The world of magazines is a bit topsy-turvy. We work on summer tanning stories in February, shivering under our electric blankets, and we compile our Christmas Gift Guide in the height of summer.
In fact, this year’s summer beauty photoshoot, where we created all of our content for the next few months of the magazine, was during a particularly cold April. The crew rolled up at 6 am in jumpers and coats, and the models were strutting around in bikinis, dipping their toes into icy outdoor pools. We wanted to create the illusion of golden, gleaming skin - skin that had been (safely) sunning itself on The Med for weeks.
Luckily, our makeup artist came prepared with the perfect product, and it might be the best instant tan alternative we've come across. It’s a one-and-done that immediately transformed limbs from dull to dewy - from April to August, if you will.
This shimmering body oil will transform your skin in seconds
Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Or Shimmering Body Oil
RRP: £23
This shimmering body oil is ideal for those occasions when you haven’t done the legwork. For those days when it’s suddenly 30 degrees, and you haven’t tanned or even looked at your best body moisturiser in a while.
There’s nothing worse than picking an outfit you really want to wear and not feeling confident showing your arms or legs, but the second Huile Prodigeuse hits your skin, even the dullest canvas looks immediately radiant, dewy and glowing.
Nuxe’s Huile Prodigieuse Shimmering Body Oil is also my own personal summer secret weapon. For a beauty editor, I’m quite a tanning novice. I never really learned how to fake tan - I can never wrap my head around the development timings, and I always get the logistics mixed up when it comes to the shaving and exfoliation window.
The summer always seems to take me by surprise, too - suddenly I have to be shorts-ready at a moment’s notice. Technically, that’s not my fault - the British weather gods mean I need to be equally prepared for a broderie mini dress or a cagoule on any given day.
The oil, firstly, smells delicious - like golden, tropical sunshine. It almost doubles up as a solar perfume. It’s a dry oil, so it’s lightweight and never sticky or greasy. It also sinks in quickly, leaving your skin with the most incredible shimmer. My pro tip would be to let it dry down fully before you get dressed - I’ve ruined a couple of cream hemlines by applying then dressing in a hurry.
Don’t panic if it looks a bit too sparkly on first application - make sure to properly blend it in, and you can lighten the coverage with another body cream or oil if you want a lighter touch of shimmer. If you want to look amazing in pictures, though, like our models do - trust the sparkle - in photographs, it’ll create the most beautiful radiance.
