Why Are We So Infatuated With Fake Tan?

When we talk about fake tan products, the first thing that has to be acknowledged is that women often take the fake bake look too far a la the cheap Essex girl look. This is not me being stereotypical; far from it as I am a great fan of fake tanning myself, a natural golden glow never does any harm (think of Sarah Harding). It’s just the fact that in general your eyes don’t lie and as the sunshine hits the high street you can’t help but notice the overly tanned limbs of brown mud monsters passing you by, some of which whose tans look pretty poorly applied.

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So with this in mind, why every year do we women do it to ourselves? It seems that sex sells, the ideal summer image of a bronzed beauty with a healthy tan does look impressive, just note the recent influx of TV tan adverts where slim, long-legged models twirl around in perfectly clean bathrooms. As if putting on fake tan is instantly going to make you a foot taller, a stone lighter and leave you with a clean bathroom – speaking from experience of tan application this is not the case. With each application weather spray or moisturises I have yet to not make at least a small degree of bathroom mess, and the brown layer did not alter my bodily appearance. Yet, stand in any Boots tan aisle this week and its clear this ideal image in a bottle flies off the shelves – even when it’s priced from £25 like the St Tropez Tan. Well, here is not to being duped any more.

Indeed, looking tanned originally was a distinguishing physical trait between the working class (as they had been working in the fields all day) and the upper class where pale complex were preciously up held even with the use of parasols, any fashion history book could have told us women that. Elizabeth Bennet in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen was never seen sporting a bronzed body however she still met her Mr Darcy, so there’s a lot to be said to being a pasty princess. Ok, so life is not a novel and yes, having a tan in the 90s was considered a sign of wealth, the Lady Di - I can cruise around on a yacht all week images. Though the influx in millions of tanned products (just look at the Tesco tan aisle for a few example that you can breezily fill you trolley with on the weekly shop,) commercially seems to have cheapened the natural bronzed goddess look. Yet looking overtly common is perhaps the look us modern women seem to be aiming for, just look at the likes of Katie Price – a walking, talking, tanned Barbie doll she may be but a clever media money spinner she is to (so something has to be said for looking like an umper lumper.) Plus, with the natural tanned look represented by celebrities across the globe from Cheryl Cole to Eva Mendes, its is easy to see why a sun kissed body can look stunning. But have you ever stopped to think how they achieve this look? It’s very unlikely that they even applied it themselves.

So before you head to the tan aisle or the stock of tan bottles in the bathroom cupboard, stop and think, what look am I going achieve by putting this on. If it’s the one coat healthy glow by all means go for it, but if it’s the dark Jordan look, is it really worth spending money to look tarty and cheap, particularly as you probably don’t have her millions to fall back on and someone to at least apply the tan smoothly.