How to Remove an Orange Fake Tan

What's that old saying? Old tans never die, they just slowly fade away??? OK, so I modified/murdered MacArthur's quote referring to old soldiers, but the sentiment also applies to the blessed fake-n-bake tans that are all the rage right now.

SO! If you look like you've been rolling around in a giant bag of Cheetos or appear to have developed some sort of skin disease as your self-tanner wears off unevenly, this article is for you!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Patience
• Long pants
• Exfoliating scrub or baking soda
• Wash cloth & milk
• Razor & shave lotion
• Lotion with alpha or beta hydroxy acids
• self tanning remover

1. 
    

   Exfoliate, exfoliate, exfoliate. Self-tanner isn't a coating that will simply wash off with soap. Your outer layer skin is permanently colored. That outer layer must be removed to get rid of the color. So use a textured bath sponge or apply a fine body scrub while taking your morning shower. No matter how tempting it is, don't use both and remember to be gentle! Overkill will just irritate your skin. Then you'll have orange and red blotches ... not pretty.

2. In the evening soak in a warm bath and bathe with a wash cloth soaked in milk. Glamour magazine's August issue says milk's lactic acid acts as a gentle exfoliator.

3. Shave your legs every day to further assist the exfoliation process.

4. Have I mentioned exfoliating??? Apply a lotion with exfoliating alpha or beta hydroxy acids to slough off dead skin.

5. 
    

   If you just applied self tanner and are horrified with the results, use St. Tropez Self Tan Remover within 4 hours. Loreal has also recently come out with a self-tanning perfector and corrector that is supposed to help get rid of blotching and even out coloring.

Tips & Warnings

• Avoid further blotching by keeping skin moisturized so tanner wears off evenly.
• If you've got a few small isolated spots, try rubbing in whitening toothpaste and rinsing.
• No matter how hard you scrub, you will not be able to remove self-tanner in a day!

[oterri]

on 1/11/2010 Interesting and helpful, will remember this!

[revisitingnixon]

on 7/23/2007 Congrats on having this article be picked as the winner for the "Top Written Requested How to Article!" Check out the forums and see which other winners we have this week. Check it out at:

http://www.ehow.com/community/forums/forum_1728_ehow-winners:-article-requests.aspx

-Rich