Paris Hilton’s Self-tanner Is Good, Not Great

When I interviewed Paris Hilton about her favorite things late last year, she told me that her go-to tanning brand is Tan-Luxe (ours, too — they take the top spot in both our guides to self- and facial tanners). I wasn’t at all surprised, then, when I heard that she was partnering with the brand to release her own self-tanning mist. As both a beauty writer and someone who grew up envious of Hilton’s tan on The Simple Life, I knew I had to try it.

The tan promised that it would develop in as little as two hours, maturing to a deep bronze after four. To test this, I applied it in the evening (instead of my usual time: right before bed). I will admit now that applying this tan was not fun at all for me. The tan (which comes in a suitably pink box with a suitably pink mitt) is in mist form — a type of tan I tend to avoid. I find mists to be a lot of faff: You have to make sure you soak every inch of your skin, which tends to make you feel sticky; there’s no guide color to check if you’ve missed a spot; and I’ve lost rugs and towels after the spray has gotten away from my body. So if you also don’t like the hassle of a tan mist, then beware. 

After two hours … nothing had happened. I’m very fair-skinned, so if the tan actually had developed whatsoever, I have a skin type it would’ve shown up on. But even after four hours, as I headed to bed, I started to notice only the slightest difference. I went to bed disappointed but smelling divine. The tan doesn’t have a bad tan smell at all; rather, it smells like summertime — an almost watermelon smell, to be exact. Although I went to bed pale, I certainly didn’t wake up that way: After a whole night of developing on my skin, the tan had left me a most incredible shade of bronze. It didn’t look fake at all, either — I looked like I’d just come from vacation, and my skin felt as if it had been pampered.

The color of my tan was truly natural and sun-kissed, but the longevity of this tan is the standout feature. For almost a week (showering regularly and lightly moisturizing), it looked freshly applied. When it finally started to fade around the day-seven mark, it didn’t do so in dreaded patches but uniformly — subtly getting lighter until it was time to develop an entirely new layer on day ten. (As someone who likes to apply a new layer of tan weekly, it actually refused to fade a little too much for my liking, as it meant I had to go to town on my legs with some exfoliating gloves.)

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this self-tanner. It’s by no means cheap, and I found myself a little annoyed by the application as well as by the false promises of a speedy development time. However, it does smell great, develop to a sun-kissed finish, and refuse to go patchy. But if I’m going to drop $50 on self-tanner, I want it to be as close to perfect as it gets.

Are there other products that you want our intrepid team of beauty writers to test, or trends that you want them to fact-check? Send us an email at strategistbeautybrief@nymag.com with your thoughts and questions.