Treating yourself to a nice sunkissed tan can be a great way to recreate that summery glow even in the depths of British winter, transporting you to the sunny beaches of Spain, if only in your imagination.
However, for singer and producer Eleanor Fletcher, a recent trip to the tanning salon turned out to be anything but relaxing, after a mishap led to her accidentally recreating one of the most iconic Friends episodes of all time.
Diehard fans will no doubt recall The One with Ross's Tan (season 10, episode 3), an episode that sees the gaff-prone paleontologist getting super tanned on his front after getting a bit confused in the booth.
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Addressing her TikTok followers with a hilariously serious tone, Eleanor said: "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking 'there is no way that in that episode of Friends, when Ross goes and gets a spray tan and he accidentally gets triple sprayed, can that happen in real life".
Pausing briefly for a second, as if reliving the memory all over again, Eleanor revealed: "I'm here to tell you that it can", before going on to recount a tale that will no doubt instill fear in beauty lovers everywhere.
Eleanor, who had traveled to America to perform at the Red Rocks festival in Colorado, said: "I went to the spray tan world and said 'I'm a bit pale, just a level one will be fine. The lady on the desk said: 'No problem that's absolutely fine. You just go into the booth, you wait for the voice to tell you to turn around".
The lady instructed Eleanor to wait for the voice, warning her "not until you hear the voice do you turn around". According to Eleanor, this message was made "very clear" and she "was very serious about taking this information into my journey to the land of the tan".
However, despite her very best intentions, things didn't quite work out as planned.
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Eleanor recalled: "So I politely entered the tanning booth, totally naked, I let the spray tan machine permeate my body down and up. I patiently wait to be told to turn around by the machine. I continue to wait".
As the machine started up again, Eleanor started to become nervous. Although she says there was "a hopeful child within me thinking that maybe this is normal", she knew underneath that her tan was going "devastatingly wrong".
She continued: "The machine starts up again, for the third time. Then the machine finally chirps up and says: 'Spray tan finished.' I get out of the booth I go up to the lady in reception and I say: 'Hi the machine's just made me three times just on my front. Well, actually six because it's down and up. Just the front of my body"
Unfortunately, the lady at the booth wasn't very sympathetic to Eleanor's ordeal, telling her that it was her own fault and that the voice "definitely came in", claiming it was Eleanor's "own choice that I got sprayed six times". This was by no means the end of the story.
Eleanor, whose performance was scheduled for the very next day, said: "The worst thing I could do right now would be to wash it off. The best thing to do would be to get sprayed a further six times, on my back. So I went to get sprayed a further six times, 12 in total".
In a follow-up vid, Eleanor explained how she took this opportunity to stand up for herself after a lifetime of being polite, with hilarious consequences.
Eleanor said: "I asked the receptionist for reassurance with my 12 sprayed body. She gives it to me. She's kind, she's nice. I accept it. I walk out. I sit in my car. I glance into the wing mirror. I see my reflection looking back at me, and I am already awfully orange".
Explaining how, in her life, she's never been known for asserting boundaries in a "forthright, independent woman kind of way", she's always wanted to be that sort of person. Unfortunately, in Eleanor's words, she took this "a little far".
According to Eleanor she "went a bit Karen and asked to speak to the manager" in a bid to get her $35 back. When the manager arrived, they claimed that Eleanor turned the machine off deliberately in a bid to get "two free spray tans" and refused to give a refund.
With some regret, Eleanor recounted how she walked out with some energy drinks from the salon's fridge, before ultimately regretting her boldness and ringing them up to politely pay. Needless to say, commenters have been howling at her exploits
Praising Eleanor's impressive storytelling abilities, one person chuckled that she "should narrate audiobooks", while another joked, "I didn’t know Bridget Jones was on TikTok!"
Have you experienced a beauty mishap? Let us know in the comments below, or email us at yourmirror@mirror.co.uk
