Review: Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs spray tan

I am the palest of the pale and have never given a damn about it: I don't tan, and I rarely can be bothered with messing around with fiddly fake tan creams.

However, I am going to a Seventies do in a few weeks and plan to wear some very skimpy shorts, and even my hatred of tanning blanches at the idea of people seeing my post winter practically blue thighs. So I decided to try out some spray on leg make up. The brand I went for is Sally Hansen's Airbrush Legs:

The blurb claims: "Spray on Perfect Legs in an instant!". Hmmm...

Purchasing it was confusing as the descriptions of the two shades available weren't exactly clear which was the darker. I went for 'medium glow'.

Coming to try this out this morning, I discovered that despite saying 'spray on' the instructions actually tell you to spray it onto your hands and then rub in, which left me wondering what the difference to normal self tan creams is.

I bathed, exfoliated and moisturised an hour of so before applying, then stood in the bath to apply it, for the sake of my carpets. I started by trying to spray it onto my hands as the instructions said, but found that this went on in a rather streaky fashion, so I tried spraying it on directly instead then rubbing in. And this worked far better! It was somewhat tricky to get to the hard to reach places, but over all I was quite pleased with the even-ness of the coverage in the end. I used it all over my body (it's only meant for legs) but this has given me the most authentic all over tan I've ever had! Here's a 'halfway' photo showing one leg tanned, one still pasty:

I would recommend being careful to wash the bottom of your feet and carefully dry them on a towel you don't mind getting stained before walking around the house - when I got out of the bath, I left a couple of cute footprints!

Overall, I find the colour probably more orange than I would want to use for normal wear, but pretty authentic for a 1970's tanned look. It worked pretty well, although the claim of 'in an intant' isn't exactly accurate - although it probably is quicker than many other self tan products. I will update on how well it lasts over the next couple of days.