Alright, so picture this: big event coming up, I’m looking pasty, and my trusty tan mitt has vanished. Poof! Gone. Like it packed its bags and went on holiday without me. I was properly annoyed, I can tell you. What’s a girl (or guy!) to do when you need that glow and your main tool is MIA?
My Great Mitt-less Tanning Adventure
So there I was, staring at a bottle of self-tanner and no earthly way to apply it without looking like I’d wrestled an orange monster. My first, rather daft thought was, “Ah, I’ll just use my hands!” Let me tell you, that was a mistake of epic proportions. I scrubbed and scrubbed, but my palms ended up a delightful shade of Cheeto orange for days. Speed is key if you go this route, they say. Well, I wasn’t speedy enough, clearly. Lesson painfully learned.
Next, I rummaged around. I found a pair of those thin disposable gloves, the kind you might use for food prep or cleaning. “This has to be better,” I thought. And it was, a bit. At least my hands were protected from turning into traffic cones. But the application? Streaky. The tanner just sort of… slid around. It didn’t blend well, and I ended up with patches. Not the look I was going for, you know?
I was about to give up and embrace my ghostly pallor when my eyes landed on my makeup brushes. I’ve got this fairly dense, flat-topped foundation brush, the synthetic kind, that I don’t use much for my face anymore. A lightbulb went on! I’d seen those fancy, expensive tanning brushes, and this looked kinda similar. So, I squirted a bit of tanner onto a plate, dabbed the brush in, and started buffing it onto my skin in circular motions. And you know what? It worked! Especially for tricky bits like my face, blending around my hairline, and doing my hands (the tops, not the palms this time!) and feet. It took a bit longer for larger areas like my legs, but the finish was pretty darn smooth. I just made sure to really buff it in and use whatever was left on the brush for areas like my wrists and ankles to get that nice, faded look.
Then there was this other time, pure desperation mode, I was at my mate’s place, and we decided on a whim to get our tan on. No mitt, no suitable brushes in sight. She had a pair of clean, fluffy slipper socks. Don’t laugh! I grabbed one, slipped a latex glove on my hand first (learned my lesson about direct contact!), and then pulled the sock over it. It felt a bit daft, I won’t lie. But honestly? It worked surprisingly well for buffing the tanner in, especially after an initial spread. It was like a giant, soft buffer. Not my first choice, but in a real pinch, it did the job without streaks!
So, What Did I Learn?
Well, apart from the fact that I should probably buy a multipack of tan mitts, I figured out a few things:
- Bare hands are a no-go for me. Unless you fancy bright orange palms and have superhuman speed-washing skills.
- Disposable gloves alone? Meh. Better than nothing for protection, but not great for an even application.
- A good makeup brush is a surprisingly awesome substitute. Think dense, synthetic bristles. A flat-headed one or a kabuki style works well. Just remember to clean it properly afterwards!
- The sock-over-glove method is a weird but workable emergency hack. Fluffy is key!
And honestly, sometimes if I know I’m going to be lazy or mitt-less, I just reach for one of those gradual tanning lotions. They’re pretty foolproof – just slap it on like a regular moisturizer. No drama, no streaks, just a slow build-up of colour. Sometimes, simpler is better, right?
