Review: Xen-Tan Deep Bronze

I got this product one month ago, and since then I tried it several times! :) I got it for review purposes and I'm so glad I have!

Instructions:

Xen Tan Deep Bronze provides a creamy, milk chocolate color immediately, but turns instantly transparent upon application, apply in the morning straight out of the shower for an Instant Tan that will last you up to 7 days and dries within seconds.
With It’s dreamy chocolate fragrance you’ll receive compliments all day long (even in the hottest of conditions, there will be no hint of that dreaded fake tan smell, hoorah). It’s unique time-release ingredient guarantees the most even fake tan you’ll ever see.
Also, if you’ve ever felt a bit disappointed when you’ve washed other sunless tans off and most of the color disappears down the plug-hole, and you’re actually not as tanned as you’d hoped. Fear not, because when you rinse this tanner off, no color comes off (It’s completely baffling). You are simply left with the most natural, stunning, olive tan and it’s completely paraben free.

The packaging is really nice, white and gold. It's easy to use and it's very resistant which means it's travel-friendly. I took it with me on a small vacation, in my over-filled bag and it survived without a problem! 

Plus there's quite a lot of product in it, whooping 148ml. 

The scent is nice. I wasn't expecting a nice scent to be honest, but this my dear readers smells like COOKIES! Or to be more exact it's a mix of chocolate and cookies, very delightful! After a couple of hours, it develops a bit of a burnt cookie smell, which is still fine, but the first time I absolutely disliked it. The scent washes off after a shower.

Ingredients:

Water (Aqua), Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides, Dihydroxyacetone, Glycerine, Trimethylpentanediol/Adipic Acid Copolymer, Cyclomethicone, Glyceryl Stearate, Titanium Dioxide, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Stearyl Alcohol, Steareth-21, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Tocopheryl Acetate, Ginkgo Biloba Extract, Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf Extract, Silybum Marianum (Milk Thistle) Extract, Titanium Dioxide, Xanthan Gum, DMDM Hydantoin, Sodium Metabisulfite, Lactic Acid, Fragrance (Parfum), Octadecyl Di-t-butyl-4-hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Carmel, Yellow 10, Blue 1, Red 40.

It has a greenish color, which is really nice since you can actually see where you have applied it! 

The cream

(I applied way too much of the cream, just for you to see how it looks like)

Blended (almost)

(when you blend it, it becomes a lighter color and then 'disappears').

I'm a complete newbie when it comes to bronzing creams. I have used a bronzing lotion before, but I actually had no idea that that was is. It was a lotion (milk lotion for after shower) from Johnson&Johnson a couple of years ago. It had an interesting smell, but it wasn't all that pleasant after a while. It smelled like burnt cookies!

I always wanted to be tanned, but I never went for the fake tan because I thought it was so difficult to get the perfect color. I was so wrong!

Alright now let's move on to my experience(s).

1. The first time I used it, I went to MB for a short vacation. I applied it for three consecutive days because I was curious how deep it can get. The first day it gave me this lovely natural glow which I loved. But I wanted MORE. The second day it was more like 'hey you went to the beach?' the thing which I adored..  and the third day...  Well, that was just a touch-up because I couldn't do my hands properly. So I asked my dear to apply the lotion to my palms. He messed it up, so I ended with streaks in between my fingers, bleh! I tried lots of things to remove those streaks (every store was closed that day because it was a national holiday). They didn't budge but they washed off in a couple of days. They weren't that visible anyway. But the body apply was perfect!

2. The second time, I thought I was more of an expert so I was hoping everything would go great this time... 

I applied the lotion wearing latex gloves (my hands do sweat A LOT in those) and the apply was quite much perfect except on my palms. I dried my hands and then applied the lotion but it didn't want to sink in (and give me that damn color!) because my hands were sweating for a longer period of time (damn gloves!). That's when I discovered the makeup sponge trick. You take the lotion and apply a bit on your make up sponge. Then with the help of the sponge, you apply it on your hands/places you would normally wash out when washing your hands. And it worked, woohoo!!

3. This time, I decided that latex gloves are the past, and it's time to use my bare hands. It was so much easier. The apply was easy, but I still got some streaks on my wrists. I blame the fact that 3 hours without water/hand creams are a long period for me.

4. This was the last time I used it. And I needed something like max 10 minutes to do my whole body and palms. And after that, I just put on my clothes and went to sleep. I woke up with this nice tan, and almost no streak. Yea, I suck with the apply I know...  But I don't blame the cream since this time I applied a very thick layer of hand cream. But I'm pretty sure that the next time the apply will be perfect!

5. After some time I applied it once more, this time only on my legs. I exfoliated like crazy before and it went on perfectly! Not a single strain, woohoo!!

I also realized that taking pictures of tanned skin is very difficult. That's why it took me so long to post this review.

But this picture is the closest I could get.

Before&After

The difference is very noticeable in real life. But so much less in pictures, blah. I got something like 3-4 shades darker and I'd go so much darker if I applied it again.

The colors fade evenly in a week or a bit more. I didn't even realize when I went from Wawa wood to wall white. Oh well! 

Deep Bronze is a lotion that gives you medium tanned skin, and I'm in love with it. 

I think that now I'm going to buy this stuff regularly because it gives me such a nice color without much effort.

People thought that I got a real tan, yay! And seriously when I used to tan, it took me a damn month to get this kind of color! And I was so pissed off when someone pointed that out. Or said something stupid like 'hey you live by the seaside, why are you so pale?!' Like.. don't they know that tanning is unhealthy and that we aren't all born with lots of melanin.

Anyway, now I found my little secret and I'm going to stick to it.

Pros:

+Smells nice!

+It has a greenish color so you can see where you apply it.

+After 4+ uses (for my whole body, and I ain't thin) I used less than 1/2 of it.

+It develops into a nice tan (natural looking, olive tan).

+The package doesn't really get dirty even if you touch it with your hands with fresh tan on it.

+The package is pretty.

+The price is fine.

+If you don't like the scent, it washes off after a shower.

+It didn't dry out my skin.

+My skin felt soft after the use of the tanner.

Cons:

-The scent develops in a burnt cookie smell.

-It isn't available locally.

-If you are clumsy it CAN streak.

-Should not take a shower/swim (or apply cream) after you have applied the fake tan. For 3 hours. That's horror for me, but alright I can deal with it.

Price: 4/5 ♥♥♥♥ (18€/148ml)

Rating: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

Overall:

I really like it. In fact, I love it. I still need to learn to exfoliate before the apply and to be patient and not just smack it on, but other than that. it's perfect. It doesn't turn orange, it looks natural and the scent isn't bad at all! I'd say give it a go if you'd like a medium tan (if you'd like a light tan or a dark tan there are other products from Xen-Tan). I think that this is the fake tan that I'll stick to. I want to try the gradual tan too, so stay tuned because after I finish this one (and summer is over, because dear, I want to be damn hell tanned for summer!) I'll buy the gradual tan, yay! And maybe I could try the Deep Bronze Luxe (dark tan) too..  Yeah, now I'm very excited about this line.