So you enjoyed your time under the sun a bit and totally forgot about moving your bikini straps aside. You wake up from your siesta to find that you have awkward tan lines in the areas that would ruin your outfit the next evening. Or worse, you’re getting married or attending an important event where having awkward tan lines would completely spoil your much-awaited dress moment. You quickly jump up and cool off in the shower but it is already too late.
Collect your calm and read on. We’re giving you six surefire ways to get your tan lines out before your big outfit moment.
Scrub them away (gently).
As with removing self-tanning foul ups, exfoliating can work on a sun tan just the same. The idea behind it is the same: sloughing off dead skin encourages your skin cells to regenerate. The best part is you can easily do this method alongside other tips we have (which we’ll be sharing in a bit).
If you’re new to exfoliating, remember rule number one: be gentle. Tugging and pulling on your skin can cause premature aging over time. You can pick out a sugar scrub from your go-to beauty store and use it with an exfoliating mitt to give your tan a good scrubbing. You can also do your own concoction by mixing brown sugar, olive oil, and just a drizzle of raw honey. Just remember that the later can be a tad messier than the former.
Oil ‘em up.
This method actually works with any oil but we like to use coconut oil because 1) you probably already have it at home and 2) it doubles as a moisturiser to keep your skin aglow. If you happen to have a bottle lying around your house, this tip is for you.
It may feel counterintuitive to be moisturising your tan lines in hopes of helping them fade faster, but this method actually works. Just rub a bit on your over-tanned areas everyday and watch the tan fade away. You can do this up to twice a day.
A little sweet and sour.
If you’re still in your kitchen looking for that bottle of coconut oil and realizing you have none, take heart — rummage your kitchen for some lemon and honey. Mix the two thoroughly and apply on your tanned areas to break down your tan. Leave the mixture on for 20 minutes then rinse.
Make sure to use a generous amount of honey to counteract the lemon’s acidic properties. Leaving lemon juice on your skin (especially if it’s pure) for more than 20 minutes may do more harm than good, so make sure to time yourself when doing this treatment.
Why, aloe there.
Aloe vera has been known through history to be a good treatment for burns (and yes, that includes sunburns), but did you know that raw gel that is squeezed fresh out of an aloe vera plant has all kinds of enzymes and antioxidants to help restore your skin’s natural color? This will work best if you have access to an aloe vera plant, but if you don’t, a bottled up version will help as well.
Put a tan on that tan.
Most of the time, we do want to keep our hard-earned sun tans despite the pesky tan lines. Instead of fading it out, you can use self-tanners to darken up the areas that need to keep up. There are some catches though. First, you may not have this in your home so you will have to go out and purchase a bottle of tanner. Two, not all self-tanners are made equal so you might end up with a worse looking tan line than when you started.
Our self-tanning mousses range from a soft tan to a darker one, so you have a range of options for your glow. They’re made of only quality ingredients, which means that your tan won’t be turning orange. Another option is to go from gradual tanners such as our Afterglow Drops and Skinsation so you can build up your glow.
Bust out the (makeup) bronzer.
When you are running short on time and won’t be in a well-lit place, you can grab your bronzer and fill in the gaps. We wouldn’t recommend this for a daytime date, however, as your tan lines can look pretty awkward up close. You can also try other shades of eyeshadow if the bronzer is a little too strong for you.