My Favorite Non-Toxic Self-Tanner

From the time I was a young kid, I loved being out in the sun.

My teenage years were spent laying out in the backyard with baby oil (yup 🙈) and even a few trips to the tanning salon (regrettable). Every single summer from the time I was 14 + you could find me laying out - either in the backyard, by the pool or on the beach.

I also was obsessed with being tan. I felt that having a tan made me more attractive, and I felt more confident with a tan which I believe had to do with my battle with acne. Tan skin minimized the look of breakouts and acne scars - so SIGN ME UP. The sun was my happy place.

Until it wasn’t.

This past spring, I went in for a routine dermatology appt and had to have a suspicious mole removed. The biopsy came back as “severely atypical” - and I needed a follow up outpatient surgery to make sure I didn’t have melanoma.

Talk about a melanoma scare (while being 4 months pregnant I might add.....) to FINALLY drill it into my brain that I needed to be safer in the sun. Thankfully, my results from my surgery came back clear and I was not diagnosed with melanoma but I’m sure you can imagine how freaked I was. And now I have a huge scar in the middle of my chest to remind me that I need to be smarter when it comes to sun safety. Just because I was lucky once doesn't mean I'll get lucky again.

But even though I was incredible relieved and thankful I didn't have melanoma, I still wanted to have that sun-kissed feeling in the summer without the UV rays. Enter - SUNLESS TANNING.

If you've tried sunless tanners, you know the horror stories. Orange skin, blotchy patches, streaks, THE SMELL!!!!!! And not to mention the chemicals. I was not about to replace one evil with another, so I knew I needed to find something that was natural, chemical free, and smelled at least pleasant. Sounds simple, but it's a daunting task!

Thanks to some well-timed Facebook ads, I came across Beauty By Earth. Their products are vegan, cruelty free, and made without all the nasty chemicals. Exactly what I was looking for!! I can not say enough amazing things about this self-tanner — it’s easy to apply, streak free, reallyyyyy moisturizing and it smells like a tropical vacation in a bottle.

These are my results after 1 application, and I plan to do another one in a day or 2 to darken it up a bit! I like that it builds subtly and that you can control the amount of color you want. I was also nervous about getting breakouts from it but so far so good!

I used the body tanner and the face tanner. You can find them in a bundle together HERE.

I applied with mitts which I believe helped with the no-streak factor. You can get those on Amazon for less than $10 (linked some here).

If you're trying to practice safer sun habits like me, but enjoy being tan - I hope this review is helpful! I would never recommend something I don't 100% use myself and believe in, so if you try this product out I hope you love it as much as I do!!

Happy Sunday! Stay safe out there, friends!