The Tartan Wife's Grooming Basics #1 Self Tanning & Sun Care

The Tartan Wife love to take care of her skin, wearing oil free sunblock at all times, as the majority of premature aging is due to sun damage, so doing a cost/benefit analysis, for myself even a little bit of tanning is not worth the damage it can cause. Self tanning from time to time in order to achieve a lovely glow (read sunkissed, not orange) is my number one pick me up.

I have used many over the years; St Tropez Lotion (I used nothing else for 2 years straight!), St Tropez Mousse, St Tropez everyday, Clarins Face/Neck, Fake Bake Lotion, Vita Liberatta, Sun Labs (again, another I used for a prolonged period). I had been a product snob, and would not use anything but high end, after viewing disasterous results on others. However, when picking up some cleaning cloths at my local store I noticed a bottle which looked very similar to my beloved St. Tropez for next to no pennies - I am so glad that I did.

It was groundbreaking. In early 2009, the lady who had purchased soley luxury beauty products for her teenage and (thusfar, pretty short) adult life did not just like, but had found her latest holy grail self tanner, St Moriz (the typo enhances the cheap and cheerful experience) - this was before all of the blogger/online hype.

It applies smoothly and evenly with a tanning mitt, dries quickly and leaves a gorgeous glow. I, The Tartan Wife, who has a natural pinky/blue skintone, have even been referred to as olive or dark skinned more than a dozen times whilst wearing this. It seems to suit my colouring perfectly. I have repurchased both the original and dark mousse dozens of times, and the lotion many times too.

St Moriz Dark Mousse and Lotion (in front of my Poche Toilette 26 - another great staple of The Tartan Wife)

St Moriz has also changed the way that I look at beauty products, and even though many of my day to day beauty products are high end, I have managed to find some low price products which exceed the performance of high end items, and have even entered my daily cosmetic bag.