Can You Do ALL Your Vacation Makeup With Fake Tan?

TikTok offers its fair share of dodgy advice, from diet tips to wild opinions on pop psychology. But is there one area where it can be a source of unexpected information? Beauty.

I recently came across a video of a clever young lady who was putting on her makeup for the next day the night before, using fake tanner.

The idea is to create a natural-looking base by using fake bronzer for everything from contouring your eyebrows and cheekbones to your lip liner. Leave it on overnight, then wash it off and use it in the morning.

It sounds a little crazy, but if the videos are to be believed (and there are thousands of them on TikTok), the results the next morning are pretty fantastic.

So, with the help of makeup artist Desmond Grundy and advice from fake tanning expert James Harknett, I decided to recreate the look and produce a step-by-step guide to semi-permanent, overnight makeovers…

PREPARE WELL

To avoid orange streaks and spots, “make sure you wax 48 hours beforehand and exfoliate 24 hours beforehand,” says James Harknett, who has been called the Tom Ford of tanning. “Tanning lotion or cream should be applied to clean, dry skin, not over any facial products or makeup.”

She also recommends using a bronzer with a guide color so you can see what you’re doing, and arming yourself with different shades of bronzer for different types of “makeup” — i.e., darker for lip liner and lighter for eye shadow.

I have the Utan Pen for my lips and freckles and the Utan Cherry Almond Turbo Mousse, which gets deeper depending on how long you leave it on, for the rest.

We both agree on using a foam bronzer instead of a liquid or cream bronzer, as the texture “will help with a more airy application.”

CHEEKS AND EYELIDS

Desmond uses mousse, an angled Kabuki brush and a light touch.

‘Take a little of your fake tanner and gently press it onto the areas where you would apply bronzer or contour, starting with a small amount and then blending until all the lines are smooth,’ says James.

It’s pretty simple, and when Desmond finishes applying the bronzer to the apples of my cheeks, it looks almost exactly like I applied the bronzer myself.

As for eyeshadow, “a light application will eliminate redness and add depth to the eye area,” says Desmond.

Using a freckle pen, Libby dabbed the tip on her cheeks and around her nose at irregular intervals to create a generous amount of freckles.

EYEBROWS AND LIPS

James recommends opting for the darkest shade of tan.

I have some in a small container and it tells me to use an angled brush to gently spread it through my brows, but I think that sounds silly so I use the Utan pen instead.

Apparently there is a lot of potential for error with my lips.

“You’ll need to use a darker tan (same as with the brows) and start at the Cupid’s bow, then blend outward and downward along the edges,” says James.

‘On the bottom lip, start in the centre and blend outwards, making sure not to go too far outside the natural lip line. Then, clean up the outer edges with clean cotton buds.’ I do the whole outline with the Utan pen and I’m really happy with my etchings.

FINISHED WITH FRECKLES

The freckle pencil requires a very light touch – I just dab the tip on my cheeks and nose at irregular intervals to create a generous amount of “freckles”.

Worried that my lips would look a little “empty” with the brown contour, I filled in my outlined lips with a translucent layer of bronzer as a “lipstick.” It looks like I drank a jar of teak oil.

THE RESULTS…

Libby was pleased with the results overall, but drew a line on her eyebrows. She felt the orange tone clashed too much with her natural hair color.

I let it sit for about an hour before washing off the guide color, rubbing a little harder on the OTT areas.

Freckles are a great success: from a meter away you can’t tell they’re not real. I also love the lips. They’ve gone from disappearing on my face to standing out without being obvious.

The only area I would hesitate to repeat is my eyebrows; the lines I drew with the pencil are too light, so up close the orange tone doesn’t match the dark brown of my natural hair.

Lesson learned.