Will Tanning Lotion Work For You? Karen’s Story

Do you want to be envied for your gorgeous tan?  We interview Karen Olsen, aged 31 from Phoenix, AZ to hear her story, both good and bad, about using tanning lotion.

Editor: Hi Karen, thanks for letting us interview you about your experiences with tanning lotion. Can we start off with a bit about yourself, so readers can perhaps relate to what you have to say.

Karen: Sure, I’d be happy to. Well, I’m 31, am a legal secretary in a medium size attorney’s firm, and am recently married.  I like to keep fit by running with my girlfriends,..and I like going to the beach, vacations, and pretty much what most other people my age like to do. I have blonde hair – usually, blue eyes and generally light skin. I don’t tan, but burn easily, more now than in my teenager years.

Editor: Oh good, I was hoping you would describe your skin type. Would you explain your experiences, good and bad leading up to using tanning lotion.

Karen: Well, I suppose the first time I really wanted a tan was just before I got married. Obviously I wanted to look as good as I could for my wedding and, this sounds really dumb, but I didn’t know much at all about what was good for my skin or not. I’m talking about tanning beds here, and I really had no idea how they actually worked, and remember asking on a forum if I just lay down and baked!.

My mom who is in her mid-50s has had a dozen or so squamous cell carcinomas removed in the past couple years, which are not melanoma’s but an alarm bell went off in my head.  I did some research online and found out that there really is no such thing as a safe tan, and even though I may not end up with skin cancers, I didn’t want aging skin – don’t need the wrinkles.  I’m anti- sunning. Don’t get me wrong, I love to go to the beach and the pool.

So this left me confused about what to do about getting a tan before my wedding.  The main thing that worried me about using a tanning lotion was ending up looking orange with blotches or streaks, as I had heard of some horror stories and just could not end up like that in my white wedding dress, just wanted everything to be perfect, of course.

Obviously I was worried about if tanning lotion would come off on to my dress, and I didn’t want to smell weird from the lotion as well.

It all seemed like too much work, and I thought that I had better just put up with being pale.

Editor: Sounds like you understandably had quite a few concerns about using tanning lotion, seeing you were getting married.  What made you take the plunge and try out tanning lotion?

Karen: I met up with my girlfriends for a 5K run in Charleston, and one of them, Katrina, was looking really tanned, and I remember saying that I wished I had skin like hers that naturally tanned.  Then she floored me by telling me it was a fake tan. I didn’t believe her at all, and thought she was just saying that to make me feel better about my skin.  But after she showed me the bottle later, well I had to admit it was the best I’d seen.

So, I thought that I better give it a go, and found a free trial being offered on the internet where I just pay for the cost of postage, which was about $2 or $3 at that time. I figured that the worst that could happen is that it doesn’t work on me, and I can just be pale, but Katrina looked so good I had to at least give it a go. I mean it could have been one of those scams but it worked for my friend and I was a bit jealous.

I’d loved to say that everything went peachy and I turned into the most gorgeous tanned celebrity for my husband, but not everything went according to plan.

First of all, it was a bit tricky to fill out the order form on the website, and the bottle took a little bit longer than I thought to get to me.  Luckily, there was a phone number on the web site and we got that straightened out, and I got my free trial.

I was a bit unsure on how to apply the lotion, but the instructions said I should exfoliate before I put on the lotion, as well as use moisturizer every day to make it last.  And remember how I was worried about it coming off onto my wedding dress – well a little bit did.  Luckily, this type of tanning lotion was water based so it came off very easily with no stain.

Apart from all this, the day of my wedding went great and I had lots of compliments on how glowing and radiant I looked.

Editor: Glad to hear it all worked out fine.  You had me worried there for a while Karen.

Thank you very much for your story on how tanning lotion worked for you.

Karen: You’re welcome.

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