you spray it (and I still stand by this thought).  Anyone have their own views on this?  Agree?  Disagree?

The hardest part of the application is without a doubt, the feet.  I HATE it when people wear spray tan and you can see, ew, the outline of the tan around their toes, and worse, their pale, white skin inbetween their toes...in my opinion if you can still see that you should have never bothered putting on spray-tan/self-tanner/body makeup.  What I did, was aggressively shake the can (as per-usual), spray a bit of the product on the tips of my fingers, and then QUICKLY rub the product between my toes using my fingertips (I told you, you do NOT feel like a lady -.- ).

Being that it sets so instantaneously, I have not found it to smudge at all on any clothing or furniture, although I was cautious in the first hour and a half after applying it.  I'm now sitting on the ground, feet firmly planted on the floor and yes OF COURSE I did apply the makeup to the bottoms of my feet (I'm not an animal).  Nothing is showing up on the ground.

The FORMAT: I would not say that the spray bottle, at least in the way we applied the product, added to the convenience of the product, but I think if we had done it the way I preferred to apply it, which was spraying it a foot away from the legs in sheer mists and rubbing it in very well afterward, in different spots, that would have absolutely made the sprayer a plus.  This product comes in two different formats, a sprayer and a squeeze lotion (which could be totally different and I know nothing about), so it may be just up to what your preferences/abilities are.

I don't think this product is for everyone.  If you suck at blending and it's just too hard for you, well, this probably isn't going to work.  I think anyone could do it if they worked at it and paid attention and had a good mirror and good lighting and/OR someone they trust watching them to make sure they don't miss spots.  Those factors won't all come together for everyone though, this is the real world.

I adore the shimmer of this product.  It makes me feel like a fairy-tale princess.  But some people might not like that aspect.  The shimmer does seem to leave the rest of your body faintly sparkly with teeny tiny sparkles :)  Which to me is so wonderful it's almost not worth mentioning, but I know some people don't like sparkles, so whatever.

This picture is absolutely not doing the finish justice.  The lighting is picking up on tiny glitter sparkles, which ARE present, but it's actually a much more uniform mica, similar to how an opaque, glitterless, mica silver eyeshadow would appear, and it does look very natural, at least on my skin.


I know this stuff washes off like a dream because I applied it with my bare hands and there was a huge layer of sparkly golden-brown stuff on both under-sides of my hands.  It dripped off within less than 30 seconds of gentle soap and water, normal hand-washing.  Was this a unique experience?  I don't know.  If it's not, well, the soap I used was just Softsoap Oatmeal Honey, the moisturizing kind you can get in a big refill bottle at the grocery store.


Would I buy this stuff again?  Absolutely.  SO FAR, anyway.  If you are a bad-ass at blending (and I do mean it very much when I use that curse word...No more appropriate word for it in my opinion), you can really get a beautiful look and what is wonderful about it, is it will last and it won't smudge off on anything, but it will wash right off with no effort at all in the shower.  I would not recommend wearing it on a rainy day outside with shorts on, because it comes off so well with soap and water that I'm worried it would literally just drip off, although maybe it wouldn't.

I think the color is not orangey on me at all...it's the classic tan color my warm-undertoned skin naturally turns.  It also is slightly tanner than the rest of my body right now, but it doesn't look out of place as I blended upward on the tops of my legs and it doesn't stand out against my other skin.

THE COVERAGE:  No, it absolutely did not cover up that welt on the side of my leg.  I would need some

That fun welt I've been talking about.

camoflauge makeup for that, possibly Dermablend or Colortration.  It did however, make my skin look tanner and because of that, it contrasted less with my skin, being that my skin is very pale and a dark bruise on it has a lot of contrast, so it stands out less now.
Veins and vericose veins, it covered lightly and well enough to make them not noticable unless you are looking for them.

Faint/tiny discolorations/freckles bruises--almost made those disappear and look more uniform.

==This is definitely less of a coverage product and more of a tanning product--but it absolutely is a low-coverage NATURAL foundation and I think that's what you want (and quite possibly, is as good as it's going to get) for your legs.

The overall appearance of my legs is a pretty sparkly glow over a tan softness, but it's still natural looking.  I'm really enjoying it and think it looks very beautiful, and it makes me feel better about my formerly yucky, sick looking legs :)  I'm happy I bought it.  I'm happy I have two cans!  SO FAR anyway.  It has been six hours now (so calm down, self...lol).  I will post an update on this very post, later.

 In regards to the appearance, I would also wear this leg-makeup in any season, not just summer-time.

 In dim, indoor lighting (YAY FOR ACCURATE PHOTOGRAPHY -.-  Another picture in natural outdoor lighting will be posted within 24 hours of the initial post time.)

I will post some pictures of this in natural light, tomorrow (edit: nope.  That didn't happen.).  It is dark and storming outside right now.  And I'm sorry for not thinking to do it earlier--I blame it on the fact that I'm just not excited to use my cell-phone camera, and my awesome camera I had previously got stolen, so the prospect of taking photos right now is all a bit disenchanting.


I enjoy this product so far :)  I'll update this post in a few days to let you guys know how it has faded, whether it was patchy or not, etc.

Hope you liked my REVIEW!  Haha, if anything it was hopefully at least an entertaining summary of a person's first encounter with self-tanner.

The Seven Makeup Products I Run Out Of The Slowest!!! (and one disposable makeup tool!)

Why won't you die?!?!

I see so many different types of makeup blogs, lists and compilations of "Bests," "Worsts," this vs. that, top high-end products, top drugstore products, least favorite, most favorites...

But what about the ones you use on a daily basis, but you just run out of it slower than others?!  Isn't that helpful to know?  For myself personally, I like to stock up on what I actually need, that way I can save money and not waste money repurchasing products that I probably will never run out of at this point :) (Unless of course I want to repurchase it because it is a BETTER product.  But that's a different story!!)

For the minimalists, the budgeters, it's nice to know what products we use the least of that way we can save both space and money for the products that we go through quickly!!

So without further ado, here are the makeup products that take ME the longest to use up!!!  Yours could be completely different than mine, however hopefully this will give you a sense for what takes you a long time to use up too!!  It's nice to know what we should be repurchasing and what we should be saving money for :)

Note: I have pale, combo skin.  There are a few things on here that you may run out of slightly quicker than me if you don't have one or both of these things, and that's totally okay!! :)

1.  Bronzer.  I have to mention bronzer here.  It seems I can barely put a dent in a pan of bronzer, even though I have the fairest shades available from 3 or 4 companies.  It may have something to do with the fact that I have pale skin, and dousing the stuff all over my face will surely lead to me looking strange, like I just played in a pile of dirt!!!  So for my skin-tone, bronzer is definitely a staple, but it's something I run out of extremely slowly!!!

2.  Powder Highlighter.  All you need is a tiny pinch of this magical fairy-dust and your skin is alive and glowing... Highlighter is quite possibly my FAVORITE item of makeup to use... And yet, for some reason powder highlighter still takes forever to go through, in spite of my love to reapply the stuff at the most unnecessary of times!!! :)  I would say I go through it much faster than bronzer, but to this day, the only highlighter I've ever hit pan on was one I was using continuously as my only highlight shade for 5 years!!! :P (I've broadened my horizons since then...)

3.  Pressed colorful eyeshadows.  Girls, lets be real here--how long does it take you to finish up one pan of eyeshadow in a COLORFUL shade (not neutrals, you can douse those on and they run out a lot faster!!!)?!  Depending on the pigmentation of the shade, you could be using the same one shade for years and still not even reach pan.  Makeup Forever Diamond Shadow in Turquoise, I am looking at you!!!  I used this shade almost every day for a year when I was in college because I thought it was so beautiful--and this was back when I didn't know about primer and had to reapply!!!  If the shadow were not cracked to pieces (While I've done this with other shadows and they still gave the same performance, I am too afraid to alcohol this one in case it musses up its beautiful formula), it still would not even be close to hitting pan!!!  It's hard to run out of a good colored eyeshadow...but maybe I should let this one slide, after all, we could always use another color!! ;P

4.  Pressed powder.  It feels like an eternity before I finally finish a pressed powder!!!  Considering it is a full-face product, you would expect it to disappear into thin air!  It could be because my skin only gets oily in my t-zone.  A powder that definitely deserves a mention here is Coty Airspun powder in translucent.  I'm not sure what it is about the stuff, but it takes an extremely small amount to cover and absorb oils on my face.

5.  Blush.  I have somewhat of a blush addiction.  It's definitely the makeup item I own the most of, next to eyeshadows (which are a lot easier to come by and come in much larger packs!).  On my skin tone, I also need very little to accomplish a brightly flushed look, so I have to use it sparingly.  I have around 25 of the La Femme blushes, and may I say I think I could use ONE of those blushes every single day for a year and probably not put a dent in it?!  I rarely find that my blush disappears.  However there are a few exceptions:  I just bought the NYX blush in the shade "Pinched," and my goodness, it's disappearing fast!!  I suppose it also depends on the pigmentation and the amount of product you are given in a container as well.  But anyway, for the most part, blush is a definite slow-go in my collection (and yet I still can't get enough of it!!!  Always looking for new colors and formulas!).

6.  Lipstick/Lip Gloss.  Oh lip products, what is it about you?  I was honestly unsure if I should even include this in the list, but it had to be done.  In my entire life-time, I've only managed to completely finish one container of lipstick, and I have NEVER finished a lip gloss (granted, until recently, I used lipgloss far, far less, so we will see!).  It isn't like they give you very much product in the tubes.  Could it be because I surround myself in a bounty of different colors and combinations at all times?  Is it the fact that I'm using less because I'm layering liners beneath it and glosses above it--even though half the time I am solely using it on it's own?  I honestly don't know.  I reapply my lip products plentifully throughout the day, and yet for some reason, my lipsticks last me years.  They don't disappear!!

7.  Perfume.  I know technically perfume is not considered makeup, but to me it is something that is so like it, it may as well be included.  It is a product from a small container that you put on your body to boost your confidence :)  So, sorry if you disagree, but this absolutely HAD to be included on this list.  I NEVER run out of this stuff!!!  In my entire life time, I have only managed to finish one bottle of full-sized perfume--it was back in Middle School, and it was the only perfume I'd owned at the time, so naturally being the only one I was using, and being used on a daily basis, it eventually ran out! (It was the blue bottle of Ralph by Ralph Lauren :) )  Years later, I now have an entire tray of bottles that still have plenty of perfume left inside them, and these are bottles I've been accumulating for almost a decade now.  In spite of their regular use (for me, every other day), bottles of perfume seem to last me forever!!  Are you the same way?


And the random funny thing that everyone seems to need, but I personally never seem to run out of:
Q-tips!!!  What is it about these little guys?  I am aware they have their uses, but I find I'm hardly ever at a loss for a q-tip, and it's definitely not something I use on a regular basis (though after a lower-lid mascara mishap today, I'm starting to believe they could be a very good thing for getting smears beneath the lashes).  Could it be the fact they come in packs of 500, or the fact that sometimes, not liking to waste and money-saving loving as I am, I'll grab big handfuls and cut them in halves all at once?!  These guys NEVER run out!!!  I have had the same two boxes of purple and blue ones for YEARS.


What do you think the next entry will be?  I have a hunch it's going to be the list of products that I use the quickest ;)  These are definitely the things we should be saving our money for if we enjoy wearing makeup!!

Hope you had fun, if not you can leave :P

Take care!


PS:  For sure, without fail, the makeup item that I've had the absolute HARDEST TIME using up is the one in the picture at the top of this blog.  It's a bronzer from Victoria's Secret called Bare Bronze.  The stuff is so packed into the pan that it's hard, dense, and heavy, and it's also difficult to load onto a brush unless it's something like the NARS Ita brush (I have the Sonia Kashuk version).  The thing sat in a cabinet in a while (before I realized the goodness of how it went on my skintype and how to apply it), and then in the last 3 years I've been wearing it at least a few times a week...and it still pretty much looks brand new, dare I say it, even untouched!!!!  Kinda funny!! :)  So I thought it was perfect to put at the top of the entry juxtaposed with the sunflower!!