Beauty

WHINY SUMMER, PALE LEGS

This is how you get brown legs without the sun

I am quite pale by nature. Back in the day, when everything was better, including summers, I tried hard not to be white. Because being white was not cool, I even had to hear that from totally uncool family members who made the lamest jokes about it. Something about needing a tanning goggles when you looked at me, something about milk bottles. So I made a lot of effort not to be white. Lying in the garden in a bikini at the first rays of sunshine, even though it was February (when you lie flat, you catch little wind). The neighbors even made a saying out of it: ‘I saw Ilonka in a bikini, so spring is coming in a few weeks.’ Hours of baking despite burning – oh, when I think of all the sun damage I have incurred. The hole in the ozone layer wasn't that big back then, was it?

Well, it took a decade or so, but then I decided I had enough of trying to get tanned. You only enjoyed it for about three weeks anyway. From now on, I would sit under a tree or parasol reading a nice book, which was much easier in the shade. And slowly everyone started to change their minds a bit too (thank you, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Emma Stone). White is quite beautiful.

I still find pure white legs ugly. On myself, that is. Those milk bottle jokes from back in the day have apparently stuck. But there is a solution for that too: self-tanners. I have become a true self-tanning expert (self-tanner sounds a bit fancier, doesn't it?). That's why I want to share my latest discovery with you. With this whiny weather, excusez le mot, everyone is struggling with it: how do you get brown legs or, if you already had them, how do you keep them brown when the sun doesn't shine for a week? Here are my two secret weapons:

Self Tanning Oil from TanOrganic. It's organic! It's an oil! It doesn't stink! This is really my favorite self-tanner at the moment. You don't get too brown from it (that's also a weird look: brown legs and a pure white rest of the body), but you do get browner than from gradual tanning products. It applies super easily, you can go to bed with it because it doesn't transfer, and it gives a nice color that lasts for days. And again: it doesn't stink. Now I hear you saying: yes, but it's such a hassle to apply it flawlessly. Yes, I know. But precisely because I've been doing it for years, I've become quite nonchalant about it. So what if it's not perfectly even? It comes off after a few days anyway. And who really sees that one spot at your ankles – only you. So. You just need a bit of patience because self-tanning takes a little time before you see results. But that's why we have secret

weapon number 2:

Supermodel Body by Charlotte Tilbury. The makeup artist of, among others, Kate Moss developed it for the legs and bodies of the models in the Victoria's Secret show, and what is good enough for a Victoria's Secret Angel is good enough for me. The small tube has a roller with which you draw some brown stripes on your legs, you rub it in with your hands and voilà: flawless shiny wonders they are. So bring on the sun again, my legs are ready for it.

Geschreven door Ilonka Leenheer