st tropez dark mousse: review and comparison

I'm currently running a giveaway of either this or the original bronzing mousse; enter here

Yeeahh wooohoooo I got it!

This is the St Tropez Dark Bronzing Mousse, which is the much awaited dark version of their cult Bronzing Mousse.

This also comes in the lotion and spray forms. I purchased this one because although I find the lotion lasts better and is more moisturising; it takes far too much effort to blend it in properly, whereas I've got so used to the mousse it only takes me around 10 minutes.

Although it's generally agreed that the St Tropez is one of the best available fake tans around, one thing that I think puts a lot of people off is the price, to which this is no exception. It retails at £33 and only contains 200ml and when compared to the original, which is £31 and 240ml (there is a smaller bottle), actually makes it seem cheap (maybe not quite).

At the moment though, most St Tropez products are up to £5 off in Boots, including this which had the whole £5 off, so I paid a slightly less eye watering £28.

Now I love my fake tan, I am a constant shade of orangey-brown, usually brought to me by the St Tropez Bronzing Mousse, but I really don't find the colour to be dark enough. On a Sunday I exfoliate all my tan off and then apply 2-3 coats 2 hours apart throughout the evening, but then still have to apply another on the Monday, which gets really annoying and expensive, as you can imagine.

With this, I think I could probably use 1 coat on the sunday, and then top up again on either the Tuesday or the Wednesday, and then more as it faded..

When I was looking for information about this I couldn't find anything directly comparing it to the original, so I thought I'd do a little experiment for you.

Above is the original Bronzing Mousse and the Dark both squirted on a bit of kitchen towel, and the 2nd picture is 10 minutes later. As you can see, the original has a brown undertone but the dark is an undeniable dark green!

don't worry, these are just the colour guides!

I decided to do one leg in the dark and one in the original (I wonder if you can guess which one is which?) to have a direct comparison between the ease of application and colour result of both products.

I prepped my skin as normal, exfoliating with gloves in the morning and epilating my legs, then moisturising with oil, and then when I got home from work I exfoliated again, just moisturising my knees and feet, and gave my skin a couple of hours to chill.

When actually applying the products I used a new mitt from superdrug. The original applied slightly streaky as always, which I tend to just ignore after a certain amount of rubbing, or you will actually make yourself streaky.

Putting the dark (or green) tan on was hilarious. It was actually dark green. It's exactly the same texture as the other one though, so it was fine.

I then buffed, and went off to bed. In the morning I rinsed them off and moisturised, and was left with this. As you can see, the dark is considerably darker than the normal one, but still not great. I do wish I'd been able to do this post last week so I could have used my arms, but there was no way I was going to work this week with half my body dark and the other half less dark! 

The problem is my legs just don't take to tan that well, and the first coat always just seems to seep into my follicles, as you can see. I do also think I may have overbuffed, as the colour came out a lot darker on my body. The original doesn't seem to have done anything, and the dark colour is barely there.The lighting here is terrible, but as I've said my legs are rubbish at fake tan anyway.

Do keep in mind my legs were deathly white before; both products take a lot better on already lightly tanned skin.

I do think the dark mousse makes the original leg look a lot paler than it normally would, one coat of the original would definitely be enough for a lot of people, despite it looking pale.

The rest of my skin, which already had 2 layers of the original tan applied the previous day is the perfect colour for me, it's a gorgeous dark brown. I didn't talke a before picture of my arm because I am a moron.

I can't wait until the weekend when I can scrub everything off and just see how the dark turns out alone on my body.

I also used this product on my face, which was fine, it didn't seem to do much different than the original on my face for some reason, other than be green before I washed it off!

sooo, here's my natural colour, the colour guides and my finished tan(s)

A clear difference is how much guide colour washed off from the dark one. I find this makes it easier to apply, but there is no way you could go out with it on. It also might be a bit of a shock for people showering in the morning; a lot are confused by the colour coming off the original! But don't be scared of the guide colours, they're harmless. Unless you're a white towel or sheet, in which case you're dead.

Overall I really like this product and will continue to purchase it, but I do wish they did it in the standard bottle sizes, as I feel a lot of people would be more willing to buy the small one to try, and then the bigger one once they loved it.

I'd say if you already use the original and are considering buying this, but scared it'll be too dark, just go for it. It is quite a lot darker if you apply it thickly, but is probably the equivalent of two thin layers of the original when applied thinly with a mitt.

I hope this is helpful for those of you not too sure about this product, and sorry if it doesn't flow very well but I've been back to work this week and I'm knackered this evening, but I really wanted to get this post up.

Also, how muscular do  my legs look in those pictures?! I'm assuming it's because I had to take them whilst bent forwards if that makes any sense, and therefore they were tensed to stop me falling over...

Has anyone else tried this?

Am I going OTT with my tan?

Give me answers!

Follow